Extracadabra, a start-up founded in 2015, has announced that Actual, an investment fund specialising in temporary employment, will be joining as a shareholder. Experts from AURIS Finance, a merger and acquisition consultancy, shed light on this new market development.
In March 2025, Actual Ventures, the HR-Tech innovation fund of Actual Group, made a significant investment of €15 million in Extracadabra, a specialist digital recruitment platform.
Established in 2015, Extracadabra operates within a highly competitive sector: hospitality and catering. The start-up has developed a platform that connects job seekers with companies in the hospitality, catering, events and sales sectors. In a mere decade, the platform has been used by 10,000 companies, including prominent names such as Accor, Sodexo and U Commerçants. In 2024, the group reported a turnover of €27 million. This is in comparison to €2.5 million in turnover generated by the platform prior to the pandemic.
A unique model
This acquisition signals a resurgence in the competitive dynamic between established temporary employment agencies and new market entrants. Temporary employment agencies pay their workers a salary, whereas digital platforms use self-employed contractors. This is the case for the Extracadabra platform, but also for Brigad, which has recently experienced numerous setbacks. The platform, which specialises in recruitment by text message, has been accused of unfair competition by Staffmatch. In winter 2020, approximately 15 police officers from the Central Office for the Fight against Illegal Work (OCLTI) raided Brigad’s premises on suspicion of undeclared work. Five years later, Florent Malbranche, the entrepreneur behind Brigad, is pressing ahead with his offensive in the hospitality sector by launching the Rosk recruitment platform.
A high level of interest from investors
In 2025, the agile recruitment platform model is an attractive prospect for specialist funds and investors. In 2023, Brigad successfully raised €33 million. Shortly after its launch, Extracadabra raised €2 million from Bpifrance, Side Capital and Sowefund. The arrival of Actual Group, via its corporate venture fund, reshaped the company’s capital structure. Actual Ventures has become the main shareholder, replacing the historical investors alongside the company’s founders, Frédéric Nardon and Rémi Boisson, who will continue in their current roles. This new round of financing will enable the platform to significantly accelerate its development, with plans to roll out its services in France’s ten largest cities and expand its offering to other sectors such as logistics and mass retail.
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This new stake acquisition is part of the ‘Actual 2031’ plan. The group’s strategic objective is to establish itself as the foremost independent entity in France, setting the standard for employment and skills development nationwide. The acquisition of a stake in Extracadabra should enable Actual to combine the strength of its physical network (600 agencies and 250 offices) with the digital innovations of the platform and develop flexible digital HR solutions. This market movement suggests a possible resolution to the apparent conflict between two models that, in principle, appear to be at odds: temporary work and digital platforms. In the coming months, new innovative companies could be targeted by temporary employment specialists. AURIS Finance’s experts are specialised by sector. Our Human Resources specialists are here to support you throughout your sale or acquisition project.
