To consolidate its leadership position in France and expand into new European markets, Faks has raised €5 million from Connect Ventures, Seedcamp, and Cocoa Ventures. This sum will allow the Parisian startup to strengthen its technical and commercial teams by recruiting a dozen new employees and preparing for its European expansion.
Faks offers pharmacies a digital, easy-to-use platform to manage all their after-sales operations, for all their suppliers, all in one place – think promotions, claims, or expired products management. Thus, pharmacies are freed from considerable administrative work and can focus on their patients, and groups of pharmacies can more easily federate the members of their network. At the same time, suppliers’ sales and support teams gain operational efficiencies.
This is why Corentin Geoffray, a tech entrepreneur, Clément Goupy, a former pharmaceutical executive and Félix Pignard, CTO, created Faks. The digital platform streamlines the relationship between pharmacies and their suppliers and helps them work better together.
Geoffray and Goupy emphasise: “This funding round is decisive to further consolidate our leadership position in the French market and the starting point for our internationalization. After having partnered up with 60% of French pharmacies, we are convinced that our solution can profoundly transform the business of pharmacy professionals throughout Europe.”
One of the missions of the French company is to overcome the challenge of digitizing pharmacies. Although the digital transformation of medical services and pharmacies accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, the pharmaceutical sector remains one of the least digitized sectors.
Pharmacies have 100 suppliers (labs) on average and each of them has their own processes and systems. For example, when dealing with point-of-sale promotions, return of expired products, or other claims, pharmacies spend a lot of time on paperwork without knowing if their request will be well handled by their supplier.
As a consequence, disparate processes not only make pharmacies and suppliers lose 30% of their time on low-value tasks but also generate errors that impact 0,5% rentability. A lack of transparency affects the quality of their relationship.
Sitar Teli, Partner of Connect Ventures comments: “Faks is a great example of taking a product-led approach to transforming how an industry operates. They’ve combined a compelling workflow product with powerful network effects to build an impressive leading position in the market, with 60% of French pharmacies already onboarded and more joining every day. The incredible traction reflects a team that is both highly strategic and excellent at execution, a powerful combination.”
After only three years of activity, Faks is now the leader in the French market. Its network includes 12,000 partner pharmacies (60% of the French pharmacy network), 118 pharmacy associations, and more than 700 pharmaceutical companies, including industry giants like Biogaran, Biocodex, and Bouchara.
