It all started with a bang for Nanaba, the Nice startup created in January 2021 by Anne-Laure Monier and Olivier Guérin, with the promise of an app intended to transform children’s screens into a source of learning and time to school reviews. December 2022, the small box wins the Nice-Matin Group startup of the year award. A month later, they have the honors of the show “Who wants to be my partner” on M6. A success story under the sun…
Four new companies created
Today? Nanaba is being lynched on social networks and in particular on the Instagram page “Balance Ta Startup”, by employees – anonymous – who have not been paid since February and who have a lot on their hearts. The founders of the startup, Anne-Laure Monier and Olivier Guérin, have just set up four new boxes since last May: in Montpellier, Courbevoie, Lyon and Bordeaux. And transferred their holding company, SFG Invest, from Paris to Wakefield in Great Britain. This fuels the fears of employees. There were regarding twenty of them working in the Nice premises located at the Grand Arenas. Lots of work-study students and a few permanent contracts.
No more mutual insurance, changed locks…
“We haven’t touched anything for 5 months”swears Lauriane (1) an “alternate”. “Initially, they asked us to wait, because they were raising funds. We believed them. And then, we had no more explanations. We were still not paid. About ten of people put them on notice via a lawyer”continues Jules, an employee. “They were obnoxious. Cut off our email addresses. They changed the locks and don’t answer us anymore, we can’t get our things,” over Lauriane. “We are no longer covered by the mutual, they did not pay. As they did not pay lots of service providers”, she breathes once more. Providers, but also teachers who wrote school quizzes are on the floor. Michel who teaches in a college, is one of them: “I’ve been trying to get paid for months and months, now they don’t even answer me. It’s outrageous.”
“It never worked”
Some users are also upwind: “it never worked, I pay for nothing and their following-sales service does nothing”, scolds a mayor of a family who had subscribed for her little boy. One testimony among many others.
“Three or four of us have signed a mutual agreement. But for others it’s out of the question, they have to file for bankruptcy, but they still refuse”, coward, pissed, Lauriane. The young woman is very worried. “They are in the process of organizing their insolvency, they are leaving young people in great difficulty”sighs Jules. Corentin, taken by the throat, made the choice, him, of the contractual rupture. Reluctantly: he lost “almost 10,000 euros in the case”. “They bet everything on the com before betting on their product which does not work. If we had 300 or 400 subscriptions, it’s the end of the world. So, necessarily fundraising can no longer succeed and they will say it’s our fault, he said, disillusioned.
“We will certainly file a complaint during the week”concludes Lauriane.
1. All first names have been changed at the request of employees and work-study trainees.
Olivier Guérin: “We are suffering damage”
Nanaba is still active. “We have 5 employees left”, breathes co-founder Olivier Guérin. He admits it: “It’s complicated, we no longer have any possibilities in research and development”. Olivier Guérin deplores the situation of his former employees: “I’m not going to tell you the opposite: no they are not paid, we tried to find a solution with them, but it did not work”. In his defense, he says: “We are in the midst of fundraising. I understand that the notion of timing is intolerable for them and we would like to do otherwise”. Yes but how? Olivier Guérin is annoyed by the “smear” campaign of his former collaborators on Instagram : “In full fundraising, I fear that we will end up in the wall, because of that”. Out of 750,000 euros, they only collected 61,000 euros. “We are expecting several investors at 200,000 and 300,000 euros. Our fundraiser tells us that in 15 days, he is hopeful”, says the founder of Nanaba. He resumes himself: “But it will be complicated, now we are suffering damage”.
