Hupso - formerly Prep Academy: 7 million euros to revolutionize shortage occupations

La Belle Histoire is a series of articles highlighting entrepreneurs and their teams, starting from where it all began. They share with you the stages they went through. What's next? They're still writing it.

April 2023, Arnaud Gracieux, founder of PrepAcademy, today announces that he has raised 7 million euros in funding and is changing his brand identity. As of this month, PrepAcademy becomes Hupso - literally "to rise" in Greek. 

The name reflects Arnaud's deep-rooted convictions as a fervent advocate of education as a social elevator. To unleash everyone's potential, he created Hupso, formerly PrepAcademy. An EdTech start-up specializing in distance vocational training for jobs in short supply. On the sofa - between two meetings - he tells us the story of Hupso. 

The genesis

Arnaud comes from a family of entrepreneurs. As a teenager, he became involved in community work, giving lessons to underprivileged people. After high school, the young man developed a passion for economics and entered a preparatory class. He gave himself the means to achieve his ambitions, worked hard and learned fast. After passing the competitive entrance exams, he was admitted to HEC, where he also began a double degree in business and economics. 

Fresh from his degree, Arnaud signs a permanent contract as a junior consultant with Capgemini and puts his skills to work for major companies such as Thalès and BNP Paribas. The excitement of the early days soon gave way to the routine of everyday life. " I was looking for a corporate project in which I could fully invest myself", he recalls. 

Some of his classmates share this sentiment, and some are embarking on their own entrepreneurial ventures. For Arnaud, the idea is catching on, and he identifies education as his new playground. It's 2015, and PrepAcademy is in its infancy.

The epic

Before taking the plunge, Arnaud meets teachers, higher education employees and educators. In each of these people, he discovers very different life paths. The continuing education sector is not very digitalized. State-recognized courses are difficult to set up. Arnaud decided to offer support for competitive entrance exams: "It all started with the nursing exam, the first one I worked on. I met students who were in the process of taking it, I collected the courses and then began my first coaching sessions. In concrete terms, it was a landing page with courses and coaching."

Within two months, Arnaud had a dozen customers. His mastery of the acquisition levers is limited, but despite the difficulties, the young graduate is enjoying himself immensely. It's enough for him to leave everything behind and swap his daily life as a salaried employee for that of a start-up entrepreneur. "Setting up an entrepreneurial project isn't just about the money. It's about creating a project in which you believe", he explains.

Like his customers, Arnaud is in a learning phase, training himself to become an entrepreneur. Methodical, he begins by analyzing his sector to understand its inner workings before drawing up an initial business plan and hiring his first freelance developer. It's March 2017 and the first PrepAcademy website sees the light of day.

Arnaud went from zero to one: he contacted the first students, sent e-mails to the chain, spent his first euros on advertising and, a few days later, made his first sale. For €50, he offered a student nurse access to online content and chat for a month to prepare for her entrance exam. "From memory, I think she was happy. I remember that first sale, and I threw a huge party to celebrate the evening!" he jokes. 

Concept validation and launch

For several months, Arnaud worked alone on his project. He works with a few freelancers and considers joining forces, but the timing isn't ideal. In the summer of 2017, he was awarded the French Tech grant and became a Réseau Entreprendre laureate, both of which enabled him to enhance his training offering. 

The start of 2019 is promising, with the start-up experiencing strong growth and achieving the previous year's sales in just three months. The team is strengthened with two interns to support the founder. "For the record, one of these interns - Cyril - is still part of the development team. You could say he's been through it all."

The eternal question persists: how to acquire more customers? Arnaud found the answer in an exchange with an OpenClassroom employee whose words still resonate: "to buy a training course, people need to be reassured. The telephone is the best way to achieve this." 

Immediately, the team sets about redesigning the website to support telephone prospecting. Arnaud decides to team up with Clément Vignal, a long-time friend. Clément left his sales job to join the adventure, and together they imagined their beautiful story: that of a company founded by two childhood friends.  

In 2020, the global pandemic and its successive confinements put the brakes on the start-up's development. Site traffic plummets, people's minds are not on learning, but the end of the first containment marks a return to growth. New sales staff were hired, and the company's monthly sales rose from €20 to €70,000. 

Morale is high until autumn 2020 and winter confinement. "The forecasts were wrong, we downplayed the impact of morale on sales. Targets weren't met and we had to change our strategy." From now on, learners are the focus of attention. Teams improve their listening skills, the advice they give is more precise, and conversion rates soar. " I understand that we're not just selling training, but life projects", explains the founder. 

In the summer of 2021, PrepAcademy is expanding its offering to include a diploma course in addition to its competitive entrance examination preparation. Students will have access to a fully personalized learning platform based on data analysis, as well as distance support. Training courses for nurses, schoolteachers and construction managers have also become flagship offerings in the catalog. This was a pivotal period for the start-up, which achieved training sales of 150,000 euros in just two months. 

Fund raising

In the fall of 2021, Arnaud launches a fundraising campaign. He decides to surround himself with a fundraiser. In particular, to save time and maximize his chances of success. Always in a learning position, the founder wants to understand the ins and outs of fund-raising. 

With the help of his leverager, he calculated the valuation of his company. At the time, PrepAcademy was announcing annual sales of 1.5 million euros, and despite lower valuations in the education sector, the two men were hoping to raise 4 million euros in the first round of financing. Once the deck is consolidated, the roadshow kicks off in December, with one objective in mind: to close before the end of the year.

Following several weeks of meetings and negotiations, PrepAcademy closes a €7 million financing round . The round was carried out with VC Educapital and Family Office Evolem, as well as business angels such as Patrick Asdaghi, Romain Libeau and Dimitri Farber.

Following this operation, PrepAcademy becomes Hupso and continues its development in favor of jobs in shortage. 

More

Hupso now has 53 employees and 35 training courses or competitive examination preparation courses. Arnaud's objectives are clear: double the workforce within two years and pass the 10,000-student mark within three years. The entrepreneur and his teams are adopting the right training and heading straight for the 10 million euro sales mark for Hupso.