The French startup Evoliz, which created online invoicing software for VSEs/SMEs, recently completed a fundraising of 3 million euros. Business Cool spoke with François Aupetit, co-founder and CEO of Evoliz. The latter enlightened us on the future projects of this startup.
Everything you need to know about Evoliz
Who are you ?
I am François Aupetit, CEO and co-founder of the startup Evoliz. I quickly created my company, I was 27 years old in 2010 when Triiptic was born. I began my studies in Toulon, in BTS management IT, where I unknowingly met my future partner Olivier Gasquet. After the BTS, I was part of the first promotion of a work-study school which combined IT and project management: Group 4 in Marseille. My last year on a work-study program, I did it at b-pack, a publisher based in Aix-en-Provence, since bought by Determine, which markets a purchasing optimization solution for large groups, an e-procurement solution.
It was at b-pack that I saw Olivier Gasquet again who had unknowingly applied to the same company. With Olivier, we were a pair for a year at b-pack before I decided to go to ESN at Alti, since bought by Tata the Indian. My first day at Alti was the day of the fall of Lehman Brothers, the start of the 2008 crisis. The mission on which I was supposed to intervene was aborted, I found myself on uninteresting missions.
The year 2008 was the year of the announcement of the self-employed status, a simple status which promised to revolutionize the creation of self-employed. In 2008, no online solution existed to manage your company. That’s when the idea of creating an information portal on self-employed status and an invoice quote tool came to me. After talking about it to Olivier, then Jean-Philippe, our partner at the time, we put myAE.fr online in June 2009.
We worked on this project in the evenings and on weekends. In December 2009, myAE had 5,000 users, it was this success that made us decide to resign to devote ourselves 100% to what motivated us. The year following the creation of Triiptic, we released Evoliz, the sequel to myAE and which is today the flagship of the company.
Today, Evoliz is distributed both directly from our site and with accountants. It is our partner Julien Chevry, chartered accountant, who takes care of this distribution channel.
What does Evoliz do?
Evoliz is an ERP for small businesses. No accounting knowledge is necessary to use it and yet the management actions that are made in Evoliz are translated into accounting journals linked with documents.
In Evoliz, a company manages all its sales, from the quote to the invoice, including purchase orders and receipt slips, recurring invoices and customer reminders. Invoices sent from Evoliz can be paid by credit card or direct debit. Evoliz is one of the rare solutions to be NF525 and NF203 certified, i.e. compliant with the 2018 anti-VAT fraud law. This is a guarantee of quality and assurance for our users. Even if our communication is out of step with our competitors, what we do is very serious. Almost none of our competitors have this certification.
In addition to sales in Evoliz, we manage purchases, from collection to payment of suppliers by transfer and banking with the daily import of the company’s bank statements compatible with all banks. Our first achievement was to develop the scope of our ERP. Today, with the reform of electronic invoices, we are already ready. It turns out that this reform is right within our scope so we are awaiting it with enthusiasm.
Evoliz fundraising
Why did you raise 3 million euros?
We have the particularity of having raised while being profitable and with dynamic growth: +30% last year. So we have 3 million euros + our profitable growth to invest in the development of Triiptic. We are convinced that companies looking for a tool like Evoliz want the best tool for their business.
Evoliz is the type of solution used every day and which must do the job. The departure of Quickbooks at the end of the year clearly shows that investing mainly in communication is not the solution. Above all, the tool must be good. Evoliz is already the best solution on the market. With this fundraising, we want to widen the gap with our competitors and make our solution known to as many French companies as possible.
Why did you choose to include Odyssée Ventures in your capital? ?
Odyssée Ventures is a fund that is demanding in its investments. We did not use an intermediary for this operation and we felt confident with our contacts at Odyssée. Through their questions, they made us learn things about ourselves, which we appreciated.
What will Evoliz look like in 5 years?
In 5 years, Evoliz will be a leader in France in solutions for businesses in electronic invoicing. A solution widely connected to its ecosystem and on the verge of expanding abroad. The electronic invoice is a European project with a goal that all countries adopt it by 2028.
