Managing cashflow, a global not-to-be-missed need for SMEs (Welcome to Agicap!)
More than happy to announce our 7th investment : Agicap, a Lyon-based cash forecasting solution for SMEs in France and already working with more than 1 000 companies. They are supporting cash forecast and management for Montblanc, Cityscoot, Café Coton among other famous brands, as well as for many consulting firms, restaurants, hotels, local retailers, craftsmen, various startups, etc.
BlackFin Tech is proud to lead this 2,4 million euro round, alongside Kima Ventures.
Did you know that, every day, nearly 40 SMEs go out of business due to late payments in France? It is the reason behind one out of four SME bankruptcies…To solve this, Agicap and its founders are building a convincing software platform, which provides CFOs and CEOs with a cloud-based cash forecasting solution. These tools solve many of CEOs’ pain points, such as the lack of time to go through strategic plans, the lack of financial expertise and of accurate digital tools, the (relative) anxiety regarding cash position and their limited budgets, thanks to an intuitive tool to monitor and forecast cash on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
The whole product offering rests on 3 pillars:
· Extracting data from various sources (over 300 integrations so far)
· Making scenarios analyzing data to draw relevant forecasts
· Getting actionable insights and planning ahead strategical moves
Treasury management for SMEs represents a multi-billion market opportunity. There are roughly one million potential customers in France and more than 10 million in Europe.
The cash management sector is also being impacted by several macroeconomic trends and is thus particularly attractive:
· Payment delays have increased over the last decade, especially for the SMEs. According to Banque de France, payment defaults grew up to +1,8% within a year. The pressure is higher for SMEs… which can lead to dramatic consequences: according to Altarès, 25% of SMEs bankruptcies in France are due to delayed payments;
· Digitization is still an ongoing process for many traditional businesses in France, but most tools on the market are way too complex in their features. Many CEOs from smaller companies are merely looking for basic user-friendly tools for a high-level, unsophisticated analysis;
· The PSD2 regulation opens up banking data and brings new opportunities to feed a more thorough and automated analysis.
Agicap’s clients are those SMEs impacted by these specific pressing issues. The solution enables them to increase real-time knowledge about their financial health (real-time knowledge about cash availability, a better understanding of cash flow cycles, data reconciliation, etc.) and aims at making better decisions related to cash events.
In addition, the company is run by 3 visionary co-founders, Sébastien, Clément and Lucas. They have gathered around them a team of 10+ employees (btw they are still hiring, in Lyon) and have succeeded in crafting a sticky product, used at least every other day by 41% of their customers.
Agicap set up a strong outbound sales strategy and a precise roadmap to tackle product and tech challenges. They understand their customers very well and put a strong emphasis on top-notch customer care that led them to establish a direct relationship with their clients…wanna try? ;)
This round of funding will enable Agicap to support its national expansion and seize the current market opportunity for SME cashflow forecasting.
But the bottom line of this is: go Agicap and hack the SME market! We are proud and thrilled to give you all the support…
