Meeting with two Kedgers, founders of Cap Financials

Created by a team of business information specialists, Cap Financials assists financial institutions, large companies, SMEs, and public institutions by providing users with in-depth information on French companies through an intuitive platform.

CAP FINANCIALS

What did you study, both before and at KEDGE?

David: I started KEDGE in 1995 (ESC Marseille Provence at the time), after having taken two years of prep courses and passing the ECRICOME exam. I got my degree in 1998, with a specialisation in Marketing and Services. 

Florian: I got a Business Units Management degree (BTS MUS) in 2010, then I went to KEDGE and got a Bachelor (specialisation in entrepreneurship) followed by an International Business Master.

Tell us what you’ve done between leaving school and now, with Cap Financials.

David: I graduated from KEDGE in 1998 after having experienced an extremely rewarding year. I had had a 6-month marketing internship at Gemplus Consulting Services and was an active member of the marketing team of the French Organising Committee of the 1998 World Cup in Marseille. At the beginning of 1999, I started working for Bureau van Dijk, one of the leading publishers of business information databases. I worked first as a sales engineer, then as a manager, marketing software solutions to high-level clients. In 2004, I went to work for BIL, (now ALTARES D&B) as Global Account Manager. I was there for four years before I returned to my first love, going back to work for Bureau van Dijk as Key Account Manager. I later became Regional Director for the South. My 20 years of experience gave me an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the main players in the information market. So Florian, some developer partners, and I decided to set up our own business. We founded Cap Financials in 2019 with the idea of keeping the strong aspects of the market tools while reducing their known weaknesses. We are proud to say that the start-up, “CapFi”, has attracted quite a number of users since its official release on 14 February 2020, some of whom have been using competing solutions for over 20 years. 

Florian: As soon as I received my Master in International Business from KEDGE, I took on as many experiences as I could to diversify and deepen my skills. I worked for REXEL for two years as a Manager, then for five years at Bureau Van Dijk (Moody’s Analytics) as a Key Accounts Manager, which is where I developed an interest in the data sector.

Tell us about "Cap Financials" and your development goals?

From the very beginning, the goal of Cap Financials was to provide users with comprehensive, up-to-date information on French companies, which is easy to access through an intuitive platform. Our activity focuses on customer and supplier risk management, improvement of sales and marketing activities, and increased knowledge of the local economic fabric.

Our targets and areas of activity:

• Administrations and public sector: Analysis of the local economic fabric, identification and analysis of suppliers for AO, monitoring of companies benefiting from repayable advances, sectoral analysis, management watch;
• Large companies, SMEs and VSEs: Prospecting, targeting, competitive analysis, customer/supplier monitoring, customer/supplier risk management, reliability, enhancement, updating of CRM/SRM/IS, sourcing;
• Chartered Accountants: Company comparisons, sectoral analysis, enhancement of financial data, calculation of ratios;
• Consulting firms: Documentary research, risk analysis;
• Universities / Schools: Financial analysis, historical accounting data, marketing / economic analysis, market research.

Our hope for the future of CapFi is to continue to market the existing offer, which provides an innovative and qualitative alternative to the services of the established operators in the business information market, to develop access to new data through our platform, and to promote our full and user-friendly software solution abroad by leveraging local data sets.

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Why do you think it is important for a school to have a robust alumni network?

Both Florian and I believe that the strength of a graduates’ network not only contributes to the reputation and influence of a school like KEDGE, but it also allows both former and new graduates to have access to, and benefit from, a large pool of job opportunities and qualified candidates.

Follow Cap Financials :

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Cap-Financials-101202364832497/ 
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/capfinancialsdata/?hl=fr 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cap-financials/ 
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/CapFinancials 

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