Visma and In Extenso have announced a strategic partnership through which Visma acquires a minority stake in fulll, the France-based accounting and payroll software provider.
Founded by In Extenso, one of France's largest chartered accountancy firms, fulll operates a cloud-native SaaS platform designed to cover the full accounting and payroll lifecycle. The platform offers core accounting production, including pre-accounting and banking integrations, alongside payroll and HR automation tools. It was also built for accounting offices managing compliance obligations at scale, without requiring their clients to maintain extensive in-house technical resources.
Addressing a fragmented market ahead of regulatory change
The partnership targets a structurally fragmented French market comprising approximately 19.000 accounting firms, which collectively serve an estimated 3.8 million SMEs. The timing of the deal is closely tied to France's forthcoming mandatory e-invoicing reform, which will progressively require all businesses to adopt electronic invoicing. That shift is expected to significantly increase the digital and compliance burden on accounting offices, accelerating demand for integrated technology platforms capable of meeting the new regulatory requirements.
A company official at In Extenso noted that the partnership provides fulll with the scale and stability needed to develop further, and that the e-invoicing transition makes the timing particularly relevant for clients of accounting firms.
The partnership also includes a commitment to invest in the Impulse Data datahub, of which In Extenso and fulll are co-founders. That platform aggregates anonymised data from more than 800.000 SMEs, with the aim of supporting advisory services offered by accounting firms to their business clients.
Strategic positioning for Visma in France
For Norway-based Visma, which provides business software across Europe and Latin America, the stake in fulll represents a further step in building out its accounting, tax, and payroll offer in the French market. The agreement also establishes a longer-term commercial relationship, under which In Extenso remains both a shareholder and a strategic client of fulll, with scope for collaboration across other Visma products.
The deal reflects a broader trend in European accounting software consolidation, as established software groups seek to strengthen their presence in markets where regulatory changes (particularly around e-invoicing and digital compliance) are expected to drive structural demand for cloud-based platforms among professional services firms.
