“eCommerce helped us to grow during the pandemic”, — Philipp Denisov, Brandquad.
French Tech Moscow talked with the CEO of the international startup Brandquad who’s making the life of retail and eCommerce companies more simple and comfortable.
Philipp, tell us a little bit about your story and how and where you got the idea to start Branquad?
I am from Moscow, where I finished at the Financial Academy in 2010 and then worked for various advertising agencies such as MEC, and then for 7 years I was the commercial director for the biggest marketplace in the sphere of construction — Stroyportal.ru.
The idea of creating my own company came to me in 2015 after the demand of my colleague from L’Oreal who had difficulties with the transparency of the quantity of products in stock, in the shops and on the eCommerce shelves. I created the solution for this, and L’Oreal became my first client. Then I met the CTO of our future startup, and together we made a real SaaS solution for retailers. We raised money with the help of IIDF and had more and more clients from Russia and abroad.
Tell us about the international growth of Brandquad.
As we got more and more clients, we became known, and by the end of 2017 we had an invitation from Dubai’s accelerator - Chalhoubgreenhouse -specialized on projects with luxury such as companies like Dior, Chanel, etc. I spent 3 months in Dubai and by the end of the acceleration program I clearly knew that there was a need for our product in the market. We got the investment of 3, 5 M USD and continued our development.
In 2018 I had a chance to take part in the Saint Petersburg Economic Forum, where I attended the meeting between Putin and Macron. They agreed to strengthen relations between Russia and France in IT sector, and the Trianon Dialog project was born soon after. Branquad took part in it, and I went to Paris for 1 month to meet potential clients. This trip was so productive and rich, that the creating of an office in France was evident.
We took part in two accelerations programs in France: Plug & Play Lafayette in Paris and EuraTechnologies in Lille.
I should admit that the French market in not an easy one. There is a concurrence and the administrative questions are quite long. It is also more expensive. Now we have offices in Dubai, Paris, Lille, and in three Russian cities. We’re testing markets in the USA and Singapore too, and are planning to open offices there too. We’re also planning to create R&D center in Lille and create work places for It-developers, project managers, sales specialists.
Philipp, what are today’s main international trends in commerce and retail?
They are quite common for all business today: machine learning, AI, automation processes with the help of neural networks, everything related to computer vision. The eCommerce trend is related to social media, soon all social websites will open eCommerce platforms. Today with the pandemic situation everyone understands the power of e-commerce, and this market is growing.
How did COVID affect your company?
Well, firstly we were shocked about the situation, many of our events and exibitions were cancelled, and for Branquad it is the main source to get new clients. We have to cut expenditures, and let go of some staff in Moscow. But on the other side our revenue has grown thanks to the growing of the eCommence market and in turn the demand for our product. We’ve signed new contracts with clients, and now we’re hiring again. I think that the situation with COVID-19 has caused many businesses to redirect their activity, and that could have good benefits!
Do you know something about La French Tech?
Yes, I know about this initiative, we’re discussing with French Tech France about common activities. We’re very interested to strengthen our position in French media with the help of French Tech, and also to participate in some professional workshops in France and Russia. We’d like to take part in La French Tech Central and to participate in Scale-Up Tour.
