CulturePay

What CulturePay does

CulturePay, operated by YARROW AT SAS and headquartered in Rennes, France, is a SaaS platform that automates payroll and administrative formalities for employers hiring intermittent entertainment workers (intermittents du spectacle) in France. The platform addresses a structurally complex regulatory environment — DSN (Déclaration Sociale Nominative), DPAE (Déclaration Préalable À l'Embauche), AEM (Attestation Employeur Mensuelle), and affiliations with social bodies including URSSAF, France Travail Spectacle, Audiens, and Congés Spectacles — that imposes disproportionate administrative burden on SMB cultural organisations relative to their size. Primary customers are theatrical companies, music associations, live performance organisers, and film production companies operating exclusively in the French market.

The platform combines several functional modules delivered through a single web interface at culturepay.fr: an employer dashboard for contract and payment tracking across monthly and annual views, electronic work contracts signed via YouSign, payroll processing with employee payment within 24 hours, automated social declarations through a partnership with GHS, document attestation services (AEM, Congés Spectacle), a payroll cost simulator, and real-time chat access to payroll experts. Infrastructure is hosted on AWS and Heroku with European data residency. Supporting tooling includes HubSpot for CRM, ZenDesk for customer support, AirCall for telephony, and Forest Admin for internal administration, with Zapier for workflow automation. The platform is complemented by an employee-facing portal for workers to view contracts and payslips, and a referral programme offering €60 vouchers.

The revenue model is transaction-based at a flat €17.90 HT per contract, with no management fees, no inscription fees, no minimum payslip thresholds, and no additional signature fees — a pricing structure that does not vary by salary amount. Go-to-market is sales-led through 30-minute online demonstrations, supplemented by self-serve sign-up, content marketing via a blog and monthly newsletter, and customer testimonials. The company is founder-owned (Guillaume Pépin serves as Président), bootstrapped without disclosed external funding, operates with 1–10 employees, and serves only the French market.

Name

CulturePay

Legal name

YARROW AT SAS

Website

https://culturepay.fr

Company type

Private

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

CulturePay is a French SaaS platform that automates payroll and administrative formalities for SMB employers hiring intermittent entertainment workers in France, handling contracts, social declarations, and salary payments at a flat fee per contract.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Payroll Management Software

NAICS

Professional Employer Organizations (561330)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYBPACAIAB

Payroll Software & Payroll-as-a-Service (SaaS)

Business & Public Services/HR, Staffing & Recruitment Services/Payroll Services & Workforce Administration

SECONDARYHDAEAEAJ

Human Capital Management (HCM) & Payroll Platforms

Hardware, Technology & Telecom/Enterprise Platforms & Databases/Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Platforms

SECONDARYFSAMAKAB

Employer of Record (EOR) & Global Payroll

Financial & Insurance/Payments & Transaction Processing/Payroll & Payouts / Disbursements

SECONDARYHDAEAHAF

Digital Process Automation (DPA) & Orchestration Suites

Hardware, Technology & Telecom/Enterprise Platforms & Databases/Business Process Management (BPM), Workflow & Automation Platforms

Keywords

• Payroll management
• Intermittent entertainment
• Social declarations
• Payroll SaaS
• Entertainment industry

Headquarters

HQ city

Rennes

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Per-Contract Fees: Flat fee per payslip/contract issued. No management fees, no inscription fees, no minimum number of payslips, and no additional fees for electronic signature. The fee is fixed regardless of salary amount.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

CulturePay is a web-based SaaS platform that manages the full administrative lifecycle of hiring and paying intermittent entertainment workers (intermittents du spectacle) in France. The service handles employment contract generation with electronic signing, payroll processing with salary payment to employees within 24 hours, and automated monthly social declarations (DSN, DPAE, AEM) to French social security bodies. The platform acts as a mandated representative of the employer for administrative procedures and salary payments.

Product overview

CulturePay operates as a unified SaaS platform built around its core web platform, which provides end-to-end administrative management for hiring and payroll of intermittent entertainment workers in France. The platform integrates several product components: the Employer Dashboard for tracking contracts and expenses, Electronic Work Contract for digital signing via YouSign integration, Payroll Management for pay slip generation and salary disbursement, DPAE and DSN services for social declarations, and Attestations for generating required monthly employer certificates and entertainment leave certificates. Additional modules include the Payroll Simulator for cost estimation and the Payroll Expert Chat for real-time support. The platform is complemented by a referral program. All services operate through the unified web interface at culturepay.fr with pricing at €17.90 HT per contract.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• CulturePay Platform (Payroll and Administrative Management for Intermittent Entertainment Workers)

Quantifiable outcome

• Time savings: only half a day per month needed for payroll management
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers9 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• YouSigncoreTechnology or IntegrationElectronic signature service integrated into the CulturePay platform for signing employment contracts of intermittent workers online.
• AWScoreTechnology or IntegrationCloud hosting provider for CulturePay's web platform infrastructure.
• HerokucoreTechnology or IntegrationCloud platform provider hosting the CulturePay website, with servers located in Europe for data storage compliance.
• ZenDeskcoreTechnology or IntegrationCustomer service and help desk platform powering CulturePay's support center and knowledge base for members.
• GHScoreTechnology or IntegrationPayroll document editing and social declaration production service for CulturePay's payroll processing.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Broad incumbents

• Cegid: Established French ERP, HR, and payroll software vendor serving SMB to enterprise customers. Comparable payroll functionality but as part of a much broader business application portfolio rather than a specialized entertainment-focused solution.
• Personio: European HR and people-operations SaaS for SMB and mid-market, with growing payroll coverage in selected European countries. Comparable SaaS-led HR/payroll positioning for SMBs, though less specialized in French social declarations.
• Sage: Global payroll and accounting software incumbent with a significant French SMB offering. Comparable payroll-processing category and SaaS delivery but serves many verticals; not specialized in French intermittent entertainment workers.
• ADP: Global payroll and HCM services giant with a strong French footprint (ADP France). Overlaps on payroll processing, social declarations, and employer-of-record-style services, but operates at much larger scale and broader vertical scope.

Direct peers

• Silae: Leading French cloud payroll SaaS for SMBs and mid-market, handling DSN, DPAE, and social declarations through accountants and HR teams. Same regulatory perimeter (French social declarations) and same payroll-as-software target buyer, making it the closest scale competitor.
• Nibelis: French payroll and HR SaaS provider focused on SMB and mid-market employers, with deep DSN and social declaration automation. Comparable SaaS delivery model and French regulatory expertise, though broader in vertical scope than CulturePay's entertainment niche.
• PayFit: French SMB-focused payroll and HR SaaS serving employers in France. Highly comparable SaaS-led, self-serve-plus-demo model, transaction-based pricing, and payroll/declaration workflow — the main horizontal competitor CulturePay faces for the same French SMB employer base.
• ePaie (Cegid): French online payroll SaaS targeted at very small businesses, part of the Cegid group. Comparable self-serve, fixed-fee SaaS payroll delivery for SMBs in France, including handling of standard social declarations.

Emerging players

• Lucca: French SaaS provider of HR, time tracking, and payroll-adjacent modules for SMB and mid-market employers. Comparable SaaS-led, SMB-friendly model with HR-adjacent workflows, though payroll itself is more limited than CulturePay's core product.
• Factorial: European SMB HR SaaS with expanding payroll functionality across multiple countries. Comparable SaaS-led, SMB-first positioning and self-serve plus demo motion, but broader HR suite rather than a deep French payroll specialist.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/CulturePay
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/culturepay-fr

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

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 CulturePay