Sepia Tips

What Sepia Tips does

SEPIA Conseils is a Paris-headquartered engineering consulting firm founded in 1991 by Yves Kovacs, providing specialized advisory services in water management and territorial planning. The firm serves public project owners (municipalities, metropolitan authorities, water agencies, port authorities) and private developers across France and internationally, with a client roster that includes Grand Paris, Tours Métropole, AESN, HAROPA Ports, VNF, Saint-Gobain, and Sanofi. Its work centers on climate adaptation, delivering technical diagnostics, action programs, governance strategies, and decision-support deliverables.

The company's offering is organized into four interconnected service lines: integrated stormwater management at parcel and urban scales, flood risk adaptation (coastal, urban, and rural runoff), water resource preservation (including micropollutant diagnostics and water quality modeling), and governance support covering GEMAPI, levee systems, and usage reconciliation. Underlying technical capabilities include 2D runoff characterization and modeling, GIS cartographic analysis with complex database manipulation, stakeholder consultation, and pedagogical restitution of expertise. The firm emphasizes proximity to project owners across the engagement lifecycle and tailors solutions to client context.

Commercially, SEPIA Conseils operates as a professional services firm with project-based, quote-driven engagements and no disclosed pricing. In October 2024, ownership transitioned through a management buyout to 16 senior employees representing half the workforce, who adopted a holacracy-based governance model to preserve the firm's independence and values. The company is privately held with no parent company, no external institutional investors, and no disclosed funding activity.

Name

Sepia Tips

Legal name

SEPIA Conseils

Website

https://sepia-uw.fr

Company type

Private

Founded year

1991

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

SEPIA Conseils is a Paris-based engineering consultancy, founded in 1991 and now employee-owned, providing water management and territorial planning advisory services to French public authorities and private developers across stormwater, flood risk, water quality, and water governance.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Environmental Engineering Consulting

NAICS

Engineering Services (541330)

SIC

Water Supply (4941)

akta.pro primary industry

EMS Design, Documentation & Implementation (EUAHAIAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

NEPA/EA/EIS & Public Consultation (EUAHAAAB), Incident Command System (ICS) & Emergency Management Training/Exercises (Tabletop/Drills) (EUAHALAE)

Keywords

• Water management consulting
• Stormwater management
• Flood risk assessment
• Environmental engineering
• Territorial planning

Headquarters

HQ city

Paris

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Engineering Consulting Services: Professional consulting services for public project owners and private developers in water management and territorial planning. Services include technical diagnostics, action programs, governance strategy proposals, and decision support.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels1 record

Core offering

SEPIA Conseils is an engineering consulting firm that delivers specialized advisory services for water management and territorial planning. It provides detailed technical diagnostics, action programs, and governance strategies for integrated stormwater management, flood risk adaptation, water quality preservation, and public stakeholder governance, serving public project owners and private developers in France and internationally.

Product overview

SEPIA Conseils is a consulting engineering firm offering specialized advisory services rather than a unified software product. The company provides four interconnected consulting service lines focused on water management and environmental adaptation: integrated stormwater management, flood risk adaptation, resource preservation (including water quality diagnostics), and governance support. These services are delivered through close client collaboration, combining technical expertise with stakeholder engagement and decision-support capabilities, serving public authorities and private developers in France and internationally.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Integrated Stormwater Management (Gestion intégrée des eaux pluviales)
• Flood Risk Adaptation (Adaptation au risque inondation)
• Resource Preservation (Préservation de la ressource)

Named customers12 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Arcadis: Arcadis is a global design and consultancy with significant water and environment practices in France and Europe — a broader incumbent that competes with SEPIA on integrated water management and territorial planning engagements.
• Veolia Environmental Services: Veolia is a global environmental services giant whose water and municipal-services divisions engage in water management consulting adjacent to SEPIA's offerings — much larger and broader but competes for the same French public-sector water advisory mandates.
• Suez Consulting: Suez provides consulting and operations services across the water value chain, including stormwater, flood risk, and resource management for French public authorities — a much larger incumbent competing directly with SEPIA's portfolio.

Direct peers

• Egis: Egis is a major French engineering group with dedicated water, environment, and urban planning offerings for public authorities — overlaps directly with SEPIA's stormwater, flood risk, and governance services across the same French public-sector market.
• Safege (Suez): Safege is the engineering consulting subsidiary of Suez focused on water, environment, and infrastructure — directly comparable to SEPIA's water-management and territorial-planning offerings, with the backing of a major water-services parent.
• Artelia: Artelia is a French-headquartered engineering consultancy with strong water, environment, and territorial planning practices serving French public-sector clients — directly comparable to SEPIA in service mix and target customers, though significantly larger.
• setec group: setec is a French multidisciplinary engineering group with water, environment, and territorial planning expertise serving French public-sector clients — comparable to SEPIA in service profile and customer base, though broader in scope.
• Burgeap: Burgeap is a French environmental and water engineering consultancy specializing in polluted sites, water resources, and environmental diagnostics for public and private clients — a tight competitor to SEPIA in the French environmental consulting segment.
• Antea Group: Antea Group is an international environmental and infrastructure engineering consultancy with strong French operations covering water management, flood risk, and environmental diagnostics — directly comparable in domain and customer mix.
• Tractebel (ENGIE): Tractebel is the engineering consultancy of ENGIE with deep water infrastructure expertise (hydraulic modeling, flood risk, water resource planning) — a direct competitor to SEPIA on major French and European water management mandates.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/sepia-conseils

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Sepia Tips