Interview with Nicolas Laurent, Epitech 2021 Alumni and former AER, now part of the Ramify adventure

Does Ramify ring a bell? It would not be surprising: this investment platform founded in 2020 by Olivier Herbout, ex-portfolio manager at Goldman Sachs, and Samy Ouardini, ex-strategy consultant at Oliver Wyman, recently announced a fundraising of no less than 3.5 million euros in order to establish itself on the online private banking market. An adventure in which Nicolas Laurent, Epitech 2021 alumni and former AER on the Marseille campus, is taking an active part.

About Nicolas:

Nicolas Laurent graduated with a Baccalauréat in economics and social science and completed his first 3 years of the Grande Ecole Programme at Epitech Technology at our campus in Marseille. During his third year, he was an AER ( teaching assistant), which allowed younger students to benefit from his knowledge and skills. Nicolas describes this as a very enriching experience. In addition to this, he followed the HEC digital transformation course to help companies with their digital transformation.

In his fourth year, Nicolas went to the United States to continue his education at Berkeley, University of California. This international experience has given him the opportunity to discover another culture and to meet new people.

” While studying abroad, I experienced the classic learning methodology such as assisting to lectures and that’s when I realised that Epitech pedagogy is way more efficient for me ! “

What is Ramify?

Ramify is an online private bank that stands out for its research in quantitative finance. Researchers will create portfolios and steer the evolution of investments. The platform is based on optimised quantitative research. This technology has been developed to be able to advise clients in the best/most accurate way.

Ramify is a very technology-oriented company with a team of around 20 people, many of whom are dedicated to quantitative research and platform and product development.

On Monday 14 November 2022, Ramify announced a fundraising of 3.5 million euros. Among the largest investors were AG2R la mondiale, Apicil, Crédit Agricole and Newfund, the institutional investors that have supported them the most.

How did Nicolas become part of Ramify?

Nicolas went to California with a friend from Epitech Marseille, Nils Cambreleng. They talked a lot about what they would do after Epitech. They really liked the start-up business and became self-employed freelancers.

Nils was the first employee of Ramify, he found the job offer on an online advertisement site. That’s how the adventure began for the young man, who was recruited to develop the application. The creators of Ramify wanted to “put together a great team” according to Nicolas. This is what attracted him to join the company, he found the project interesting and ambitious. For 8 months now, he has held the position of Growth Engineer. His main mission is to put technology and data at the service of acquisition, and to serve the clients with a high level of requirements.

Why to hire Epitech students?

Nicolas Laurent told us that Ramify’s strength lies in its excellent profiles and these brilliant people are the key to the success of this investment advisory firm.

“They [the founders] are looking for people who are both very strong in their field of expertise, but also versatile, autonomous and able to learn by themselves, since at Ramify, everyone does many things at once, and they find all these skills in Epitech students and/or Alumni.”

What do Epitech students and alumni bring to Ramify?

The people from Epitech developed the application, the investment platform which is also an online private bank. The founders of Ramify wanted to offer a product that was efficient, reliable, clear, optimised and capable of managing a very large number of clients and data. They also automated the processes and set them up internally.

Any particular profiles that you might recruit in the near future at Epitech?

“Back-end developers, front-end developers, full stack developers, people who are agile and able to multi-task.”