Broken X failure, painful rationalization, contested management … The start-up, which now has 350 employees, including 250 in France, has lived several disappointments for a year.
By
After years of hypercroissance, gross, the media specializing in videos aimed at 15-35 year olds on social networks, seeks to do so financially. For this, the company wants to accelerate in the fields that work and abandon what does not work. Even if the word “rationalization” horrifies the management of the pioneer in short videos in France, this is the observation drawn up by several employees. The start-up, which now has 350 employees, including 250 in France, has lived several disappointments for a year.
If Brut succeeded in June 2021 a third fundraising, of around 63 million euros (after 10 million in 2018 and 36 million in 2019), the time is now looking for immediate profitability. “Access to capital is restricted because of the state of the markets,” explains Guillaume Lacroix, the co -founder of Brut, in 2016, with three other former colleagues from Canal+, Laurent Lucas, Roger Coste and Renaud Le Van Kim (Director of the production company Together Media and former producer of the “Grand Journal”). Its goal ? Double its turnover in 2022 and do the same in 2023 to no longer depend on investors, assures Mr. Lacroix, the director of publication.
By launching its streaming platform in April 2021, the media was betting on the success of the paid video by subscription, despite a competitive universe already congested by the Americans Netflix, Amazon Prime or Disney +. Claire Basini, the deputy director general in charge of the new activities of the start-up, then hoped “ultimately, millions of subscribers”. But, eighteen months later, we are far from the account: if the management of Brut refuses to communicate in this regard, the subscribers would only be 80,000 to 100,000, according to our information. Exit films and series, only homemade productions will remain in a new mobile application – bringing together the videos of Brut, Brut.Live for live news follow -up, in particular with journalist Rémy Buisine, and the Gross X platform – which must be launched in December but is slow to see the light of day.
deletions of positions
The entrepreneur Djamel Agaoua, former CEO of the Viber instant messaging application, joined the general management of Brut at the end of 2021 to pass the various projects to the reel. If the media part is supposed to be sanctuarized, the resource reallocations have had the direct consequence of positions, especially internationally, because the company now wishes to make more content from Paris.
You have 62.12% of this article to read. The continuation is reserved for subscribers.