Georges.tech becomes Indy and raises 35 million euros to generalise its alternative to accountants.
The Lyon-based startup, which automates the accounting of 40,000 customers, raises €35M in Series B and becomes Indy to position itself as a true asset to the self-employed. This new round of financing supported by historical investors Alven, Kerala and led by Singular, will enable Indy to develop new features, extend its offer to more tax regimes and break into the American market. To do this, Indy will recruit more than 100 employees.
The Lyon-based startup successfully reshapes the accounting for independents.
The financial cost of a chartered accountant is often very high for independents. Georges is an app that allows them to complete their accounting and tax returns online very easily, according to the standards of the tax authorities. This solution is 3 to 5 times cheaper, while being supported by a highly reactive customer service.
Today, Georges changes his name to Indy to reflect its new strategy. Its goal is now to go much further in helping the independents and to stand as a real alternative to the accountant. By keeping the same mindset of simplicity, support and affordability, Indy is setting to revolutionise accounting often extremely time-consuming and considered as a source of anxiety.
In 2020, the startup, which employs more than 100 employees in its offices in Lyon, launched its offer for entrepreneurs in specific regimes (such as EURL, SARL, SAS, SASU). A significant step after starting up with the liberal professions under the Non-commercial profits regime (“BNC” in French), such as doctors, physiotherapists, lawyers, and graphic designers.
A new offer that won over its public as the startup multiplied by 3 its growth this year. It reached 40,000 customers, keeping the trend of previous years. It plans to triple its revenues again in 2021.
A €35M fund-raising campaign with a dual objective
In order to ensure its development in France and worldwide, Indy announced today a €35M-B-series fund raising, once again supported by historical investors Alven, Kerala, and welcoming Singular.
Indy’s first objective is to quickly become the French leader in this market, which represents more than 6 million self-employed people. This fund raising will enable the startup to adapt its solution to more tax regimes, such as for craftsperson who fall under the Industrial and Commercial Profits regime (“BIC” in French), and to add new features to better support the self-employed.
Indy also plans to double its workforce in Lyon by recruiting more than 100 new talents in 2021 including sales people, developers, product managers and customer success managers.
Côme Fouques, CEO and co-founder of Indy : “Now that we proved our ability to support tens of thousands of self-employed people with a unrivalled satisfaction level in our market, this new financing will give us the resources to spread our model more widely by freeing hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs from their administrative chores.”
Strong ambitions and values
- Simplicity: always make life as simple as possible for the self-employed so that they lose less time on their accounting and devote themselves to their work with serenity.
- A human approach: a 100% French-based, responsive customer service to support freelancers at every stage of their declarations.
- Affordable and transparent prices: thanks to its innovative model, Indy can cost 5 times less than a traditional accountant without any compromise on client satisfaction.
Bartosz Jakubowski – Partner at Alven : “Indy is the archetype of what an investor is looking for: an ambitious team that tackles an issue experienced by millions of self-employed people, namely the accounting and tax management of their business. The entire team is permanently committed to satisfying its customers thanks to flawless customer service and a unique product approach, using machine learning to automate accountancy.”
The next step for Indy is the penetration of the American market, which shares many similarities with the French tax system. With 24 million self-employed people in service provision, the United States should enable the company to further scale up to become a world leader in its category.