Eurazeo’s Robin Rivaton exits for CEO role with Stonal as the company picks up €20 million

Making the not-so-often-seen leap from VC to CEO, Robin Rivaton departs Eurazeo to take over the top spot at real-estate management platform Stonal.
Eurazeo’s Robin Rivaton exits for CEO role with Stonal as the company picks up €20 million

Paris-based Stonal has raised €20 million in a Series B funding round that aims to propel the company’s German and UK market expansion plans. The SaaS platform provides commercial and residential property owners and asset managers with a host of tools all designed to optimise returns and improve organisational productivity.

Stonal, formerly known as La Foncière Numérique, was founded in 2017 by real-estate entrepreneurs Michel Tolila and Jean-Maurice Oudot, and has been profitable since last year, reporting revenues of €10 million.

Unlike Munich-based Alasco, which focuses on new builds and refurbished buildings, Stonal focuses on existing buildings, e.g. those that often have a mountain of paper documents attached. According to new CEO Robin Rivaton, "Our customers give us hundreds or thousands buildings in one go." 

Offering a 21st century solution to this 19th century method of record-keeping, Stonal provides savvy real estate moguls with the tools they need to gain an advantage over competitors, namely through an AI-driven approach that provides significant benefit, particularly when compared to a real-estate industry IT infrastructure that is beginning to show its age.

Compounded by rising interest rates and an industry-wide expectancy of meeting net-zero goals, Stonal’s AI-powered service automates a number of administrative and data entry tasks, continuously maintaining an updated master data set. Additionally, the platform can provide actionable insights via ESG reporting, financial analysis, and maintenance planning.

The company counts a staff of approximately 70 individuals and some 130 clients, real estate investment trusts, insurers, social housing organizations, asset managers, and family offices, whose combined portfolios manage more than 200 million sqm across Europe.

Robin Rivaton

So strong is Stonal’s offer that they’ve even managed a coup de filet and lured former investment manager Robin Rivaton away from Eurazeo, one of Europe’s most active proptech investors, to fill the role of CEO. Rivaton holds board memberships with sever property developers and REITs in France and will be leveraging his extensive network to drive the company’s sales efforts.

“I was super happy at Eurazeo and as a VC investor but it is a once in a lifetime opportunity: an experienced founder ready to leave room, a sector I know super well - real estate which is full of opportunities, and impressive tech relying on AI with a powerful network effect as our collected dataset grows” commented Rivaton.

Stonal’s fresh €20 million was provided by RAISE Investissement and angel investors including pharma giant Sanofi founder Jean-François Dehecq.

“During my entrepreneurial journey in the real estate industry, I have tried to improve the knowledge about the building process to increase return and tackle climate change. For this new chapter of Stonal, I am glad to welcome Robin Rivaton and RAISE Investissement,” concluded Tolila.

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