The Bolloré group has acquired a majority stake in the Parisian nugget Ovrsea at the origin of a fully digital international logistics platform, the two companies presented this Monday evening to AFP.
Read also: The ogre appetite of Vincent Bolloré at the head of Vivendi
Created in 2017, Ovrsea is a freight forwarder, which organizes and arranges for the transport of goods by plane, boat, train or truck.
The startup, which employs 40 people, now has 500 customers, particularly in e-commerce or electric bikes.
Rather than fundraising,
"we realized that the best way to execute our vision was to do it with the Bolloré teams"
Logistics, rejoiced Arthur Barillas, one of the 5 co-founders of the company, with AFP.
The amount of the transaction was not disclosed.
"Some of the customers want to have a completely digital journey, and do not want to talk to a salesperson,"
said Cyrille Bolloré, who replaced his father Vincent in 2019 at the head of the logistics group, energy (transport of oil and storage of electricity) and communication (shareholder in particular of Vivendi).
Common objective
Ovrsea intends to double its workforce by the end of the year and reach 200 million euros in turnover by 2025 by expanding internationally.
With the same deadline, Bolloré Logistics, with 23,000 employees and present in 109 countries, particularly in Africa, wishes to move from the top 10 to fifth place among global logistics groups, in particular through acquisitions.
With the health crisis in 2020,
"we have lost maritime volumes and turnover while preserving our margins and our results",
said Cyrille Bolloré who
"approaches 2021 in a calm manner despite a lack of visibility"
.
