Four years after acquiring Shine, a French fintech startup that offers bank accounts to freelancers and small businesses, Société Générale has announced plans to sell Shine to Ageras.
In 2020, TechCrunch reported that Societe Generale had spent around €100 million to acquire Shine. It wasn't a huge deal, but it attracted a lot of attention at the time because it was more than just a technology and talent acquisition. Societe Generale isn't a name that pops up often in tech startup acquisition news.
In short, the financial institution wanted to replicate BoursoBank’s success in online banking, but this time in banking for freelancers and businesses. In the news today, the French banking giant admitted that it had no idea what to do with Shine.
Ageras is a company you may not be familiar with, but it has been an integrated player in the fintech and accounting sectors for the past few years. The Danish company was founded in 2012 as an online marketplace matching small and medium-sized businesses with accountants and bookkeepers.
Recently, the startup has restructured its offering and wants to provide an all-in-one fintech platform for small businesses that covers banking, accounting, tax filing, and more.
The company is also raising $73 million in 2021 and another $88 million (€82 million) in April 2024, meaning it has plenty of cash to make acquisitions. Ageras has acquired Denmark's Billy and Salary, the Netherlands' Tellow, pan-European invoicing product Zervant and German challenger bank for freelancers Kontist. It is also developing Meneto, an accounting product for freelancers reminiscent of France's Indy.
As you can see, Ageras is building a portfolio of companies that offer adjacent products. In a sense, Kontist, Tellow, and now Shine offer roughly the same product. You create an account, they give you an IBAN and a card, you can create invoices, receive money from clients, be notified when taxes are due, generate accounting exports, and so on.
This M&A strategy is a way to diversify the company's footprint in Europe, as the fintech market remains fragmented, with some exceptional companies successfully acquiring customers in multiple countries.
Currently, Shine has over 100,000 customers, and Ageras serves 300,000 customers in Denmark, France, Germany, and the Netherlands. In 2023, Ageras reported revenues of €31.7 million ($34 million at today's exchange rates).
Ageras and Société Génerale have signed an exclusive acquisition agreement and the transaction is pending regulatory approval.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Ageras said it expected the transaction to close in the first half of 2025. The company added that it plans to retain all of Shine's employees and activities.