Les Échos Business Newspaper — Start-up / Profiles Section · January 14, 2020 · Article by Camille Wong
Les Échos profiles Thibault Lamarque, founder of Castalie, who has turned the microfiltration of tap water into a campaign against plastic bottles and a profitable business model. The daily newspaper traces the entrepreneur’s dedicated journey, from his activist childhood to the growth of his company. A look at the man behind the brand, on the eve of a new round of fundraising.
Key takeaways
- In January 2020, Castalie reported having 2,050 machines installed and a doubling of its sales in 2019; the company had increased its workforce from 30 to 60 employees in one year.
- In November 2019, Thibault Lamarque won first prize at the Nuit RSE in the category for the best initiative focused on sustainable or alternative practices.
- Castalie 's clients at the time included restaurant chefs, institutional clients, gyms, major corporations such as Kering, and the G7 summit in Biarritz in August 2019.
- Thibault Lamarque, an international business student at Dauphine, wrote his senior thesis on access to water in Morocco before gaining experience at Veolia and then Alter Eco.
- A longtime advocate for the environment, involved with organizations such as Greenpeace since his teenage years and an active member of the NGO Sea Shepherd, he had just formed a partnership with the Made Blue Foundation to fund drinking water systems in Ethiopia.
- In 2020, from its offices in Issy-les-Moulineaux, the company was preparing for a major fundraising round scheduled for March, intended to launch new products and expand into the Benelux region.
- True to his convictions, Thibault Lamarque summed up his approach with the following statement: “The best waste is the waste that isn’t produced.”
Source: Les Échos, Start-up / Profiles section, January 14, 2020 — article by Camille Wong. Read the original article
