Tony Parker and Marc Simoncini invest in Urgentime, video calls triggered by text message

A recent star of M6’s « Qui veut être mon associé? », (equivalent to “The Dragon’s Den”) where it raised €750,000 from Tony Parker and Marc Simoncini, the small start-up Urgentime is well on the way to further developing its app-free video call concept, which is useful for both emergency services and corporate customer services.

The Urgentime concept is further proof that big changes can come from small things. The company offers emergency services a solution that triggers a video call via a simple link sent by text message to victims. For a long time, legal and technical barriers prevented the video link between victims and emergency services: data protection, but also the need to install an application. Despite the ubiquity of smartphones equipped with cameras, call services remained confined to voice links alone.

It was from a motorbike accident that almost paralysed Anthony Tabuyo that the idea emerged. He subsequently founded Urgentime in 2017 with Jovien Chappex. Urgentime then made a name for itself by word of mouth, without any outside funding, until it reached €270,000 in sales in 2023. Intuitively appealing, the video-calling concept won over professionals: it is used by a quarter of SAMUs in France, a third of emergency services in Switzerland and a third of 911 services in the United States. This expansion is gradually making it possible to measure the effectiveness of the Urgentime solution: Robert Larribau, a Swiss doctor, notes that its use has made it possible to detect 7% more serious cases than traditional calls.

The solution has not remained confined to the health services, with companies such as Leroy Merlin and Orange also using it. In fact, Urgentime’s sales are largely generated by businesses: « To date, 20% of our turnover comes from health services, 40% from corporate customer services and 40% for remote estimates ». Leroy Merlin has also announced an impressive statistic: 80% of video calls (on a panel of 160 calls in 3 months) avoided the need for one of their employees to visit the customer in person.

Now funded and in the spotlight, the founders want to continue their expansion, equip all the world’s EMS and become a « unicorn ».