Strategic partnership between BNPPF & EMASPHERE

Why BNP Paribas Fortis and EMASPHERE are entering into a strategic partnership.

Why did BNPPF and EMASPHERE choose to enter into a strategic partnership?

Since 2015, EMASPHERE has been developing and selling a SaaS tool that helps SMEs analyze and track their financial and operational results. The company recently entered into a strategic partnership with BNP PARIBAS FORTIS, proof of how efficient, reliable and user-friendly its product is. We spoke with Didier Vankeerberghen, co-founder of EMASPHERE, and Frédéric Fontaine, Head of Transaction Banking at BNP Paribas Fortis, to learn more about this reporting tool for SMEs.

How did EMASPHERE come about?

Didier Vankeerberghen: EMASPHERE is really the product of a long and fruitful collaboration between all the founders. Together, we had founded an asset management company and ran it for twenty years. We had 650 employees across seventeen offices. From the very start, we placed great importance on accurate reporting and forecasts. I am convinced that contributed enormously to our company's success. Both for the day-to-day management of the business and for our future plans, we relied on reliable "facts & figures". It was in our DNA. When we sold the company and started focusing more on startups and SMEs, we saw that they often relied on incorrect data or spent hours structuring their data. That is why we founded EMASPHERE. We wanted to free finance managers from the stress that comes with reporting. In this digital age, it seemed obvious to leverage our expertise in reporting and KPI tracking and develop a tool that addresses the real needs of startups and SMEs."

How is EMASPHERE revolutionizing the analysis of financial and operational results?

Didier Vankeerberghen: CFOs need to be able to spend more time analyzing and sharing data, and less time structuring it. Most CFOs spend 80% of their time preparing reports and 20% analyzing them. With EMASPHERE, they can reverse that ratio, because they automate their reporting, making company data easier to access and analyze.

Our tool gives companies access to a library of KPIs, charts and dashboards based on our expertise, which each company can adapt and expand as it wishes. The advantage is that you do not start from scratch. Yet EMASPHERE is more than a tool for displaying and analyzing financial and operational data. You can also use it to build forecasts, generate P&Ls, track cash flow ... Sound management of solvency and liquidity is crucial today. That requires solid, up-to-date KPIs and analytical overviews, as well as good simulations and forecasts for the months ahead. That is exactly what EMASPHERE offers.

You are no longer a start-up but a scale-up. What were the decisive factors in that evolution?

Didier Vankeerberghen: more than 10,000 companies in 40 countries now use our tool. EMASPHERE currently has around sixty employees and is still actively recruiting.

"In my view, the decisive factor in this great evolution is the combination of three elements: our expertise and the fact that the solution fits seamlessly with the needs of CFOs (1), our direct distribution network and that of our partners, such as BNP Paribas Fortis (2), and finally our loyal shareholders (3), who have stepped up several times and clearly have great confidence in the company's evolution and future."

EMASPHERE also recently announced a new capital increase. What are the next steps?

Didier Vankeerberghen: indeed, we have just completed a successful funding round of 5.7 million euros. This will allow us to strengthen our competitive edge and keep investing in product development and distribution (through partnerships) and in our geographic growth. Among other things, we want to enter the Dutch market and strengthen our bank partnership strategy, given the successful collaboration with BNP Paribas Fortis.

Building on that, Frédéric Fontaine, can you tell us how BNPPF came across EMASPHERE?

Frédéric Fontaine: as a bank, we see that companies are currently very focused on liquidity, payments, working capital and cash flow forecasts. Especially since March 2020, when the economy suddenly came to a halt and then had to be restarted. What used to be a need has become an absolute necessity. At BNP Paribas Fortis, we had already decided before the COVID crisis that we wanted to systematically monitor our clients' working capital position. The bank's "Beyond Banking" digital strategy puts these aspects of liquidity, payments and working capital needs first.

"That sparked our interest in EMASPHERE, a tool that meets our clients' need for digital solutions and data analytics."

In September 2018, BNP Paribas Fortis sat on the jury of the hackathon organized by B-Hive, the Belgian fintech association, where EMASPHERE won the "Financial Management for SMEs & Professionals" track. EMASPHERE is both an innovative and a pragmatic solution. It is a highly efficient tool that combines accounting and operational data and meets a real business need. What's more, the ready-to-use solution fits perfectly with BNP's "Beyond Banking" strategy, which aims to support companies beyond traditional financing services throughout the entire customer journey. It clicked right away! Since 2021, EMASPHERE has been one of the digital solutions we recommend to our clients.

Why did you decide to partner with EMASPHERE?

Frédéric Fontaine: beyond the "Beyond Banking" component, where EMASPHERE fits perfectly, BNP Paribas Fortis sees the tool as an innovative digital solution that allows our clients to manage their business and link their accounting data to their operational data in real time. This helps them better understand and steer their activity, and above all better anticipate the future. As we saw during the crisis, that is crucial for certain companies.

Together with the EMASPHERE team, we took the time to develop specific dashboard models tailored to the needs of our business clients. This allows us to better support them with performance and cash flow management. These dashboards are continuously updated as business activities evolve, so our clients can quickly identify their financing needs. The dashboards also come in handy in their relationship with the bank, for example when they want to apply for bank loans. Clients become proactive rather than reactive.

"A major advantage is that the client remains the sole owner of their data in EMASPHERE. It is only shared temporarily with the bank when the client chooses, for example to apply for a banking product."

Of course, our clients' banking data is never shared with EMASPHERE either.

How do BNPPF clients feel about EMASPHERE?

Frédéric Fontaine: our clients have three main needs. First and foremost, they need a clear view of their finance KPIs in a digital solution (Belgium lags behind other countries in this area). Next, especially since the COVID crisis, they need up-to-date figures, with a daily or weekly overview of their activities. A monthly or quarterly update is no longer enough and can even be harmful. Finally, in this context, it is very important to optimize working capital needs to avoid cash flow problems. Companies get into trouble because of a lack of liquidity, not a lack of solvency. It is the key to a financially healthy business. EMASPHERE is a ready-to-use solution that meets these three needs of business owners.

For example, we have a client in the construction sector that always wants enough cash flow to bridge the construction industry holiday, as well as difficult periods when customers pay late or other problems arise. With EMASPHERE, they can closely monitor their cash flow and make sound forecasts so they can grow with greater peace of mind, backed by the trust and support of their bank.

Our partnership with EMASPHERE has now been running in Belgium for four months and everything is going extremely well. This collaboration model is already being cited as an example across the entire BNP Paribas group and fits perfectly into our digital strategy for SMEs. What is still a local collaboration today could soon be extended to other countries where BNP Paribas operates!