€10m · Other round · Fintech · Lyon, France
Lyon-based Wavo, which buys companies’ inventory to release cash while the goods remain on site, has raised €10m in an equity funding round led by Eurazeo, with Axeleo Capital and HUB612 participating. The company says the capital will expand its financing capacity in France, support hiring and technology investment, and prepare expansion into Northern Europe and potentially the UK.
Inventory becomes an underwriting object
A growing merchant or manufacturer often pays for products before collecting from customers, so stronger sales can increase the cash trapped in stock. Wavo’s model turns that timing gap into a transaction around the goods themselves. The fintech buys eligible inventory, the client keeps and sells it in the normal course of business, and then repurchases items from Wavo as they sell. There is no fixed loan repayment schedule; Dealroom reports that Wavo earns a commission through a buyback price typically 2% to 5% above its purchase price.
That structure shifts the underwriting question toward whether specific products are identifiable, saleable and moving at a predictable rate. Dealroom reports that Wavo connects with clients’ ERP systems and uses software to analyse stock rotation, product values and cash cycles. Wavo says its teams and technology can assess inventory and make financing available within 48 hours. The operational advantage is speed, but the commercial discipline is inventory selection: larger volumes only help if the underlying goods keep converting into sales.
Financing capacity is part of the product
Wavo says it has financed €35m of inventory associated with nearly €100m of customer sales across retail, manufacturing, mobility, energy and professional equipment. Its current transactions range from €200,000 to €2m per business, and the company intends to double that range. Fresh equity therefore has a direct product role: it gives Wavo room to support larger inventory positions while it builds the technology and risk controls needed to monitor them.
The company was founded in Lyon in 2024 and previously raised €3.5m in February 2025. Dealroom reports that Wavo now works with about 100 companies, has reached €1m in revenue and plans to grow from 16 employees to 50 while targeting roughly 500 clients by the end of 2027. Those are company-reported ambitions rather than achieved scale. The next test is whether underwriting quality and inventory monitoring can keep pace as ticket sizes, customer count and geography expand.
