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Maxime Dupuy (SKEMA 2023): “Blumana helps brands understand what their consumers are really saying”
A graduate of SKEMA Business School’s Master in Management (PGE), Maxime Dupuy co-founded Blumana with Alain Nguyen and Paul Leveau. Launched in November 2023, the start-up uses artificial intelligence to analyse online consumer conversations and help brands gain a sharper understanding of their markets. Already working with major names such as L’Oréal, Air France and BUT, the company has secured more than €600,000 from SIDE Angels, Inovexus, Paris Business Angels and Campus Fund. An investment round is also open via SoWeFund.
You launched Blumana in November 2023. What is the idea behind the start-up?
Blumana helps brands gain a better understanding of their market through what their consumers are saying. We analyse online conversations, customer reviews, social media, surveys and content published on platforms such as TikTok and Instagram. The aim is to turn this mass of information into useful insights for marketing, customer experience and product teams. Using artificial intelligence, we aggregate this data, analyse it and produce concrete recommendations that brands can act on.
In practical terms, how does your solution work?
Blumana is a platform that brands can connect to. They have access to dashboards, as well as AI agents able to retrieve information from different sources and run analyses. Depending on the subject, some analyses take only a few minutes. Others, broader in scope, may take 45 minutes or an hour. At the end of the process, teams receive a clear report, with summaries and recommendations. The aim is not only to produce data, but to make that data actionable and visible for brands.
You already work with major brands. What are the main use cases?
We work with consumer brands such as L’Oréal, Air France and BUT. They want to understand what consumers are saying about their products, their habits, their expectations and their pain points. For example, a brand may want to position itself in the outdoor market, around hiking or running. We can analyse conversations linked to these practices, identify community expectations, spot the communication formats that work and help the brand build more effective marketing actions.
Can Blumana also help brands identify influencers?
Yes, that is one of the use cases. By analysing a community, we can identify influencers who are relevant for a brand. Some have fewer than 100,000 followers, while others have larger audiences, but the real issue is understanding their relevance to a given target audience. We also analyse product placements that have worked, messages that have been well received and the information that should be included in a brief. This helps brands avoid choosing an influencer based on audience size alone.
How is the team structured today?
There are six of us today, soon to be seven from September. The team includes four developers, as well as the three co-founders: Alain Nguyen, Paul Leveau and myself. We devoted the first phase to building the product and the technology. We are now entering a phase of commercial acceleration.
Your background at SKEMA was already connected to opinion analysis. Is Blumana part of that same trajectory?
Yes, clearly. During my time at SKEMA, we launched a project around young people’s opinions, helping them position themselves on public figures and current affairs. With Blumana, we have moved into consumer opinion: what people express, feel and expect. The common thread remains the same: understanding what people say, what they think, and helping organisations turn that into something useful. I had not imagined it that way at the start, but with hindsight, there is a real continuity.
Blumana has launched a funding round. Where do things stand today?
We have already secured more than €600,000 from several players in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, including SIDE Angels, Inovexus, Paris Business Angels and Campus Fund. This funding round will allow us to support our commercial development, strengthen our technology and continue to structure the team. We have also opened an investment envelope via SoWeFund, allowing individuals to invest in Blumana, with an entry ticket set at €1,000. The idea is to open the venture to a wider audience than business angels, who are used to investing larger amounts.
What is the next step for Blumana?
The priority is to continue our commercial acceleration, after a first phase focused on the product. We want to keep convincing brands, enrich the platform and strengthen our ability to turn consumer conversations into useful recommendations. Companies already have large amounts of data. The real challenge now is to give it meaning, make it readable and enable teams to make better decisions.
