Vigile Hoareau is a musician, cognitive psychologist and computer programmer. Jimmy Thomas is a multi-platinum rap producer who has worked with Tupac and Motown Records. Together they are the founders Crowd, a French company that allows non-programmers to easily create and publish applications for mobile devices.
They met eight years ago and shared a desire to give creators, especially the emerging class of content creators, more control over their platforms. By this time, Hoareau had already launched the Crowdaa prototype on its home island of Reunion. “We shared the same vision on the role and contribution of technology to content creators and communities,” he said.
Initially, Hoareau and Thomas created a product focused on music, but during the pandemic they pivoted to a service for everyone. “With Crowdaa, the professional and entertainment communities can publish their apps to stores with just a few clicks,” Hoareau told TechCrunch. “They own the data, content and users. They decide how they will make money if this happens.”
On Thursday, the company announced an enhanced update with recent features including automating the way users create, deploy and submit their apps to the Apple Store and Google Play. Crowdaa says once the app is ready and a developer account is arrange, it’s going to be available on Apple Testflight inside 20 minutes. The goal is to make app development easier, which could help open up recent markets.
The company says it stands out from the competition because it allows you to build applications without extensive development tools using vertically integrated solutions. “We are doing something very specific, but we have been doing it from the very beginning,” Hoareau said.
The app’s ambitions are also attracting investor attention: Crowdaa recently announced a €1.2 million seed round led by Apicap. Sports teams, organizations and political parties use Crowdaa to build apps and higher connect with consumers, according to the company. The power lies in the technology behind the platform: an end-to-end service, an easy drag-and-drop interface, and integrated tools to help with regulatory compliance and compliance.
Hoareau stated that the fundraising process was quite difficult and mentioned how difficult it is to be a founder from Réunion because investors from mainland France normally do not concentrate to the territories. He and Thomas had to spend time building relationships and expanding the networks they might tap into, in addition to participating in accelerators like the Nvidia Inception program, which helped the company stay in business. Other investors in the round include Tremplin Capital and Teampact Ventures.
Crowdaa will use the recent fundraising to expand sales and marketing, increase its presence in France and plan for a U.S. launch, which it hopes will occur in the next few weeks. An AI chat assistant is also in development. The goal is to soon partner with filmmakers and record labels, bringing the company’s mission full circle.