Selling or partnering your vertical software company in France: industry specialists have never been so sought after

For a long time, a software publisher specialising in one trade, dental practice management, construction payroll, a clinic's patient records or a restaurant's till, lived and was handed on in isolation. Founded by an engineer or an industry professional, it grew at the pace of its customer base and ended up bought by a competitor or one of its managers, if it did not fade away with the technology it was written in. That world has changed. Software groups built through successive acquisitions, specialist funds and generalist publishers wanting to go vertical now compete for companies with two, five or twenty million euros of recurring revenue.

For the founder of a publisher of ten to a hundred people, this changes the value of what they have built and the options open to them. Between the start-up raising funds and the large listed publisher, hundreds of French SMEs hold a strong position in a professional niche, a loyal installed base and industry knowledge that is hard to reproduce. Nothing obliges anyone to sell, but it is becoming hard not to ask the question.

Software, the most dynamic segment of French digital

According to the review published by the industry body Numeum in December 2025, software and platform publishers generated €29.1 billion in revenue in France in 2025, up 8.2%, and are expected to reach €31.6 billion in 2026. ^1,2 Over the same period, the digital sector as a whole grew only 2% and IT services companies fell 1.8%. ^1,2 The delivery model has shifted: 77% of new projects were delivered as SaaS in the second half of 2025, against 53% in 2021. ¹ The market clearly separates truly recurring publishers from those still dependent on perpetual licences or services.

Capital is following. The EY venture capital barometer counts €7.4 billion raised by French start-ups in 2025, including €3.3 billion for software and IT services, the top sector. ³ France Invest records €36.4 billion invested by private equity in 2025 in 2,904 companies and projects, with digital among the top four sectors. ⁴ For a profitable vertical publisher, this means an unprecedented depth of financial and industrial buyers.

The drivers of consolidation

Recurring and visible revenue. A subscription renewed by customers whose software structures their daily activity offers predictability few sectors match. Groups and funds finance their acquisitions on this visibility.
Verticalisation as a barrier to entry. Software that embeds a profession's rules, reporting obligations, flows with supervisory bodies and working habits is hard for a generalist to dislodge. Cegid announced as early as 2021 that it wanted to verticalise its offers by sector, and groups such as DL Software or Septeo were built entirely by adding industry publishers. ^5,6,7
E-invoicing as an accelerator. The obligation to receive electronic invoices has applied to all French companies since 1 September 2026, and the tax authority DGFiP had already approved 101 platforms in January 2026. ⁸ For verticals close to management and accounting, construction, retail, liberal professions, this reform moves entire installed bases and pushes buyers to secure publishers holding the relationship with micro-businesses and SMEs, as Cegid's acquisition of EBP and its 175,000 customers illustrates. ⁹
Artificial intelligence is reshuffling the cards. According to Numeum, publishers expected 12.5% productivity gains from AI in 2025 and 17% in 2026, and nearly 40% already see a positive effect on their margins. ^1,2 AI applied to an industry corpus adds value to the data accumulated by vertical publishers, but requires investments that size helps amortise.
Cybersecurity and compliance are becoming fixed costs. The 2025 overview by the French cybersecurity agency ANSSI counts 1,366 incidents handled and 128 ransomware compromises, nearly half of them targeting micro-businesses, SMEs and mid-caps. ¹⁰ The NIS 2 directive concerns more than 25,000 entities in 17 sectors, including healthcare. ¹¹ Customers demand secure hosting, certifications and GDPR compliance from their publisher, all obligations a group can pool.
Cloud migration. Many legacy publishers still run on-premise solutions, with a loyal base but ageing technology. Migration to SaaS is costly and takes years; consolidators buy these bases to migrate them to their platform and sell additional modules.

Who buys vertical software publishers today

Software groups built by acquisition and backed by funds. Septeo, a Montpellier publisher serving legal professions, real estate, HR and hospitality, expected nearly €460 million in revenue in 2025 and signed the acquisition of Germany's stp.one in November 2025 with the backing of Hg, GIC, Téthys Invest and Bpifrance. ⁷ DL Software, taken over by TA Associates in 2021, already brought together eighteen vertical publishers covering more than thirty professional sectors. ⁶ These platforms buy profitable, well-positioned publishers, then change shareholder every five to seven years, each round relaunching acquisitions.
Large generalist publishers going vertical. Cegid, targeting €1.3 billion in revenue, took over EBP and its solutions for construction, garages and retail, after RD Liberal for accounting in the liberal professions. ^9,5 Buying a recognised solution is faster than developing one in-house.
Neighbouring vertical publishers. A publisher specialising in an adjacent trade, laboratories for a radiology publisher, block management for a lettings software publisher, buys a complementary offer to sell more to its base.
Funds investing directly and foreign buyers. Beyond the platforms they control, software-focused funds take majority or minority stakes in mid-sized publishers to make them the head of a new group, with the founder remaining a shareholder. They are joined by European and North American consolidators, for whom a French publisher leading its niche is the gateway to the market.

A software publisher's capital can be freely transferred and no sector authorisation is required, except for certain regulated verticals: health data hosting, certified point-of-sale software or technologies subject to foreign investment screening. However, intellectual property in the code, contributions from external contractors, open source licences, change-of-control clauses and GDPR compliance are systematically audited and determine the timetable.

What this changes for a publisher's founder

A full sale suits a founder who wants to hand over, with a transition of six months to two years to transfer product knowledge and reference customers.
A partnership with reinvestment is for an owner, whatever their age, who still has several years of activity ahead: they sell a majority or minority to a group or platform, reinvest part of the price in the buyer's holding and continue to develop their product with a sales force, R&D resources and international reach.
A combination between publishers lets two specialists in neighbouring trades build a broader suite, pool hosting, security and support, and carry more weight against consolidators.
A capital reorganisation such as an OBO lets the founder monetise part of their shares and bring in their CTO or key managers, with debt backed by recurring revenue.

Whatever the structure, buyers look less at accounting revenue than at the quality of revenue and the strength of the product. Here are the criteria that come up in every due diligence.

Recurring revenue and its momentum. Annual recurring revenue, its growth, its split between new customers, expansion and churn, and the share of truly recurring revenue versus licences and services, whose excessive weight drags on gross margin, are the first indicators requested.
Customer and revenue retention. The share of customers retained year on year, net revenue retention by cohort and reasons for churn measure the software's real switching cost and underpin the visibility of future flows.
Customer concentration. A base of several hundred or thousand customers of similar size negotiates better than revenue carried by a few key accounts or a single distributor.
Product and technical debt. Architecture, hosting, roadmap, security, availability and open source licences determine future investment needs. A completed cloud migration changes how the file is read.
Sales efficiency. Customer acquisition cost, sales cycle length, payback period and the ability to sell additional modules to the installed base show whether growth is repeatable.
The technical team and its ability to carry the product. A stable development team that knows the code and the customers' trade, documents its choices and ships regularly is an asset in its own right; buyers want to retain it and often involve it in the deal.

You are thinking of selling: is this the right moment for you?

This is the first question we ask, and the answer is not the same for everyone. The right moment is never automatically "right now", even in a market where software buyers are numerous and well financed. It depends on two things: you, meaning your life plans, personal horizon and wealth objectives, and your company, meaning its ability to realise today all the value it holds. We encounter two situations.

Your company is almost ready. Recurring revenue is growing, retention is high and documented by cohort, the customer base is diversified, the product is SaaS or nearly so, the technical team is stable, or you hold a reference position in a profession consolidators have not yet covered. Or you want your company to become part of a larger project, that of a software group, often under LBO, that brings sales force, R&D resources, security and international reach, which is reassuring for you and for your teams. A few weeks of preparation are then enough to go to market, and the number of buyers works in your favour.
Your company needs time. A distributor or a few key accounts represent too large a share of revenue, cloud migration is unfinished, churn rose after a price increase or a security incident, services still outweigh subscriptions, or code ownership is not fully secured. Selling remains possible, but it means accepting a discount. We will then tell you frankly that it is better to spend several months, sometimes a few years, working on these points, and we can support you through that phase before launching the transaction when you are truly ready.

The workstreams that make the difference are well known: make recurring revenue cohorts and customer movements reliable, switch the last licence contracts to subscription, document gross margin and R&D spending, secure intellectual property and contractor agreements, audit open source licences, formalise security and hosting, and prepare a roadmap that integrates AI and e-invoicing.

The benefit of talking early, even without being sure you want to sell, is knowing which of these two situations you are in, and deciding with full knowledge rather than under the pressure of an unexpected approach.

Facing software groups and funds that complete several acquisitions a year with dedicated teams, a founder negotiating alone is rarely on an equal footing. The value of a publisher is not just annualised revenue: it depends on the buyer's plan, the price structure, the portion conditional on customer retention, the share reinvested, warranties on code and data, the future of the teams and your own role. Two offers at the same headline price can mean very different things.

The role of an independent M&A adviser is to value the company objectively, identify all relevant buyers, fund-backed platforms, generalist publishers, neighbouring verticals and foreign players, put them in competition in a structured and confidential process, and negotiate terms beyond price alone. This competition protects the seller: it lets them compare genuinely different projects and choose the one that fits their objectives, their product and their teams.

Frequently asked questions

Why are vertical software publishers sought after by buyers?

Because they combine recurring revenue, high retention driven by switching costs, industry knowledge that is hard to reproduce and an installed base to which a group can sell additional modules. Software publishers grew 8.2% in France in 2025 according to Numeum, far faster than the rest of digital, and acquisition-built groups and specialist funds are looking precisely for these profitable niche positions. ¹

Who buys industry software publishers in France?

Software groups built by acquisition and backed by investment funds, such as Septeo or DL Software, large generalist publishers going vertical, like Cegid with EBP, publishers specialised in a neighbouring trade, private equity funds investing directly and European or North American consolidators. Each category has a different plan for the company and its team, hence the value of comparing them in the same process.

Can you sell your software company and keep running it?

Yes, and it is the most common structure with consolidation platforms. A partnership lets the founder sell a majority or minority of their shares, reinvest part of the price in the group's holding and continue to develop their product with greater sales and technical resources. A full sale, with a transition of six months to two years, remains the solution for someone who wants to hand over.

Which metrics should you prepare before selling a SaaS company?

Annual recurring revenue and its evolution by cohort, customer and revenue retention, customer concentration, gross margin, customer acquisition cost and payback, sales pipeline, the share of services in revenue, service availability and the state of cloud migration. A buyer also wants to see code ownership, open source licences, contractor agreements and GDPR compliance.

Can a small software company interest a group or fund?

Yes, if it holds a strong position in a professional niche, owns useful technology or data, or brings a strategic customer base to a buyer wanting to enter that trade. Consolidators build their suites publisher by publisher and accept modest-sized companies as long as revenue is recurring, retention high and the team able to carry the product after the deal.

How long does it take to sell a software publisher?

Generally six to nine months between launching the process and signing: preparing the file and metrics, confidentially approaching buyers, offers, financial, technical and legal due diligence, negotiation then completion. Audits of code, security and intellectual property sometimes lengthen this phase. Upstream preparation can take from a few weeks to several years depending on the state of the product and data.

Is an authorisation needed to buy a software publisher?

As a rule, no: a publisher's capital can be freely transferred. Exceptions exist for certain verticals, such as health data hosting, certified point-of-sale software or technologies subject to foreign investment screening when the buyer is outside the European Union. In all cases, change-of-control clauses in customer contracts, open source licences and rights to the code must be checked before the deal.

Why put several buyers in competition to sell your software company?

Because offers differ on much more than the headline price: cash portion, earn-out linked to customer retention or migration, reinvestment in the holding, warranties on code and data, the future of the technical team and the role left to the founder. A confidential process approaching platforms, generalist publishers and foreign players in parallel allows these projects to be compared on a like-for-like basis and strengthens the seller's position.

Public sources consulted

Numeum, communiqué de presse de la conférence semestrielle : bilan 2025 et perspectives 2026 du secteur numérique (18 décembre 2025) : https://numeum.fr/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Numeum_Communique-de-presse-S2-2025-2026.pdf (high reliability)
Le Monde Informatique, Légère embellie pour le secteur numérique en France fin 2025, d'après Numeum (18 décembre 2025) : https://www.lemondeinformatique.fr/actualites/lire-legere-embellie-pour-le-secteur-numerique-en-france-fin-2025-98855.html (good reliability)
EY, Baromètre EY du capital-risque en France, année 2025 (13 janvier 2026) : https://www.ey.com/fr_fr/newsroom/2026/01/barometre-ey-du-capital-risque-sur-l-anee-2025 (high reliability)
France Invest, Activité du capital-investissement français en 2025, communiqué (25 mars 2026) : https://www.grantthornton.fr/globalassets/1.-member-firms/france/communiques-presses/2026/2026-03-25_cp_france-invest-activite-2025_grant-thornton.pdf (high reliability)
Cegid, communiqué : acquisition de RD Liberal, solutions de comptabilité cloud pour les professions libérales (25 octobre 2021) : https://www.cegid.com/fr/presse/cegid-annonce-lacquisition-de-rd-liberal-et-renforce-ainsi-son-leadership-dans-le-domaine-des-solutions-de-comptabilite-cloud-pour-les-professions-liberales/ (good reliability)
Solutions Numériques, DL Software passe le cap des 150 M€ avec le rachat de trois nouveaux éditeurs de progiciels (4 novembre 2021) : https://www.solutions-numeriques.com/dl-software-passe-le-cap-des-150-me-avec-le-rachat-de-3-nouveaux-editeurs-de-progiciels/ (good reliability)
CFNEWS, Septeo signe sa plus grosse acquisition (5 novembre 2025) : https://www.cfnews.net/Acces-libre/Septeo-signe-sa-plus-grosse-acquisition-547431 (good reliability)
Bpifrance Création, Facturation électronique : liste des plateformes agréées (23 janvier 2026) : https://bpifrance-creation.fr/entrepreneur/actualites/facturation-electronique (high reliability)
Le Monde Informatique, Pour se renforcer sur les TPE-PME, Cegid va acquérir EBP (26 avril 2024) : https://www.lemondeinformatique.fr/actualites/lireamp-pour-se-renforcer-sur-les-tpe-pme-cegid-va-acquerir-ebp-93597.html (good reliability)
Le Monde Informatique, Un niveau de menaces toujours très élevé en 2025 selon l'ANSSI, panorama de la cybermenace (mars 2026) : https://www.lemondeinformatique.fr/actualites/lire-un-niveau-de-menaces-toujours-tres-eleve-en-2025-selon-l-anssi-99602.html (good reliability)
ANSSI, Directive NIS 2 : présentation et obligations (cyber.gouv.fr, 23 mars 2026) : https://messervices.cyber.gouv.fr/documents-ressources/2026-03-27-NIS2.pdf (high reliability)