Is the Normandy region a land of entrepreneurs? The co-founders of Yousign, the European leader in e-signatures for SMEs/VSBs, certainly thinks so. The start-up was founded in 2013, moved to the Caen peninsula in September 2022 and is pushing forwards with a new CEO, new markets and new recruits. Let’s meet Luc Pallavidino, co-founder and now Executive Chairman of the Normandy business.
How the Normandy Region Shaped the Founders of Yousign
“Surprisingly enough, I came to Normandy to study,” smiles Luc Pallavidino from South West France. He wanted to train in computer security and joined the classrooms at ENSICAEN, an authority on the subject. It was the right decision! That’s where he met Antoine Louiset from Le Havre. The pair soon became firm friends and decided to work on e-signatures for their end-of-year project. “We realised that lots of companies at the time, SMEs and big businesses alike, used digital tools on a daily basis. But when it came to signatures, they had to print hand-written signatures, scan them, send them by post and sometimes produce several copies of them. It was a real waste of time.” After a benchmark, the two students realised there were only very technical solutions available on the market. Some of them were tricky to install and unsuitable for what companies needed them for.
In a few years, every single company will have an e-signature solution
They had a lightbulb moment: Antoine and Luc decided to design a turnkey solution that was as simple as possible to use with the same legal value as a paper signature. “The idea was to manage the technique and provide the signature service on a website or app, known as SaaS – Software as a Service.” Several local organisations spotted the solution’s potential on the French market and helped the two students get their business off the ground. ENSICAEN was one of them, alongside Normandie incubation (Normandy incubator for innovative start-ups), Normandy Region, BPI France and more. “Normandy has a wealth of expertise in the electronic money sector, which helped us a great deal as we use the same technology and materials.” After two years of development, 23 year olds Luc and Antoine founded Yousign in 2013.
A solution designed for SMEs/VSBs
To establish themselves and create the investments they needed to expand, the two friends launched successful fundraising campaigns. 500,000 Euros in 2015, 3 million Euros in 2018 and 30 million Euros in 2021. With sectors including real estate, finance, banking, legal and insurance, what was their USP? The business is designed for SMEs and VSBs with no more than 1000 employees. “We created our company to fulfil their needs and help them digitalise their business: they don’t have the same resources, means or structure as a major account.” Security, simplicity, tailor-made support, improved productivity and more. “We want our solution to be simple and easy to use at every level. Signatures are usually a positive administrative deed that represent an agreement,” says the Executive Chairman.
An e-signature is more secure than a paper one: after all, anyone can scribble something down
Let’s not forget one crucial aspect: security “We guarantee the document hasn’t been altered over time, we confirm the signatory’s identity (either by sending a secret code by text or checking it against some form of ID), we can even tell you the date and time of the signature with the same legal value as a postmark.” With relatively low equipment costs and the pandemic seeing digital services soar, Yousign set a benchmark on the market in a matter of years. “We’re one of the fastest-moving and biggest European companies in the industry,” says Luc Pallavidino.
Unique support in Normandy
Let’s give credit where credit’s due… the two founders never forgot where they came from. Especially the help they got from the region when they began their start-up journey. “We were supported at every stage of our development – it was a key factor in the success of both launching the business and getting it off the ground,” says the adopted Norman. What is a business? How do you create one? How do you develop one? “The Region helped us financially from the start, with the help of Normandie Participations: it enabled us to push forward and focus entirely on developing our idea.” Luc knows how much it means: “when I talk about it with other people, I don’t feel like it exists anywhere else.” Welcome support alongside the region’s many other assets. “It’s one of the reasons we stayed here, one of many,” says Luc Pallavidino.
We're extremely lucky: we had everything we needed to help us launch our business
Near the sea and Paris, a medium-sized town, a relaxing lifestyle and more reasons to apply for a job at the scale-up with offices in Paris, Caen, Italy and Germany. Development, product project management, design, sales, marketing, admin, legal etc. “We have over 200 employees at the moment and we’re hiring in France and abroad with no specific location.” There’s only one requirement for the hybrid work (employees can choose if they want to WFH): you need a computer and internet connection. Yousign, the European e-signature leader for SMEs and VSBs, is now planning to tackle the overseas market and expand its services. What’s the plan for the future? To cover the entire contracting process from drafting the document and entering data to managing a record of signed contracts. The company has just appointed Alban Sayag as CEO to make it happen.
So, are you ready to Yousign?
Good to know
A bit of vocabulary:
A scale-up is a company that’s no longer a start-up and has a proven business model: tried and tested growth strategy, fundraising, recruitment and organisation are key to the development process. Yousign launched Workflows, an automated solution that enables clients to draft contracts 5 times faster. Yousign is based in Paris and Caen and has also opened offices in Italy and Germany. The company expects to support over 50,000 SMEs in the next three years and turn a profit by 2025.
Thematics