Vigile Hoareau is a musician, cognitive psychologist and computer programmer. Jimmy Thomas is a multi-platinum rap producer who has worked with Tupac and Motown Records. Together, they are its founders Crowdaa, a French company that allows non-developers to easily create and release mobile apps.
The two were introduced eight years ago and connected due to their desire to give creatives, especially the emerging class of content creators, more control over their platforms. At the time, Hoareau had already launched a prototype of Crowdaa in Reunion, the French island territory from which he hails. “We shared the same vision of what the role and contribution of technology should be for content creators and communities,” he said.
At first, Hoareau and Thomas built a music-focused product, but pivoted during the pandemic to be a service for everyone. “Using Crowdaa, the business and entertainment communities can publish their apps to stores with just a few clicks,” Hoareau told TechCrunch. “The data, the content, the users own them. They decide how to make money if so.”
The company on Thursday announced an improved update with new features, including automating the way users create, develop and submit their apps to the Apple Store and Google Play. After an app is ready and a developer account is created, an app is available on Apple’s Testflight within 20 minutes, Crowdaa said. The goal is to make it easier to build apps, which can help open up new markets.
The company says it stands out from competitors because it allows people to build apps without extensive development resource tools with vertically integrated solutions. “We’re doing something very specific, but we’re doing it all the way through,” Hoareau said.
The app’s ambitions are also attracting investor attention: Crowdaa recently announced a €1.2 million seed round led by Apicap. Sports teams, organizations and political parties use Crowdaa to build their apps and better engage with consumers, the company says. The power is in the technology behind the platform: a full-stack service, an easy drag-and-drop interface, and built-in tools to help with legal and compliance.
Hoareau said the fundraising process was quite difficult and talked about how difficult it is to be a founder from Réunion, as mainland French investors tend to pay little attention to the regions. He and Thomas had to spend time building relationships and expanding their networks, which they could tap into, in addition to getting into accelerators like the Nvidia Inception program that helped keep the company afloat. Other investors in the round include Tremplin Capital and Teampact Ventures.
Crowdaa will use the recent fundraising to expand sales and marketing, strengthen its presence in France and plan a US launch, which it hopes to do in the coming weeks. It also creates an AI chat assistant. The goal is to soon collaborate with filmmakers and music companies, bringing the company’s mission full circle.
