Last month, in February 2026, Weink was featured in Forbes France.
Our founder started writing stories as a teenager, sneaking in chapters after school simply for the love of storytelling. At the time, the idea that one day she would help build a platform aiming to rethink how writers earn from their work felt very far away.
Over the past few years, Weink has grown from an idea into a real platform connecting readers and writers around the world. Seeing the project reach this stage, and now being recognised in Forbes, feels incredibly special for our entire team.
We are deeply grateful to every author who took a leap and decided to publish their stories with us, every reader who gave those stories a chance, and everyone who believes that creative work deserves a fair system.
Weink was built with a simple idea in mind: stories should be accessible, and the people who create them should be valued.
And this is only the beginning. We are very excited for what 2026 will bring!
You can read the original article here : https://www.forbes.fr/brandvoice/anais-garnier-et-weink-reinventent-la-monetisation-des-ecrivains/
Because the original Forbes article was published in French. The following is an English translation for our international readers.
Anaïs Garnier and Weink Are Reinventing How Writers Earn
At just 27 years old, Anaïs Garnier is not only an author and entrepreneur; she is also the founder of Weink, an application aiming to transform the self-publishing landscape by combining visibility, monetisation, and advanced technology. Her unusual journey, spanning Shanghai, hospitality management, and writing, shaped her vision of a market where independent authors too often remain invisible and underpaid.
Anaïs lived in Shanghai until the age of 17, where she studied at the Lycée Français de Shanghai before moving to the Netherlands to study hospitality management at Hotelschool The Hague. After gaining experience around the world, she realised that what she enjoyed most was not direct customer interaction but rather the commercial strategy behind creating unique experiences. She therefore continued her studies with a Master’s degree in Management and Entrepreneurship at EDHEC Business School, while gaining professional experience at Guerlain, PwC, and Unilever.
However, Anaïs’s dual identity as both entrepreneur and writer proved decisive. Since her teenage years, she had been writing and publishing her novels on free platforms such as Wattpad, where one of her books reached more than two million views. While this represented a major audience success, it brought no financial reward.
“I generated a lot of visibility, but no revenue,” she explains.
A New Model for Authors
Confronted with platforms that could sometimes be restrictive or unfair, she realised how difficult it was for authors to earn money while still retaining ownership of their work.
This realisation led her to create Weink alongside her two developer co-founders, Nicolas Fonsat and Ghenadie Nitelea, who together bring more than twenty years of experience from companies such as L’Oréal, Garmin, and Muzz.
“I wanted a model where authors would no longer have to choose between visibility and monetisation,” Anaïs says.
Weink therefore offers authors a complete portal, including AI-assisted editing tools, marketing support, audiobook creation, and performance tracking through an intuitive data dashboard. Writers can publish their stories chapter by chapter and monitor reader engagement in real time, identify weaker parts of their texts, and experiment with different cover designs.
Built for Both Authors and Readers
For readers, the application is designed to remain accessible. All books are free to read, and additional features include audiobooks, reading statistics, and personalised recommendations.
“The goal is to put the right book, with the right cover, in front of the right reader at the right moment,” Anaïs explains.
Weink operates on a hybrid model similar to YouTube, where advertising and premium subscriptions generate the majority of revenue.
Since its launch, the platform has experienced rapid growth. The international platform already counts 150,000 users and more than 50,000 English-language fiction writers registered across more than 160 countries. The company plans to expand into multiple languages before moving into non-fiction and educational content.
By 2027, the goal is to reach three million users and nearly one million euros in revenue, followed by global expansion and B2B partnerships with publishing houses and literary agents.
An Ambitious Leadership Team
To achieve these ambitions, Weink relies on an innovative marketing strategy, particularly through TikTok and influencer partnerships. The startup has already built a network of more than 500 influencers ready to promote the platform.
“We’ve only spent about €5,000 on marketing,” Anaïs notes, seeing this channel as a key lever for rapid growth.
At the same time, Weink is beginning to attract investor attention. Anaïs, Nicolas, and Ghenadie are currently raising €300,000 in funding, a round that is already partially secured, with plans for a larger raise in 2027 to accelerate development and strengthen the platform’s data and AI technology.
For Anaïs, Weink is not just an app but a complete ecosystem designed to reinvent how authors create, share, and monetise their work, while offering readers a free and enriched reading experience.
By combining technological innovation, author support, and free access for readers, Anaïs Garnier is positioning herself as one of the emerging figures in digital publishing. With Weink, she demonstrates that the future of independent writing can be profitable, transparent, and immersive.
