What Sarbacane Software does

Sarbacane Software operates the Positive User platform, a cloud-based omnichannel marketing automation SaaS serving over 40,000 customers and 800,000+ monthly active users across Europe. Originally launched in 2000 as a French email marketing reference, the company is the operating product of London-headquartered Positive Group (SAS Positive Group France, headquartered at 3 avenue Antoine Pinay, Hem, France) and has expanded from email into a unified workflow environment covering SMS, WhatsApp, web push, mobile app push, live chat, chatbot, transactional messaging, forms, landing pages, and a centralized CRM/contact layer. The platform's core technology is a no-code, drag-and-drop Journey Builder with real-time behavioral segmentation and UTM attribution, complemented by the UMA AI marketing assistant for content generation and campaign optimization, a public REST API and Mobile SDK for integrations, and acquired sub-products including Signitic (email signatures), 4Dem (Italian email marketing), Marketing 1BY1 (Customer Data Platform), rapidmail, and Datananas.

The company monetizes through tiered SaaS subscriptions with an entry price of €69/month, supplemented by Qualiopi-certified professional training services priced from €390 to €1,100+ per session that are eligible for OPCO public funding in France. Go-to-market combines a product-led growth motion (self-serve signup and free trials on Positive User for SMBs) with an inside-sales motion providing expert-led demos and dedicated coaching for enterprise prospects, supported by localized websites in five European languages and a partner program for agencies. Target segments span e-commerce and retail, B2B SaaS, healthcare, finance, real estate, education, and tourism, with named customers including Carrefour, Somfy, LG Electronics Poland, Bricomarché, Primabiotic, Bouncer, Cyber Folks, Respo, and Willemse.

Sarbacane is privately held under venture and PE backing from EMZ Partners (lead, $110M round in November 2022), banking institutions including CIC Nord Ouest, IDI Group ($27M, 2020), and historical investor Ardian, with stated ambition to reach €100M in revenue by 2026 and become a European leader in digital communication. The company employs 300+ experts across offices in Hem, Lille, Lyon, and London, holds ISO 27001 and Qualiopi certifications, is GDPR and CCPA compliant, and operates with full European data sovereignty. Mathieu Tarnus is CEO and founder; Laurent Martel serves as CSO, Vincent Durieux as Administrative and Financial Director, Paul de Fombelle as General Manager, and Véronique Chocry as Customer Service Manager.

Name

Sarbacane Software

Legal name

SAS POSITIVE GROUP FRANCE

Website

https://sarbacane.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2000

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Sarbacane Software, operating as Positive User under parent Positive Group, provides omnichannel marketing automation SaaS spanning email, SMS, WhatsApp, web push, mobile, and live chat for 40,000+ SMB and enterprise customers across Europe, complemented by Qualiopi-certified training services.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Marketing Automation Software

NAICS

Software Publishers (513210), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

Marketing Automation Platforms & Services (BPAFAFAC)

akta.pro secondary industries

Marketing Automation & Campaign Management CRM (HDAEAFAB), Marketing Automation, CRM & Lifecycle Messaging (BPAMALAE), AI & Automation in Customer Service (Chatbots, Agent Assist) (EDABACAO)

Keywords

• Email marketing software
• Marketing automation platform
• SMS marketing tools
• Multichannel customer engagement
• Omnichannel marketing suite

Headquarters

HQ city

Hem

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Operations

Revenue model

1. SaaS Subscription (Positive User): Subscription-based SaaS model with tiered pricing starting at €69/month. New accounts created on Positive User platform. Includes email marketing, SMS, automation, and multichannel capabilities.
2. Professional Training Services: Training services with formats from 2-7 hours, priced from €390 to €1,100+ per session. Both remote (video conference) and on-site training available. OPCO eligible.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Sarbacane Software (commercially known as Positive User) sells a cloud-based SaaS marketing automation platform that lets businesses run email, SMS, WhatsApp, web push, mobile app, and live chat campaigns from a single workspace, automate customer journeys with a drag-and-drop builder, and unify contact data for behavioral segmentation. The offering is bundled with the UMA AI marketing assistant, supplemented by acquired brands Signitic (email signatures) and 4Dem (Italian email marketing), and paired with paid Qualiopi-certified professional training services.

Product overview

Positive User (formerly Sarbacane) is a unified marketing automation and customer engagement platform organized as a suite-plus-modules architecture. The core Positive User platform serves as the central hub connecting multiple specialized modules: Campaigns manages omnichannel marketing across email, SMS, WhatsApp, web push, and mobile app; Automation provides drag-and-drop workflow building for customer journeys; Contacts delivers centralized CRM and contact management; Studio enables visual brand management and template creation; Forms handles lead capture and surveys; Pages supports landing page creation; Chat provides live chat and chatbot capabilities; Engage powers automated sales prospecting; and Sendkit manages transactional messages. The platform integrates AI assistant UMA for content generation and campaign optimization. Additional offerings include acquired brands Signitic (email signatures) and 4Dem (Italian email marketing), plus professional training services. The ecosystem encompasses over 40,000 customers and 800,000+ active monthly users.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Suite: Complete digital communication platform with all features integrated
• Campaigns
• Forms
• Pages
• Engage
• Contacts
• Chat
• Sendkit
• Studio
• Signitic
• noCRM
• UMA

Products and services

• Positive User Unified cloud-based SaaS marketing automation and customer engagement platform combining email marketing, SMS, WhatsApp, web push, mobile app marketing, live chat, CRM, contact management, automated prospecting, and AI-powered campaign optimization into a single platform serving more than 40,000 customers across Europe.
• Sarbacane Suite Training Qualiopi-certified professional training services covering the full Sarbacane Suite, campaigns, marketing automation, deliverability, transactional messaging, chatbot and conversational marketing, templates design, and statistics analysis. Delivered remotely via video conference or on-site, OPCO-eligible for French companies, priced from €390 to €1,100+ excl. VAT per session.
• Signitic Email signature automation solution acquired by Positive Group in June 2023. The Lyon-based product (founded 2018) provides centralized email signature management with more than 200,000 users across Europe.
• 4Dem Italian email marketing platform acquired by Positive Group in March 2023 to strengthen the group's European leadership and expand presence in Italy. 4Dem retains its operational identity as a standalone brand.

Quantifiable outcome

• 30% click-through rate on newsletter campaigns (Bricomarché)
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers9 records

Segments8 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability8 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• SigniticcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 5 June 2023Lyon-based email signature automation startup founded in 2018 with 200,000+ users in Europe, acquired to strengthen Positive Group's product suite and European expansion.
• 4DemcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 22 March 2023Italian email marketing platform acquired by Positive Group to expand presence in Italy and leverage Italian expertise for European leadership goal of €100M revenue by 2026. 4Dem retains its operational identity.
• Marketing 1BY1coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 8 November 2022Lille-based Customer Data Platform developer acquired by Positive Group as part of their external growth strategy and product portfolio expansion.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Brevo (formerly Sendinblue): French-headquartered European email marketing and marketing automation SaaS with omnichannel capabilities (email, SMS, WhatsApp, chat), positioned as a direct SMB and mid-market competitor with similar PLG motion and European data residency advantage.
• ActiveCampaign: Marketing automation platform combining email, CRM, and machine-learning-driven customer experience automation for SMB and mid-market, with comparable visual workflow builder and behavioral segmentation capabilities.
• GetResponse: Polish-origin European email marketing and marketing automation platform serving SMBs with comparable omnichannel features (email, SMS, web push, live chat) and similar mid-market pricing tiers.
• Mailchimp: Global email marketing and marketing automation leader (now Intuit-owned) with comparable SMB focus, free entry tier, drag-and-drop builders, and significantly broader brand recognition and feature depth.
• Klaviyo: Email and SMS marketing automation platform focused on e-commerce with strong segmentation, behavioral triggers, and revenue attribution—competing directly with Sarbacane's e-commerce and retail vertical.
• MailerLite: European-origin (Lithuania) email marketing and automation platform targeting SMBs with low-friction entry pricing, drag-and-drop builder, and now expanding into websites and landing pages—directly competing on entry-level price point.

Broad incumbents

• HubSpot: Global CRM and marketing automation platform with much broader portfolio (CMS, sales, service, operations hubs) that includes email marketing and automation capabilities competitive with Positive User's stack.
• Salesforce Marketing Cloud: Enterprise marketing automation and customer engagement platform within the broader Salesforce ecosystem, competing with Positive User in enterprise and mid-market segments with substantially deeper resources.
• Adobe Marketo Engage: Enterprise B2B marketing automation platform with lead management, account-based marketing, and email capabilities—overlapping with Positive User's Engage module and B2B/SaaS segment focus.

Emerging players

• Drip: E-commerce-focused email and SMS marketing automation platform with comparable behavioral segmentation and omnichannel workflows—competing for Sarbacane's e-commerce vertical customers at SMB and mid-market price points.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@user_com
• Facebookfacebook.com/SarbacaneSoftware
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/sarbacane-software
• Xx.com/SarbacaneSoft

Compliance4 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Subsidiaries3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds3 records

Investors4 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A6 records

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Sarbacane Software