What do Blablacar, Airbnb or Getaround have in common? They are all marketplaces, sure. But more notably, those startups managed to turn a quite confidential practice (carpooling, home-sharing, car rental between individuals) into mainstream usage, by adding security, trust and fluidity in the process. That’s exactly what Paris-based startup Colette wants to achieve now, for intergenerational cohousing.
Colette’s mission is perfectly aligned with Mutuelle Impact’s investment thesis: maintain physical and mental health of senior people through increased social interactions and increased revenue.
On the one hand, it helps students and young workers to find simple and affordable housing, in better quality and more spacious accommodations, by living with hosts who have a room to rent. On the other hand, it allows hosts to rent out their vacant rooms to young people in complete confidence, and get additional income. Above all, it’s a clever way to break solitude and create links. The offer is based on technology stacks and automation of processes, delivering fluid and transparent matching.
The startup’s impact is easy to understand, as it aims at solving several societal issues at once. First, Colette makes it easier for young people to find housing, at a time when 17% of students, or about one in five, abandon their studies because they cannot afford the cost of housing…
Then, Colette contributes to senior guests living longer – and better – at home, while 27% of people aged 60 and over suffer from loneliness. In France alone, nearly one million people suffer from isolation, the equivalent of the population of a city like Marseille! Colette is also building a community around the hosts, with social activities, such as tea-times, cultural visits, workshops and concerts.
At XAnge, we are convinced that the well-being bof seniors can be improved by staying connected with younger people, while their purchasing power increases by renting part of their home. Physical and cognitive health prevention and the fight against isolation are important issues, and the Colette team contributes to this by stimulating socialization and maintaining activities for seniors.
Colette was founded in December 2019, bringing together 6 entrepreneurial friends from startups such as Mention, Virtuo, Djump, BlaBlaCar or Sézane. With their diverse backgrounds in tech, the founding team came up with an interesting way to tackle the peer-to-peer logic.
The team is developing the company based on increased precision and reactivity of their matching technologies as well as high execution quality of the processes.They have the mindset and skills required to scale and their motivation to democratize intergenerational cohabitation are impressive. This was a key factor in our investment choice. Longue vie à Colette!
