Quick Facts
Biography
Rafi Haladjian (Armenian: Րաֆֆի Հալաջյան) born in Beirut, Lebanon in 1961) is a French serial entrepreneur of Armenian origin. He is known as the co-creator of the wireless-connected rabbit Nabaztag, one of the pioneering smart objects of the Internet of Things. He is currently CEO of Sen.se.
Career
Rafi Haladjian starts his professional career by producing filmed interviews with Eugène Ionesco and Federico Fellini.
In 1986 he is recruited by the publishing company Publications Nouvelles to develop its emerging Minitel activities. He became the COO of the company in 1987 and created subsidiaries in Italy in 1989 and Spain in 1991. In 1992, Rafi Haladjian bought the company he was working for, and in 1999, he sold all his Minitel businesses to the Neocom Multimedia Group.
On 8 June 1994, Rafi Haladjian founded FranceNet, one of the first Internet companies in France. FranceNet offers dialup Internet Connection using the POTN as well as access through the French voice services network (Audiotel) allowing users to pay by the minute without signing for a subscription. He also created FranceWeb, an online directory of the French Web allowing all the new users of the network to find their way on the Internet.
In 1995, he diversified his offer, creating a second ISP, Micronet, specialized in low cost connection offers. Besides being an ISP, FranceNet offers web hosting and web development services. The company created its own eCommerce software (used by the largest mail order company in France, La Redoute), site traffic measurement systems (along with BVA), graphical chat systems and more.
In the 2000's, he created the Nabaztag, a Wi-Fi connected, rabbit-shaped device that reads emails, news, and other digital information aloud. In 2014, as the CEO and founder of the company Sen.se, he launched Mother, a new connected device that works as a hub for home sensors.