Purpi wants to bring consumers back downtown in the cities of Europe and Africa

The app uses geolocation to find deals that meet your needs

Discounts of 20% to 80% all year round in boutiques and revitalized retail districts in downtown areas: that's the Purpi promise! In March 2022, this start-up created in Marseille in 2021 will launch an application aimed at the general public. Its founder Waël Dehmani, a Tunisian marketing consultant who was invited by Provence Promotion to cross the Mediterranean in 2019 to take part in Emerging Valley, will simultaneously deploy the app on the European and African continents.

In just a few more weeks, Marseille shoppers will discover Purpi, a brand new app offering unlimited discounts all year long at retail shops in city centers. Within three years, Tunisian Waël Dehmani, founder of Purpi in Marseille, plans to win over 175,000 subscribers in France who are dedicated deal hunters and power mobile users. The company would never have seen the light of day without an invitation…

"The Franco-Tunisian start-up studio Factory 319 and Provence Promotion invited me to be part of the Tunisian delegation at the 2019 edition of Emerging Valley. I had started to identify opportunities in the French market, but that was when I realized that Aix-Marseille was the best location, as a base camp for simultaneous expansion in Europe and Africa. I was convinced by the Cité de l'Innovation et des Savoirs Aix-Marseille (CISAM) and by Provence Promotion, which also helped me to set up here. There was a slight delay because of the health crisis, but in 2021 I joined the M accelerator to create Purpi. I also found synergies with researchers from Aix Marseille University," notes Waël Dehmani, who won the French Tech springboard program in the preparatory phase.

Fund-raising, followed by deployment to France and Africa from Marseille

On February 15, he met Franck Riester. Mr. Riester, Minister Delegate to the Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs, in charge of Foreign Trade and Attractiveness, toured the M accelerator, gave an overview of the French program to promote innovation and international development. Waël Dehmani was keenly interested in the creation of a €100 million fund for business founders in France, from the diaspora, who are investing in Africa.

"I am sensitive to the French government's vision of Africa and to the cultural and geographical proximity. My goal is to develop subsidiaries there while conquering the French and European markets," declares Waël Dehmani. In 2022, Purpi plants to complete its first fund-raising round and launch in Marseille, Nice, Toulouse, Lyon, Paris and Nantes. The company is growing at a fast pace. It plans to recruit five sales representatives and is looking for offices with the support of Provence Promotion.

In Africa, Waël Dehmani will forge ahead with support from his partner and friend, Isam Safi, founder of Bigdeal in Africa (the equivalent of the French Groupon), which operates in Tunisia, Côte d'Ivoire and Congo.