Smart

What Smart does

Smart is a nonprofit cooperative network headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, that provides administrative, financial, and legal infrastructure for freelancers, artists, and entrepreneurs operating across Europe. The organization, founded in 1998 and structured as a federation of country-level cooperatives, handles the back-office functions that individual self-employed workers would otherwise need to manage independently, including invoicing, tax compliance, contractual frameworks, and cross-border engagements. Its primary product is a unified cooperative platform accessed through country-specific portals in Belgium (smartbe.be), Germany (smart-eg.de), Italy (smart-it.org), Sweden (smartcoop.se), and Austria (smart-at.org), each serving the local market under the shared Smart brand and cooperative mission.

The platform is architected around a collective entrepreneurship model in which members are simultaneously users and owners of the cooperative, distinguishing Smart from traditional staffing agencies, employer-of-record providers, or solo freelancing arrangements. The organization reports 10,000+ employees and thousands of active members, with no modular add-on product structure disclosed; members interact with the cooperative through their respective national portals. There is no public evidence of proprietary technology, AI/ML features, APIs, SDKs, or mobile applications in the source data.

Smart's business model is that of a member-owned nonprofit cooperative. Revenue mechanics, pricing, and membership fees are not disclosed in the available data. Distribution is direct, via the five country-specific websites, and the target customer segment is European self-employed professionals seeking administrative support, professional autonomy, and a collective rather than solitary work arrangement. Geographic scope is explicitly limited to five European countries, with no global footprint claim. The organization is private, has no disclosed parent company, and has not been involved in disclosed mergers, acquisitions, or funding rounds based on available information.

Name

Smart

Legal name

Smart Coop

Website

https://smart.coop

Company type

Private

Founded year

1998

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

5,001–10,000 employees

Short description

Smart is a Stockholm-based nonprofit cooperative network, founded in 1998, that provides administrative, financial, and legal services to thousands of freelancers, artists, and entrepreneurs across Belgium, Germany, Italy, Sweden, and Austria through country-specific cooperative platforms.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Stockholm

HQ country

Sweden

HQ region

Europe

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations

Distribution channels1 record

Core offering

Smart is a network of cooperatives operating across Europe that handles administrative, financial, and legal tasks for freelancers, artists, and entrepreneurs. Members join the cooperative to participate in a collective entrepreneurship experience, gaining infrastructure and governance that supports professional autonomy and cross-border work arrangements.

Product overview

Smart operates as a single unified cooperative platform offering membership services to freelancers, entrepreneurs, and workers across Europe. The platform connects to country-specific operations in Belgium (smartbe.be), Germany (smart-eg.de), Italy (smart-it.org), Sweden (www.smartcoop.se), and Austria (smart-at.org), each serving the local market while sharing the Smart brand and cooperative mission. There is no modular add-on structure; members access the core platform through their respective national portals.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Smart Coop Platform A cooperative network platform enabling collective entrepreneurship across Europe, providing members with administrative, financial, and legal infrastructure to manage their work and business activities as part of a cooperative structure. Members access the platform through country-specific portals in Belgium, Germany, Italy, Sweden, and Austria.

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves3 records

Expansion highlights2 records

Emerging players

• Deel: Deel provides global payroll, compliance, and admin infrastructure for international freelancers and remote workers — a fast-growing emerging competitor to Smart's admin/financial services layer for European independents.
• Remote: Remote provides global employer-of-record, payroll, and contractor management services that increasingly compete with Smart's admin and compliance value proposition for European-based freelancers and small enterprises.

Direct peers

• Upwork: Upwork is the largest global freelancer marketplace, competing for the same independent professional user base and increasingly offering admin and compliance services that overlap with Smart's offering.
• Toptal: Toptal is an elite freelance talent marketplace serving European enterprises and freelancers, competing for the same high-end independent professional segment that Smart's cooperative membership caters to.
• PeoplePerHour: PeoplePerHour is a UK-headquartered freelance marketplace serving European freelancers and businesses, offering an alternative platform for the same independent professional demographic Smart's cooperative serves.
• Fiverr: Fiverr is a global freelance services marketplace with a similar freelancer supply base and growing emphasis on seller enablement, payments, and financial services that overlap with Smart's admin/financial mandate.
• Coopaname: Coopaname is a French worker cooperative that provides freelancers and independent workers with administrative, legal, and financial infrastructure — a directly analogous cooperative-employment model to Smart Coop.
• Freelancer.com: Freelancer.com operates a global freelance marketplace with significant European user overlap, addressing the same independent professional segment with a traditional marketplace rather than cooperative model.
• Malt: Malt is a European freelancer marketplace that connects independent professionals with clients across multiple EU countries, serving the same freelancer persona Smart targets while providing adjacent admin and payment tooling.

Broad incumbents

• ADP: ADP is a global incumbent in payroll, HR, and workforce administration with European operations serving freelancers and contractors through products like ADP TotalSource — a broad incumbent offering overlapping admin capabilities.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/SMartBe_FR
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/smartbefr

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

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 Smart