June 06, 2023
Wylly is one of the 10 Innovation Ambassadors 2022, selected from 86 initiatives in 21 countries and 24 entities. Discover how Guillaume Hervé and Pierre Syssau created a new online auction platform for used cars linking private owners and dealers. The startup aims to make the selling and buying experience simpler, faster and fairer.
Introduce yourself briefly:
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GUILLAUME HERVÉ: My name is Guillaume Hervé, and I lead the Alternative Growth department within BNP Paribas Cardif Head Office. Our aim is to find and create options for BNP Paribas Cardif’s future growth, using a dedicated toolbox, including our investment funds C.Entrepreneurs and C.Development, but also our partnership with a Venture Studio called Rainmaking, that led to building Wylly.
PIERRE SYSSAU: Hi, I am Pierre Syssau, Deputy CEO of Icare, a subsidiary of BNP Paribas Cardif, the warranty and maintenance contract specialist for cars. Among different tasks, I lead the transformation of Icare, which pushes us to investigate new business models.
Tell us about your project: what is it about and how it came about?
PIERRE SYSSAU: The idea was powerful: how to combine Icare assets with the equity firm Rainmaking’s expertise in order to create a new business model. Access to private individuals, dealers, and knowledge about car reliability were the key selected assets to create Wylly.
Wylly is an auction marketplace allowing customers to sell their used car to professionals through a full digital and seamless experience. This will allow car professionals to get a liquidity pool of used cars from an alternative way of sourcing vehicles, in a context where new car sales are constrained by shortfalls of electronic components, and used cars are mostly sold through C2C platforms.
GUILLAUME HERVÉ: We wanted to solve one problem: building new innovative business lines while derisking the process of venture creation. This is where the idea comes from to partner with an expert in building new companies, Rainmaking Venture Studio, whose purpose is to detect opportunities, build new business models, recruit founders, finance the launch and support the scale-up
After we set up this partnership, Icare was very keen to test the process, leading to the creation of a first startup launched with Icare in 2022: Wylly.
We have structured the deal in the way that BNP Paribas Cardif and Rainmaking co-invest in the startup.
PIERRE SYSSAU: This type of setup is unique, creating a real start up working in an agile way.
What did you find most striking/surprising during this project?
GUILLAUME HERVÉ: The new company is just one year old, and the team’s velocity is truly impressive. They built a live product in only a few months. Just after the launch of the platform, more than 10,000 visitors are going on Wylly each month, which surpassed our goal.
What advice would you give to employees who also want to innovate?
GUILLAUME HERVÉ: Be sure not to come to the table with inflexible convictions. Remain willing to change your beliefs based on your observations and experience.
PIERRE SYSSAU: Think out of the box: innovation is not limited to new ideas, but ways to develop and implement in new frameworks.