Antoine Durieux is joining Hexa as Partner. He will launch several companies inside Hexa Start, focused on Critical Industries.
An early passion for technology
Growing up around engineering, Antoine always had a knack for technology. He flew remote-controlled aircraft before he could drive, and went on to study at École Polytechnique. He then did a master's at Stanford in smart product design, half robotics and half artificial intelligence, years before it became one of the trendiest degree on campus.
His entrepreneurial journey
Antoine co-founded Alkemics in 2012, a SaaS platform that let retailers collect and manage supplier product data. Servicing most of the French and UK grocery market, the company grew from zero to 180 employees and raised over $50M from Index, Partech, Cathay, Serena, and Highland Europe.
In 2021 Alkemics joined forces with Salsify, creating the global leader in Product Information Management, which quickly breached $100M in ARR. Antoine rode the scaling phase until 2023, when he welcomed his second child. The company has recently exited in a rumored $1B transaction.
He spent the next two years advising SaaS companies on building their enterprise motion, refocusing on industry and energy : he advises Sirona, Hiboo, and Elax, and explored ventures in nuclear, marine shipping and sovereign cloud. When the AI wave hit in 2025, he wanted to be building in it rather than advising around it. Hence Hexa.
What he's building now
- Integrity, an on-premise AI coding assistant for mission-critical codebases that can't leave a company's own infrastructure.
- EnCore, a marketplace for second-hand GPUs and data center equipment, enabling companies to run AI in their own cloud.
Who he's looking for
Alkemics taught me two things: think long term, and obsess over understanding value. That experience shaped how I evaluate ideas: I build around trends that are going to happen based on first principles, and I iterate quickly to maximize value for customers.
Antoine is looking to partner with founders who move fast AND build for the long term: fast prototyping and constant iteration, paired with a real hunger to build something big and durable.
If you’re one of those founders who radiate energy that pulls in customers and future employees before the product is even finished, and who develop a strong point of view and want to embody it publicly, personally, out loud, reach out to him.