A few weeks after revealing a $22 million fundraising milestone, the Paris-based startup studio Hexa is expanding its scope beyond the studio model. Introducing Hexa Scale, the program aims to collaborate with later-stage companies that have achieved product-market fit.
Hexa Scale seeks B2B enterprises already generating substantial recurring revenue (preferably between €1 to €10 million annually) but grappling with growth challenges. Despite having secured seed and Series A funding, these companies experience linear growth. Hexa intends to intervene by injecting capital and providing support in areas such as operations, international expansion, and marketing.
In 2012, Paul Graham, co-founder of Y Combinator, emphasized the importance of “Startup = Growth.” This philosophy influenced the perception of the ideal startup growth trajectory. Graham proposed focusing on a target growth rate rather than a fixed revenue increase, as this approach allows for easy quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year comparisons. Maintaining a consistent growth rate leads to exponential growth over time, a factor highly favored by venture capitalists.
Hexa aims to rescue companies stuck in a growth plateau, offering assistance to transform them into startups with exponential growth potential. Augustin Celier, who co-founded Uptime, Shuffle, Marc&Aurèle, and CoursdePhilo, will spearhead this initiative. Celier shared his experience of navigating a financing dilemma in a previous venture, highlighting the limited options for support—either pursuing continuous hypergrowth for VC backing or settling for slow, linear growth for self-financing or Private Equity. Hexa Scale introduces a third alternative.
While Hexa is renowned for incubating successful B2B SaaS startups like Front, Aircall, and Spendesk, this isn’t its first foray into later-stage companies. The studio has previously partnered with Yousign, which currently handles over 5 million e-signatures monthly for 17,000 customers.
