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Introducing Synfonium: Octave Klaba and Caisse des Dépôts join forces to build a European champion for cloud-based services
As part of this project, exclusive negotiations have started with Qwant shareholders for a sale of 100% of the company.
Paris, France - April 11th, 2023. Octave Klaba, chairman and controlling shareholder of SHADOW, and Caisse des Dépôts (Banque des Territoires), a cornerstone shareholder of Qwant, announced today a partnership to create Synfonium, a platform that aims to offer consumers and businesses a seamless access to best-in-class, trusted European cloud-based collaboration services, including remote computing, cloud storage, search engine, videoconferencing and much more.
Synfonium will initially include Shadow’s pioneering remote PC, Shadow PC, and its storage app, Shadow Drive, and Qwant’s innovative, privacy-conscious search engine, Qwant - subject to the finalization of the proposed acquisition of Qwant, for which exclusive negotiations are now underway as well as an analysis of recent changes in the financial conditions of its partnership with Microsoft.
In the future, Synfonium plans to add more services to the platform through a combination of in-house developments, acquisitions and partnerships with businesses that share its vision and values, leveraging the technical merits of the best European software solutions, and the innovation available from open-source communities.
Synfonium will be 75% led by Octave and Miroslaw Klaba, the co-founders of OVHcloud, while Caisse des Dépôts will retain a 25% stake.
Shadow is the definitive cloud platform for businesses, gamers, and creatives. It has been acquired by Octave and Miroslaw Klaba in 2021 through their Jezby and Deepcode funds, to help it grow beyond its original Shadow PC service, the first-ever high-end cloud PC. Qwant is the pioneering French-based tech company behind the European search engine that respects the privacy of its users.
“We believe that Europe has a lot of great, innovative software solutions, which would truly benefit from a platform designed for their distribution and optimized interaction. Synfonium is meant to serve as a host and accelerator for those technologies, commencing with those of SHADOW and Qwant” said Octave Klaba.
“Through this project, Caisse des Dépôts intends to continue its investment efforts in support of innovative initiatives for the development of European trusted digital solutions. After investing in Qwant to support the growth of a European search engine that respects privacy, we are partnering with a major tech player to contribute to the emergence of an open and secure European platform for the general public, offering various collaborative services and software in the cloud” said Antoine Troesch, Investment Director at Banque des Territoires – Caisse des Dépôts.
“Building a complete European-based and owned cloud collaborative platform requires the right partners, and with Synfonium we are building an exceptional group including Qwant and Caisse des Dépôts, in addition to our pre-existing strategic partnerships with companies like OVHcloud and Nextcloud,” declared Eric Sèle, CEO of SHADOW.
“We are delighted by the prospect of an integration within Synfonium, a new chapter in the history of Qwant - allowing us to expand the range of our services whilst remaining true to our values and promise of a safer, more respectful internet”, said Corinne Lejbowicz, President and Raphaël Auphan, CEO at Qwant.
About Caisse des Dépôts
Caisse des Dépôts and its subsidiaries form a public long-term investor group serving the general interest and economic development of local areas.
It combines five areas of expertise: social policy (pensions, professional training, disability, old age, health), asset management, monitoring subsidiaries and strategic shareholdings, business financing (with Bpifrance) and Banque des Territoires.
Press contact : Caisse des Dépôts Group – Press department : +33 1 58 50 40 00 ; http://www.caissedesdepots.fr/en
About Qwant
Developed in France and leader in Europe, Qwant is the search engine that respects the privacy of its users by not collecting any personal data.
Qwant develops its own web indexing technology, designed to provide unbiased, exhaustive and unprofiled search results. Qwant provides a search service with zero search tracking, zero advertising tracking and zero sale of personal data.
In addition to Qwant Search and Qwant Junior, a search engine dedicated to 6-12 years old, Qwant offers Qwant VIPrivacy, a browser extension that allows users to browse the web without being subject to ad tracking.
About SHADOW
At SHADOW, we strive to become the definitive cloud platform for businesses, gamers, and creatives, because we believe that cloud innovations have the potential to bring technological freedom to all. SHADOW delivers a state-of-the-art cloud-computing experience to consumers, via its original Shadow PC service, the first-ever high-end cloud PC, and to professionals via its Shadow Pro. It also reinforced recently its Android dedicated expertise via the acquisition of Genymobile, including leading products such as Genymotion. SHADOW now goes beyond by building a unique European cloud-based collaborative platform, with a first brick focused on storage, Shadow Drive. SHADOW has about 200 employees based in Europe and North America. Check our latest news on our blog. Check our job openings here.
