L’Anticafé, Lyon

Anticafé is a coffee-coworking concept that originated in Russia and Ukraine and was brought to France by Léonid Goncharov, a Ukrainian student and ESCP graduate. The first Anticafé opened in April 2013 on rue Quincampoix in Paris, near the Pompidou Centre. The model is a hybrid between a traditional café and a coworking space: customers pay for the time they spend rather than for what they consume, with hot and cold drinks, snacks, wifi, sockets, services and meeting rooms included during their stay. The brand expanded between 2014 and 2019 to locations including Louvre, Olympiades, République, Station F, La Défense, Lyon, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, Aix-en-Provence and Rome, and raised a one-million-euro round in 2016 followed by €1.7M with Nexity in 2019. The network grew to as many as fourteen venues. COVID-19 hit the model hard between 2020 and 2024, leading several venues to close and the Paris network to shrink. The brand was taken over by ILY SARL, a Strasbourg-based company, and relaunched with a new site, booking platform, partner dashboards and mobile apps. As of the source, two Anticafés remain active: Bordeaux and Strasbourg.

Anticafé was born from a simple idea in 2013 in Paris. Léonid Goncharov, a Ukrainian student and ESCP graduate, brought to France a concept born in Russia and Ukraine: the anti-café, a place where you pay for the time you spend, not what you consume. The first Anticafé opened on rue Quincampoix, in Paris, near the Pompidou Centre, in April 2013. Between 2014 and 2019, the brand expanded to Louvre, Olympiades, République, Station F, La Défense, then Lyon, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, Aix-en-Provence, and even Rome. A one-million-euro round was raised in 2016, then €1.7M with Nexity in 2019. The network grew to as many as fourteen venues. From 2020 to 2024, COVID-19 hit hard a model whose value rests on physical presence; several venues closed, the Paris network shrank, and some franchisees stopped. At the end of the cycle, two Anticafés kept welcoming their public every day: Bordeaux and Strasbourg. In 2024–2026, the brand was taken over by ILY SARL, a Strasbourg-based company, with a mission to give Anticafé back its rightful place as France's coffee-coworking pioneer, a serious operator, and a brand open to new partners. New site, new booking platform, partner dashboards, and mobile apps were introduced. As of the source, two active venues remain: Bordeaux and Strasbourg.

A coffee-coworking space that is a hybrid between a traditional café and a coworking space, with no mandatory subscription and pay-as-you-go pricing.

• Coffee-coworking space access

  A hybrid between a traditional café and a coworking space where customers pay for time spent; hot and cold drinks, snacks, wifi, sockets, services and meeting rooms are included during the stay.

1. 1FAQ · Anticafé Coffee-Coworkinganticafe.eu
2. 2Our story — Anticafé since 2013 · From Paris to todayanticafe.eu