Was ThirtyOne’s success just a mirage? After the legal liquidation of the Toulouse media company pronounced in October 2021, a few months after a crowdfunding operation, some investors fear not to recover their money and wonder about the manager.

“I I’m sorry, but I don’t have permission to speak publicly.” Christopher Baeza, we ask our contact that he will pass on to his lawyer (who has not called us back at the time of publication of this article). She is already long gone are the days when the founder of the start-up ThirtyOne did not refuse any solicitation, benefiting from extensive media coverage both locally and nationally: “La Quotidienne” on France 5, 19/45 of M6, the newspaper of France 3, Europe 1, France Inter, Express and Le Point.

The story was beautiful: that of a former insurer who founded his company in 2013 betting on the success of the electric bike. After winning the electric Vélib market in Vannes, the Toulouse start-up had made a name for itself among the big names. She participates in Better From France to New York, which brings together the crème de la crème of do in France. Is qualified as “Haute Couture” of the French electric bicycle by the American magazine”Brain“.

During 2021, Christophe Baeza talk about him again thanks to a new initiative. A Following a refusal of a bank loan, the entrepreneur decides to carry out a crowdfunding campaign. “This is madness”, explains in April 2021 to France 3 Occitanie, the founder of the company. there is a real enthusiasm. In two months, after raising 200,000 euros in funds while the sums did not exceed 100,000 euros per year, we have never seen that!”.

The project is simple. Christophe Baeza offers his clients the opportunity to become a banker through a crowdfunding campaign. The company’s customers become the company’s bankers. An investment in tune with the times, with an ecological and civic dimension, with an attractive interest rate of 8%.

“Seduced“by the project”,reassured“through media coverage, Thomas* (assumed name) decides to invest at the beginning of June 2021, 3,000 euros that relatives have attributed to him. “I trusted” he admits. The first reimbursement that the company was to pay him was to be made in August.

But on June 25, 2021, ThirthyOne is placed in receivership. The commercial court of Toulouse finally pronounces its judicial liquidation on October 12, 2021.

This is the bamboo blow for Thomas who understands that he will probably never see his money again: “I I therefore wonder about the management of this money which was lost in less than 3 months. I wonder if I am the only isolated case, having invested at the beginning of June, I lost all of my investment, without being warned.“

Dominique* (assumed name) also put money into this business. She had decided to invest 1000 euros the first year, after discovering this start-up in a regional innovation competition. “It went very well and I received my transfers from ThirtyOne without any problem.“To the point that she decides to put 2,000 euros out of her own pocket the following year.”I learned that the company had been placed in compulsory liquidation. I don’t have any major concerns. The case is being processed.“But Dominique wonders:”Why did ThirtyOne melt away when it was doing so well?”

And yet, as reported Toulouse News, who was able to consult the liquidation judgment rendered by the administrative court, “ThirtyOne had liabilities of around one million euros through this financing transaction which it had, in fact, initiated in 2019. (…) ThirtyOne had succeeded in raising 100,000 euros in 2019, 140,000 euros in 2020, 600,000 euros during the first half of 2021 and 120,000 euros since the placement in receivership on June 17, 2021.“

Also according to the news site, “la company, although alerted to the irregular and criminally reprehensible nature of this financing operation, continued its fundraising in full knowledge of the facts. It seems obvious that the so-called borrowing operations present a real risk of being characterized as an infringement of the banking monopoly“.

These financial difficulties were not new to the company.

Then based in Villeneuve-de-Rivière, Thirty one, at the end of the 2016 financial year, experienced a loss of 71,058 euros. Two years later, Christophe Baeza meet ban from running a business ! The presidency of the company will be named six months later to a relative residing in Gironde.

Since the entrepreneur launched fund requests to its customers, presenting its prestigious customers, such as Toulouse Métropole, the Occitanie region, the Haute-Garonne department or Airbus, as well as the support received during a competition organized by the newspaper La Tribune.

Despite the liquidation, the website of Thirty one is still active. Christophe Baeza does business consulting. His latest workshop is titled:“Writing an elaborate business plan is more than just a presentation of your strategy. Find some tips to make it a tool of persuasion.“