Henri-François Martin – Keynote Speaker

A born entrepreneur, Henri-François Martin created and managed his own company for three years: an online booking platform for amateur sports activities.

Throughout this entrepreneurship, he was able to experience the French entrepreneurial ecosystem (investment funds, incubators, start-ups, etc.).

Within the online sales giant Vente-privee, Henri-François Martin created the Innovation Division in 2018. And today he manages the Division with pragmatism. Working on how to adapt technology to business and individuals is what Henri-François is passionate about.

Graduating from NEOMA Business School in Finance in 2011, Henri-François worked in audit at Ernst & Young for two years. He then created his own company in 2012, a marketplace in the field of sports, and sold it three years later to a French competitor. During this time, the start-up of fifteen people benefited from the full support of the French entrepreneurial ecosystem (the HEC incubator, the “Entreprendre Paris” network, the “Scientipôle” network …).

Henri-François Martin joined Vente-privee in 2015 as Project Manager. In 2016, he was entrusted with the mission of creating the group’s start-up accelerator.

The objective of this open innovation approach was to increase the agility and productivity of the online sales giant’s businesses, always with the aim of improving and reinventing the purchasing experience of Vente-privee members.

As Henri-François Martin experimented with these innovation support structures as an entrepreneur, it allowed him to see their potential and quickly analyse the areas for improvement.

This knowledge associated with his experience at Vente-privee allowed Henri-François Martin to build the Innovation Division as an effective and pragmatic intermediary.

Henri-François Martin and his team accompanied 17 companies in just two and a half years.
Nearly half of them resulted in commercial partnerships, two acquisitions and more than €11 million in value creation for the recently renamed Veepee Group.

This is the proof that innovation can create a lot of value when meeting a need and remaining pragmatic.