Accelerating the Future of AI for SMBs…

Why Origins Believes Phacet’s AI Apps Platform is the Next Big Leap in AI for Businesses

By Salomon Aiach and Hugo Mendes

Artificial intelligence (AI) is driving a major transformation in business. As AI technologies mature, they are poised to revolutionize how businesses operate, particularly by deploying AI applications and agents that automate and enhance various aspects of organizational workflows.

OpenAI estimates that around 19% of jobs have at least 50% of their tasks exposed to automation through AI models, software, agents, or LLMs. Similarly, MIT reports that the integration of AI and LLMs leads to a 37% increase in worker productivity and a 40% improvement in the quality of output — highlighting the profound impact AI agents can have on business efficiency and productivity.

However, while large corporations rapidly adopt AI, SMBs and mid-market companies often find themselves at a crossroads. They recognize the potential of AI, but face significant barriers in its implementation due to resource constraints and the complexity of integrating AI solutions into existing systems.Having analyzed AI solutions over the last year within the Origins team, we recognize this gap as both a significant challenge and a compelling investment opportunity.

This is why we’ve decided to support Phacet!

A Paris-based startup poised to democratize AI for SMBs through its custom AI applications platform. Having recently raised €4 million in seed funding with leading French funds, Phacet is uniquely positioned to bridge the gap between advanced AI capabilities and the practical needs of businesses lacking extensive technical resources. Phacet aims to unlock the full potential of AI by offering tailored solutions designed to maximize operational efficiency, automate repetitive tasks, and deliver strong ROI.

AI Adoption in Business is Complex and Uneven

Despite growing interest, AI adoption remains challenging and uneven across businesses. Organizations grapple with identifying appropriate use cases, customizing AI solutions to meet specific needs, and managing the organizational changes required for effective integration. Though AI adoption has accelerated, with over 42% of enterprise-scale companies now deploying AI (IBM), 90% of companies struggle to scale these solutions, and about half of AI projects fail (IBM). Today, most companies are taking a “Crawl, Walk, Run” approach to AI adoption.

As they start with Predictive Models for structured, deterministic tasks, they will transition to Generative AI for dynamic content generation and decision-making, eventually progressing to Agentic Automation, where AI agents will autonomously manage complex workflows with minimum human oversight (Insight).

The difficulties are even more pronounced for SMBs. These businesses, which represent two-thirds of employment in advanced economies and nearly four-fifths in emerging markets, are crucial to economic growth, yet AI adoption lags behind larger enterprises. According to McKinsey, adoption rates for SMBs are only half as high as for large companies. Closing this gap could significantly boost productivity, potentially adding 5% to GDP in advanced economies and 10% in emerging markets.

Outlook at The Current AI Player Landscape

The widespread adoption of LLMs and the research around advanced AI solutions (Co-pilots, Agentic Automation, General Purpose AI…) have opened new opportunities for automating workflows and boosting productivity. These LLMs have expanded AI capabilities, pushing the boundaries of automation by enabling the creation of more dynamic and intelligent AI assistants. As AI architectures continue to evolve, it’s clear that AI Assistants will work with or for us, across all levels — employees, knowledge workers, departments, and entire companies — either as co-pilots embedded within incumbent platforms, or as standalone applications integrated with AI agents (Insight).

Driven by this trend, the AI Automation landscape for businesses has undergone a significant transformation, marked by a shift from broad, horizontal models to more specialized, vertical solutions tailored to specific industries. Large horizontal platforms initially dominated the market due to their scalability and flexibility, offering general-purpose tools that served various tasks and sectors.

However, the demand for higher performance and competitive differentiation has led to a shift toward vertical-specific applications that address isolated use cases and target specific sectors and workflows, such as supply chain management, IT operations, developer tools or customer facing chatbots. While these vertical solutions deliver specialized capabilities, they often lack the adaptability that SMBs need, causing confusion around tool selection and integration.

In response, there has been a rapid shift among AI companies from focusing on building standalone models — whether horizontal or vertical — to concentrating on the application layer. Many startups are now delivering integrated, user-friendly platforms with embedded AI models, moving beyond raw, complex AI technologies to offer complete, ready-to-use products that automate workflows and seamlessly fit into daily business operations. This shift reflects the growing recognition that businesses, especially SMBs, need practical, easy-to-implement solutions tailored to their unique workflows rather than just cutting-edge models.

Companies like Phacet are bridging this gap by offering a hybrid, hyper-personalized AI Apps platform that combines the performance of vertical solutions with the flexibility of horizontal platforms.

Refer to Insight’s mapping of AI Automation for a more detailed look at the diversity of the AI landscape.

The Need for Customizable AI Solutions

Businesses are turning to AI to reduce costs, enhance productivity, and unlock new revenue opportunities. However, finding versatile AI tools — that perform at the individual and organizational level across various taks (Forbes Advisor) — remains challenging, with issues surrounding data quality, availability, security, pricing, implementation and adoption. For SMBs, these challenges are compounded by a lack of resources to develop proprietary AI solutions, often leaving them with generic co-pilot options that may not be relevant or adaptable enough.

This gap creates a significant opportunity for AI platforms that offer enterprise-level capabilities in a more accessible, customizable package. Effective solutions for SMBs need to:

• Integrate Seamlessly: Work within existing systems without requiring a complete overhaul.
• Human-in-the-loop: Ensure a certain level of Human oversight to integrate AI solutions more seamlessly while ensuring reliable automation
• Scale with Business Growth: Allow for the addition of new functionalities as needs evolve.
• Customize Deeply: Tailor workflows to specific business processes.
• Ensure Compliance and Security: Meet industry standards for data protection.

This is how Phacet aims to accelerate the future of AI automation within SMBs and Mid Market Companies.

Introducing Phacet’s AI Apps Platform: A Game-Changer for Businesses

Having raised a €4 million seed round, Phacet aims to make AI accessible, flexible, and transformative for SMEs and mid-market companies. Founded by experienced professionals in AI and B2B platforms — Christophe Lanternier (CTO), William Pambrun (CPO), and Nicolas Marchais (CEO) — Phacet aims to bridge the gap between rapidly evolving AI models and the concrete needs of businesses.

Phacet’s platform offers customized AI applications tailored to specific business workflows, focusing on maximizing ROI. Unlike one-size-fits-all solutions, Phacet’s approach is structured yet flexible, designed to deliver quick tangible results. Here is the process:

• Precise Diagnostic: Identify areas where AI can generate the most value, prioritizing based on business objectives and potential ROI.
• Collaborative Development: Co-building applications with clients to ensure solutions are aligned with specific workflows.
• Seamless Integration and Adoption: Deploying AI tools that fit existing systems on a centralized platform and training teams to use them effectively.
• Continuous Improvement: By involving users in the validation and feedback process, Phacet ensures that the AI applications remain relevant, delivering value over time.

This comprehensive approach sets Phacet apart, supporting businesses throughout the AI journey from diagnosis to full-scale deployment. By emphasizing the synergy between humans and AI, Phacet’s solutions automate routine tasks, allowing employees to focus on higher-value activities. This not only speeds up AI adoption but also facilitates organizational change by involving teams in the development process.

The platform has already shown impressive results with clients like Smartbox Group, where the deployment of custom AI applications across finance, catalog management, and customer service saved hundreds of work hours.

Our Investment in Phacet: Strategic Alignment with Origins

At Origins, our investment philosophy centers around supporting innovative companies that have the potential to redefine their industries by creating meaningful, positive impacts on the daily lives of people. Our decision to invest in Phacet’s 4M€ round — alongside established funds like Kima Ventures, Motier Ventures, Aglaé Ventures, Financière Saint-James, Emblem, and over 148 tech entrepreneurs — is driven by several key factors:

• Empowering Individuals: Phacet’s solutions place employees at the heart of automation, enabling them to focus on tasks that matter and making their work more efficient, rewarding, and fulfilling.
• Market Alignment: Phacet addresses a crucial gap by making AI accessible to SMBs, empowering them to compete in an AI-driven economy at a time where SMBs and Mid market companies are increasingly looking to embrace AI solutions in their day-to-day operations as show by Ramp’s report

• Proven Execution Capability: The founders’ track records in scaling tech companies and developing advanced AI systems reinforce our confidence in their ability to execute their vision
• Strategic Growth Potential: With plans to expand across sectors like e-commerce, retail, and finance by 2025, Phacet is well-positioned for rapid growth.

We are excited to work alongside Phacet, not just as investors but as strategic partners. We are committed to leveraging our network of influential celebrity LPs to boost Phacet’s visibility and influence, helping them accelerate their growth.