Parisian IT-as-a-Service provider Primo nets $3.4 million

Parisian startup Primo has raised $3.4 million in a seed round as it aims to solve the IT problems that have plagued SMB’s for nearly a generation. The company intends to use the majority of the capital to expand its engineering team as it gears up to provide a one-stop-shop for all things IT, including the management of apps, devices, security, and even people.

Primo’s $3.4 million seed round saw the backing of Headline and Global Founders Capital alongside a star-studded list of angel investors including Arthur Waller (Founder of Pennylane), Romain Niccoli (Founder of Criteo and Pigment), Ilana Elbaz (first employee and VP of Sales at Deel), Josef Bovet (founder of Tiller, acquired by SumUp), Mathieu Birach (Chief People Office of Doctolib), Romain Libeau (COO of Swile), and Bill Tyndall (co-founder at Electric.ai).

In a similar vain as Berlin’s ITaaS provider, deeploi (but within nowhere as good a founders photo), Primo is setting out to solve an age-old problem, and one that we all too often don’t even consider until it becomes an issue: IT services and the management thereof.

I don’t know about you, but in just about every startup I’ve ever worked with, until that critical mass of, say 150 to 200 people is achieved, as far as a birdseye view of a company’s IT services is concerned, it’s pretty much non-existent. And sadly, in more cases than I’d care to count, a great deal of “tech support” falls in the laps of engineers and/or developers. Not exactly the best use of their skillset.

If it’s not the devs fixing/keeping track of what and where and who, department heads often find themselves cobbling together random spreadsheets of data, and we all know where this is headed.

“Consider the current process for onboarding a new hire. First, you buy a laptop from Apple. Plus keyboard, mouse, and screen from Amazon. Then manually add the employee to your HR software, the “fleet tracking” spreadsheet, the outsourced device management system (MDM) of choice, and so on. This means inconsistencies, overwork, and loads of admin. Traditional IT Management is expensive and no longer fits the needs of modern companies. That’s why we are thinking of Primo as an “operating system for IT.” explained Primo co-founder Nicolas Nallet. 

Another popular, if costly, option is to outsource IT management. Which, as a quick fix/bridge can do the trick, but as European and American SMBs spend around €140 billion on outsourced IT services per year, €8 billion in France alone, clearly there’s a market for a better, more cost-effective way of getting the business of business doing business better.

With its solution, Primo is offering employees, managers, and admin and HR pros a seat at the same table, with hopefully just about everything everyone needs.

Primo’s core product centres around four key axes:

- Deploy: a free tier that allows employers to equip their teams with the hardware equipment they need on a flexible lease basis. 

- Configure: an integrated mobile device management solution that allows for remote management, monitoring, configuration, and security of devices.

- Support: IT support + insurance. Need I say more? Primo directly handles all computer incidents. 

- Secure: Antivirus solutions and end-point detection and response services that cover all external security needs.

According to the company they’re on track to count 300 customers, including Dalma, Beebs, and Cohort amongst their client base by the end of the year, resulting in, if all goes according to plan, an ARR of $2 million.

Angel investor Bill Tyndall, co-founder of New York-based unicorn company Electric.ai, which manages IT and IT support for teams via a SaaS app commented, “If there’s something that SMBs don’t have the time or resources to solve, that’s IT. Primo’s founding team, with their extensive product experience, is uniquely positioned to solve this issue for millions of SMBs. They are approaching the space with the right motivation and bringing a fresh, modern experience to the market with no equal in Europe.”