FirmFunding

What FirmFunding does

FirmFunding SAS is a French digital marketplace, founded in 2016 by Florence Vasilescu and headquartered in Neuilly-sur-Seine, that operates as the first and only platform in France dedicated to private placement financing for small and medium enterprises. The platform connects SME advisors — including M&A consultants and corporate finance advisors — with professional investors, principally asset managers and family offices, to facilitate bond (straight and convertible) and equity financings typically ranging from €1M to €20M with an average ticket around €5M. Eligible SMEs must be joint-stock companies (SAS/SARL) generating annual turnover above €5 million with positive or near-positive EBITDA, and the platform serves financing use cases spanning organic growth, external growth (acquisitions), MBO/MBI/OBO transmissions, refinancing, and asset financing across sectors including services, agribusiness, real estate, industry, consulting, and technology.

The underlying platform is a confidential, restricted-access marketplace hosted on IBM Cloud, with infrastructure that has been migrated from 18 virtual machines to a CDN-based serverless architecture to reduce energy consumption. Supporting products include an online eligibility questionnaire, the annual FirmFunding Barometer (tracking French private debt trends), white papers on private debt mechanisms, and a platform user guide for advisors. FirmFunding earns revenue through transaction-related commissions on arranged financings and personalized professional services for financing projects; investors face a €10,000 minimum ticket with no public pricing for SMEs or advisors, consistent with a quote-based B2B model. Since launch in 2017, the platform has facilitated over €800 million in cumulative financing across 150+ projects, with €147 million posted online in 2024 alone and 38% of 2024 financings classified as Green/Impact related. The company maintains a lean team of 1-10 employees, is structured as a privately held SAS with €24,934 share capital, and is a member of Croissance Plus and France Invest.

Name

FirmFunding

Legal name

FirmFunding SAS

Website

https://firmfunding.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2016

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

FirmFunding is a French digital marketplace, founded in 2016, that connects SME advisors with professional investors to facilitate private placement bond and equity financings, typically between €1M and €20M, for profitable SMEs with turnover above €5M.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Private Debt Marketplace

NAICS

Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments and Related Activities (523)

SIC

Security Brokers, Dealers & Flotation Companies (6211)

akta.pro primary industry

P2P Small Business / SME Marketplace Lending (FSAKAHAC)

Keywords

• Private debt marketplace
• SME financing platform
• Private placement financing
• Bond financing services
• Alternative investment platform

Headquarters

HQ city

Paris

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Platform commission/transaction fees: Marketplace platform connecting SME financing seekers with professional investors. The company earns fees or commissions on successful financing transactions facilitated through the platform.
2. Professional services: Personalized follow-up services for financing projects depending on option chosen

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

FirmFunding operates a digital B2B marketplace that connects SME advisors (M&A consultants, corporate finance advisors) with professional investors (asset managers, family offices) for private placement financing. The platform facilitates bond and equity financing transactions ranging from €1M to €20M (averaging €5M) for profitable SMEs with annual turnover exceeding €5 million. Since launching the platform in 2017, FirmFunding has put online over €800 million in financing projects and built a network of 300+ registered professional investors with combined capacity above €3 billion.

Product overview

FirmFunding operates as a single unified marketplace platform dedicated to private placement financing for SMEs. The core product is the digital marketplace connecting SME advisors with professional investors for bond and equity financing (€1M-€20M). Supporting products include an eligibility questionnaire tool, annual barometer research publications, a platform user guide, and educational white papers on private debt financing.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• FirmFunding Marketplace Platform Digital B2B marketplace platform connecting SME advisors (M&A consultants, corporate finance advisors) with professional investors (asset managers, family offices) for private placement financing. Facilitates bond and equity financing transactions ranging from €1M to €20M for profitable SMEs with turnover above €5M. Supports development financing, transmission (MBO/MBI/OBO), refinancing, and asset financing across all sectors.

Quantifiable outcome

• 800M€ of financing put online since creation
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers10 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Croissance PluscoreGTM or Marketing PartnerActive member of Croissance Plus association, participating in workshops and events to promote SME financing through private debt. Association supports entrepreneurship and growth company ecosystem.
• France InvestcoreGTM or Marketing PartnerActive member of France Invest association, participating in regional events and studies on private equity and private debt in France.
• Pauline Duval (Groupe Duval)minorOthersMember of strategic committee. CEO of Groupe Duval, bringing expertise in real estate and growth company development.
• Hugues Le Bret (Compte Nickel)minorOthersMember of strategic committee. Chairman of directoire at Compte Nickel, bringing fintech and digital expertise.
• Valentine de Lasteyrie (Fiblac)minorOthersMember of strategic committee. Investment Director at Fiblac family investment company.
• Frédéric Genta (Principality of Monaco)minorOthersMember of strategic committee. Minister of Digital for Principality of Monaco, bringing digital transformation expertise.
• Ariane Mignon (Mazars)minorOthersMember of strategic committee. Partner at Mazars accounting and consulting firm.
• Rémi Tabbagh (Gide Loyrette Nouel)minorOthersMember of strategic committee. Partner at Gide Loyrette Nouel law firm.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• October (formerly Lendix): French-headquartered digital lending platform historically focused on SME financing. Like FirmFunding, October operates a B2B marketplace matching SMEs (often via advisors) with lenders; it directly competes for the same SME private-debt opportunity set in France.
• Younited: European consumer/SME credit platform with a marketplace model and institutional funding relationships. Younited's SME and credit-as-a-service lines target a similar mid-market borrower profile and operate in France, making it a directly comparable marketplace competitor.
• MCapital: French private-debt platform connecting SMEs seeking bond/unitranche financing with professional investors. Closely comparable to FirmFunding in product (SME private debt/bonds), investor base (family offices, institutionals), and deal-size band (mid-market).
• Pret d'Union: French P2P lending marketplace historically connecting retail and institutional lenders with SME and consumer credit. While more retail-skewed historically, it addresses SME borrower financing in France and uses a comparable marketplace infrastructure.

Emerging players

• Lendosphere: French crowdfunding/enabler platform focused on green and impact SME financing. Overlaps with FirmFunding's growing 38% green/impact book (2024) and serves the same French SME borrower with private-debt instruments, though narrower in product scope.
• Enerfip: French renewable-energy and impact lending platform for projects and SMEs. Comparable to the impact/green subset of FirmFunding's marketplace and a potential partner/adjacent competitor in the SME private-debt space.

Broad incumbents

• Funding Circle: Established UK-listed (now private) SME lending marketplace. Operates at much larger scale than FirmFunding in the SME credit marketplace category, serving as a benchmark for the model FirmFunding is regionalizing in France and Europe.
• Mintos: European P2P / loan marketplace aggregating consumer and SME loans from multiple originators. Comparable as a marketplace infrastructure for credit products and a European-scale benchmark for FirmFunding's institutional-investor-focused model.
• Tikehau Capital (Direct Lending): Large alternative-asset manager with a material European direct-lending/private-debt business. While not a marketplace, Tikehau competes for the same mid-market SME borrowers and the same professional-investor capital that FirmFunding routes to private debt.

Regional players

• Look & Fin: Belgian-headquartered marketplace lending platform for Belgian and Western European SMEs. Comparable in business model (SME credit marketplace), with primary geographic focus in Belgium/Flanders rather than France.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCrv1UbaPKnApmPxdH0qHcZA
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/firmfunding/?originalSubdomain=fr
• Xx.com/firm_funding

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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

M&A

Investments

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

Frequently asked questions about FirmFunding