Significant developments have occurred for LumApps, a French company that bills itself as an “intranet super app” that offers a platform for developing and supplying worker applications and internal communications. Over 5 million people in 700 organizations use the business, which announced that private equity firm Bridgepoint is acquiring the majority of its shares in a $650 million transaction it describes as a strategic investment.
Lumapps and investors
All of LumApps’ current investors, including the growth departments of Bpifrance, Eurazeo, Goldman Sachs, and IRIS, are anticipated to sell their shares in the business as part of the deal.
Senior management and the founders of LumApps, including CEO Sebastien Ricard, will continue to be involved in the company and remain on board. We anticipate finalising the deal in July 2024. Both the total value of the business and the percentage in which Bridgepoint is investing are not publicly available. 
However, LumApps’s previous investors are reaping a substantial return on their investment, given that PitchBook valued the company at just $255 million in its most recent fundraising round. The firm has been operating on a relatively small scale, as evidenced by the completion of its latest funding round in 2020, which raised $70 million. Eurazeo released a statement stating that it was the startup’s largest investor, holding over 30% of the business prior to the acquisition. Eurazeo claims to be the only party with total selling profits exceeding €210 million.
Thanks to the agreement, LumApps will have a sizable financial cushion to grow its company and pursue acquisitions. The firm already has a significant worldwide clientele that includes Electronic Arts and Japan Airlines, in addition to working with several major French corporations such as Airbus, Publicis Sapient, and Groupe Lafayette.
It integrates with numerous well-known names in business productivity and IT, including Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Workday, ServiceNow, Zoom, Salesforce, Box, SAP SuccessFactors, and more.
LumApps requires investment because it operates in a market with a lot of competitors and a wide range of participants. It faces competition from businesses that tackle corporate intranet requirements differently—Workday approaches the issue from a human resources perspective, while Slack concentrates on workplace communications. Close rivals include Haystack.
It’s worth noting that this market is not for the timid. One of Meta’s initial ideas for Workplace was to use it as an intranet communication platform. However, Meta will shortly be closing down Workplace entirely due to its inability to achieve the proper product-market fit and the desire to pursue corporate internal communications.
The funding influx may indicate more M&A in this sector. In order to add learning to its platform, LumApps has already made a number of acquisitions, the most recent of which was Teach on Mars.
While AI has become a popular term in workplace computing, LumApps has long aimed to develop an AI-powered personal assistant, and it seems that this will be a significant area of future investment. According to a release, the company will invest more in micro-learning and the concept of a “generative AI companion.”
