Wandercraft strengthens its development thanks to Memo Bank

Wandercraft is a French robotics company founded in Paris in 2012. Its three co-founders, Matthieu Masselin, Nicolas Simon, and Alexandre Boulanger, established Wandercraft around a dream: to enable paralyzed individuals to live a normal life through exoskeletons.

All three graduates of Polytechnique, the co-founders of Wandercraft started from scratch and have become skilled in all relevant fields. The first Wandercraft exoskeleton was released in 2018, six years after the company’s inception. Used in rehabilitation centers, it has two main functions: helping patients with locomotion pathologies (multiple sclerosis, stroke, etc.) relearn to walk, and enabling paraplegic individuals to alleviate a series of issues associated with sedentary wheelchair life: chronic pain, muscle spasticity, cardiovascular problems, etc. Thanks to artificial intelligence algorithms and its adaptation to the patient’s morphology and pathology, the Wandercraft exoskeleton is today the world’s only “self-stabilizing” exoskeleton, meaning it can maintain balance without relying on the patient or requiring them to use crutches.

Continuously evolving, Wandercraft is progressing toward its goal of developing a personal exoskeleton. The company has raised 70 million euros since its inception and has already assisted hundreds of patients in France and the United States, where it has also established a subsidiary. It also plans to open a factory in France.

The design and construction of Wandercraft’s exoskeletons require significant investment, partly because the company needs a diverse and highly specialized skill set — robotics, medicine, software development, artificial intelligence, and more. Therefore, Wandercraft regularly raises funds. In early 2022, the SME raised 40 million euros in a Series C round from its long-standing investors, French mutualist groups, and American investors.

The leaders of Wandercraft then decided to use this fundraising opportunity to further strengthen their cash position through non-dilutive bank financing. Their goal was to significantly enhance Wandercraft’s investment capacity and to anticipate a potential crisis in the technology sector and related financing, which the executives foresaw on the horizon.

Matthieu Masselin thus contacted Memo Bank, which offers financing solutions targeted at innovative SMEs that have raised funds. According to Matthieu Masselin, Memo Bank was very responsive, a rarity in the banking finance world, especially when the financing involves an innovative company. Although it wasn’t the first bank that Wandercraft approached, Memo Bank was the first to commit to the financing. Only 45 days elapsed between Wandercraft’s initial contact with Memo Bank and the availability of the funds in Wandercraft’s account.

Matthieu Masselin also appreciated that the entire credit granting process at Memo Bank was digitalized: interactions with bankers, submission of supporting documents, and signing… The CEO of Wandercraft even signed his credit agreement on his smartphone.