Societe Generale to sell Shine

Four years after acquiring Shine, a French fintech startup that offers bank accounts to freelancers and small companies, Societe Generale is announcing plans to sell the startup to Ageras, a company offering a range of financial services and products for small businesses in France, Germany, The Netherlands and Denmark.

The sale contributes to the simplification of Societe Generale and allows the financial services company to refocus on SG, its retail banking network in France. Ageras would take over all of Shine’s activities as well as all its employees and the deal is expected to be completed in the first half of 2025.

According to a report by TechCrunch, Societe Generale paid ~€100 million in cash to acquire Shine, which raised just over $12 million in funding. The startup has over 100k customers and it also offers a variety of insurance products.

“This would be our largest and most significant acquisition to date, moving us closer to achieving our ambition of building the ultimate financial hub for small businesses across Europe. When completed, the combination of Shine’s excellent banking product with our broad banking, accounting and business software, would enable us to deliver a complete offering of key financial solutions in France, mirroring our success in other core markets. We are truly impressed with what the Shine team has built and are looking forward to welcoming the team and together building the leading financial player for SMEs in France and across Europe.” – Rico Andersen, CEO of Ageras.