Cegid has announced its acquisition of Shine, a fast-growing European fintech unicorn, in a move set to create one of the region’s most comprehensive financial platforms for small and midsize businesses (SMBs) and accounting professionals. The merger brings together two leaders in digital finance and business management, combining Cegid’s extensive portfolio in cloud-based accounting, HR, and tax software with Shine’s digital business accounts, payments, e-invoicing, and payroll solutions.
The combined entity aims to form Europe’s first fully integrated, cloud-native, AI-driven financial hub. Cegid and Shine will combine their strengths to simplify financial operations for over one million SMBs and 15,000 accountants in key European markets. These markets include France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Belgium. Shine adds more than 400,000 SMB customers to Cegid’s ecosystem. This boosts the reach and tech scale of the joint platform.
Designed for entrepreneurs, this unified platform provides full functionality. It includes invoicing, accounting, business accounts, payments, tax, payroll, and reporting. AI automation and standardized workflows will reduce administrative tasks. Compliance-ready tools for e-invoicing and digital reporting will boost collaboration between businesses and their accountants.
Also Read: OneBill and DocuSend Strengthen Partnership to Deliver Automated, Paper-Based Billing at Scale
Rico Andersen and Martin Hegelund, Co-Founders of Shine, said: “From founding Shine as a start-up to building it into a leading European unicorn, our mission has been driven by the ambition to radically remove complexity for businesses. Joining forces with Cegid allows us to uniquely bring that vision into a much broader community of millions of small businesses, and their accountants, across Europe. By combining the strongest SMB business accounts and payments platform with the most advanced accounting technology, we are creating Europe’s first truly unified financial hub, built to eliminate complexity for millions of businesses. Two category leaders. One unified platform. Europe’s new business finance powerhouse is here.”
Cegid‘s leaders highlighted the merger’s strategic value for accounting and the SMB sector. They stressed its importance in helping firms navigate Europe’s ongoing regulatory and digital changes.
