Finishers, the French startup which aims to offer the most complete and up-to-date racing calendar, has just announced a fundraising of 3.3 million euros. We spoke with Benoit Grassigny, one of the co-founders of Finishers. The latter explained to us his journey and the future projects of his startup.
Everything you need to know about Finisherss
Who are you ?
My name is Benoit Grassigny and I am one of the co-founders of Finishers, the first outdoor sports events marketplace in France.
I graduated from HEC Paris and École Polytechnique and started my career at Paris Saint-Germain in 2015, with the mission of developing the club’s communication and BtoB offering. At the end of my 2 years at PSG, I joined the international agency Infront, where I participated in the development of the group’s digital services, supporting numerous European federations and clients in their digital transition. I then joined Olympique Lyonnais, as BtoC Marketing Manager, where I was in charge of the design and deployment of the club’s general public offers.
What does Finishers do?
Launched in June 2021, Finishers is the first SaaS-enabled marketplace for outdoor sports events in France. It meets the needs of participants, who wish to easily search, compare and reserve bibs and race-related products/services and organizers who want to develop revenue from their event, via a SaaS platform. In less than 3 years, Finishers has become the most visited running platform on the web with more than 6 million unique visitors in 2023 and offers access to more than 12,000 events in France and Europe.
Finishers fundraising
Why did you raise €3.3 million in funds?
We are delighted to close this round which is led by Anthony Bourbon, founder and CEO of Feed., and the Blast.Club as well as a pool of Business Angels including Arnaud Zilliox, Xavier Tahar and Confluences Participations. We are also happy to welcome among our investors the famous French ultra-trail runner, member of Team Salomon: Mathieu Blanchard.
This fundraising is a very important step in our development and will allow us to accelerate the growth of the company around different axes:
- Add innovative features and services to help runners find and book rides.
- Create new efficient tools for organizers, in order to support them even more in the development and management of their events.
- Expand our scope beyond France as well as other outdoor sports disciplines (triathlon, cycling, swimming, etc.).
- Recruit new members within our team (some positions are already open).
- And many other surprises…
Why did you choose to bring these investors into your capital?
Finishers has chosen to bring Blast.Club and business angels into its capital.
We are very happy that Anthony Bourbon and Blast.Club are integrating this project. The Blast.Club is a unique network of investors that combines the monitoring and expertise of renowned entrepreneurs such as Anthony Bourbon, Samuel Guez and Éric Larchevêque and a network of several thousand members. It is an incredible opportunity for us to have them by our side as well as all the other business angels who are taking part in this round. They all have great expertise to bring and we look forward to benefiting from their support.
What will Finishers look like in five years?
Finishers’ ambition is to become the leading European player in outdoor sports events. It is therefore with this objective in mind that we will redouble our efforts in the years to come. This fundraising marks a turning point in our project and also gives us a great responsibility. First of all, with our investors, who trusted us in this adventure and with the riders and our customers who are counting on us to continue working hard in the direction we have been following since now. 3 years. The future will therefore be marked by even more new things, work and races!
