With 35 million euros in revenue and 30% growth, Comet remained profitable in 2023 and is appointing a new leadership team to reach its next milestone.
In 2023, Comet continued its drive for innovation and international growth, with convincing results. Profitable once again over the year, as in 2022, the company posted revenue of 35 million euros and growth of 30% compared with 2022. In a particularly turbulent market, Comet has brought together the expertise it has acquired to offer the comprehensive proposition companies were waiting for in the fields of offices and hybrid working. It is therefore appointing a new leadership team, tasked with reaching a new growth milestone driven by three objectives: consolidating Comet's position in France and across Europe, strengthening its three existing offers and accelerating the roll-out of its corporate events business.
Comet's operational teams at the Comet Arboretum site, opened in November 2023.
The seventh floor of Comet Retiro in Madrid, already undergoing extension work a year after its opening in 2022.
2023, a year of innovation and international growth for Comet
2023 was an extremely busy year for Comet in terms of both projects and achievements. Drawing on its expertise in hybrid working and new forms of office organisation, the company launched a new offer, Comet Workplaces, while strengthening its position on its Comet Hospitality offer, with the opening of the spaces it operates in the Alto Tower and the arrival of the first tenants of the Landscape Tower. On its original offer, Comet Meetings, it has just announced the opening of Comet Arboretum, its 13th venue, a sign of its growing strength in large-scale events.
This new three-part offer allows Comet to provide companies, asset holders and landlords alike with a solution that is both comprehensive and fully flexible, matched to the major shifts in how office space is used:
- Comet Meetings: high-quality serviced meeting and event spaces, rented by the day or half-day, in Europe's capital cities
- Comet Workplaces: managed, design-led offices offering total flexibility and drawing on all of Comet's expertise, freeing companies from the rigidity of traditional long-term leases
- Comet Hospitality: spaces designed and operated for asset holders, in line with organisations' needs and new hybrid ways of working
Comet has thus shaped a three-dimensional model that is both complete and adaptable, for companies that have now built hybrid working into their organisation and their property strategy, and that are calling for flexibility in offices as well as in meeting and event venues.
The market response is positive for Comet in France, and equally so in its other countries. The company is consolidating its position in Brussels and has just launched the extension of Comet Retiro in Madrid, to meet growing local demand, only one year after arriving in the country.
In Spain, Comet reports 120% revenue growth since the opening of its Madrid venue in September 2022. Comet Retiro has established itself as a hub for meetings and events, welcoming the teams and stakeholders of more than 300 companies, including RENFE. In April 2024 the venue will gain two floors of 350 sq m each, available for private hire and able to host receptions, conferences, team-building sessions and other highlights for up to 300 people.
For Victor Carreau: "Comet's expansion in Madrid underlines our strong commitment to a hybrid approach, which allows not only remote work but also collective highlights. We are convinced that it is vital for companies to invest in moments of cohesion to secure human connection and a sense of belonging, both key to retaining talent. We are excited to share our convictions and our expertise with Madrid-based companies."
He adds: "After the shocks the market suffered post-pandemic, companies and asset holders are looking for efficient solutions for offices, meeting venues and events. The answer we now provide addresses all their financial and practical challenges in a high-quality, modular and comprehensive way. Not only do we offer venues perfectly designed for socialising and cooperating when teams come together, but we also bring flexibility to the market and add value back to traditional office assets. This new model brings together everything we have learned and is surely the future of office real estate in a context of widespread hybrid working."
A new team: step-ups and fresh talent
Comet intends to maintain its growth rate in 2024 in France, Belgium and Spain on a shared experiential foundation, while taking into account the specific features of each of these markets. The company has therefore opted for country-based vertical operational management, supported by a cross-functional French team working to sustain the offer and the quality of customer experience that define Comet. This new structure also involves the founding partners: Maxime Albertus, co-founder and until now Chief Operations Officer, becomes General Manager Big Events. Nicolas Findling, Chief Resource Officer and also a co-founder, becomes General Manager for Spain. Victor Carreau remains CEO.
Julie Gamundi: from HR Director to General Manager Meetings France
A graduate of IAE Grenoble, Julie Gamundi is a human resources professional who has always held HR director roles in hypergrowth environments. She joined Comet in 2020, after leading HR at Artdesk and then Ornikar. She will now oversee the general management of the original Meetings business in France, as well as the management of the site teams for Comet's two most recent offers, Comet Hospitality and Comet Workplaces. Julie sees this new role as a fresh human adventure: "Comet is a company where people are the foundation of everything. My HR experience will be invaluable for our three offers, Comet Workplaces, Comet Hospitality and Comet Meetings. The latter is run day to day by the largest team in the company and therefore naturally concentrates a great many management issues."
Frédéric Walter: Chief Financial Officer and HR Director
Frédéric Walter joined Comet in November 2023. This finance and investment specialist brings a solid knowledge of hypergrowth companies in shifting markets. A graduate of Télécom and Sciences Po Paris, he began his career in consulting, then in corporate finance at Virgin Mobile, before joining Notus Technologie, the holding company of Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, where he led investment operations as managing director. Keen to experience start-up life from the inside, he then joined Moni as CFO, a role in which he secured payment institution approval from the French regulator ACPR. He also lectured for four years at Sciences Po Paris. As CFO and HR Director at Comet, he will oversee both the finance function and human resources. He sees his role as a new way of approaching the finance profession: "Comet wants to accelerate its growth with strong ambitions, resting as much on financial discipline as on a committed, fulfilled team and high-calibre talent. It is a fascinating mission and I am delighted to be part of it."
Matthieu Nicoletti: Chief Development Officer and General Manager Belgium
A graduate of ESTP and HEC, Matthieu Nicoletti spent ten years at Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, first in the development department, then as head of innovation and of the start-up acceleration and corporate venture business, and finally as deputy operations director and member of the French executive committee, in charge of business development and of managing a 5 billion euro portfolio of commercial property assets. He joined Comet in early 2020 as Chief Development Officer. In that role he negotiated and managed Comet's property development in France and abroad, as well as the launch of the two new offers Comet Hospitality and Comet Workplaces, whose roll-out he continues to lead. By adding the general management of Belgium to his remit, he puts his expertise at the service of a market that is still growing. "Our three offers provide a unique answer to the upheaval in usage that is shaking the property industry. Steering their development and working on their implementation hand in hand with our partners and property owners is a fascinating challenge. As for my new responsibilities in Belgium, the ambition is to respond to the specific features of this market in terms of hybrid working and events, in order to accelerate our growth curve there. It is an exciting challenge, as Brussels is unusual in bringing together companies with very different needs, international groups and European institutions."
Romina Maillochaud: from Head of Design & Build to Chief Experience Officer
An HEC graduate in 2015, Romina Maillochaud began her career as a strategy and organisation consultant at Mad Network, specialising in customer experience for brands mainly from the luxury and retail sectors. Hired in 2018, two years after Comet was launched, she is among the company's longest-serving employees and has taken part in every stage of building a first-rate experience in unique venues. In her new role as Chief Experience Officer, she takes on a strategic, cross-functional remit: designing and guaranteeing a high-quality overall experience, aligned with Comet's commitment to excellence and creativity and adapted to the specific features of each market. "For this new challenge, I am like a highly demanding Comet client. The role lets me put all the experience I have gained through the company's European expansion at the service of our offer. My goal is to guarantee a demanding and consistent level of expertise and service quality in every one of our venues," she explains.
Charles Buseyne: from Head of Product to Chief Digital Officer
Charles Buseyne joined Comet in 2022 as Head of Product, before taking charge of the entire Digital & Data division. A graduate of Sciences Po Paris and HEC, he is an expert in both digital and pricing optimisation (revenue management), fields he covered notably at Air France-KLM and Expedia. As Comet grows to 13 venues across Europe, Charles and his teams will be responsible for offering clients ever smoother and more personalised journeys, thanks to data and new technologies.
