Memo 2025: a message from the founder

Today, Partoo generates over € 35,5 million in ARR and is on the verge of profitability. But beyond financial performance, we are highly optimistic and believe we are on track to build a business generating hundreds of millions of euros in revenue. Here’s why:

• Over the years, we’ve successfully developed the best solution on the market – a simple and intuitive platform highly praised by all who test it.
• Our reputation is built on our relentless efforts to satisfy our customers, our company culture, and the quality of our product.
• We hold a leading market share in France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, the Middle East, and Latin America. These markets, however, remain underpenetrated, offering significant growth potential.
• Our technical velocity allows us to innovate rapidly, creating new features that expand our addressable market.
• We have a unique and highly difficult-to-replicate positioning, built on a Trusted Partner approach focused on customer satisfaction, a product that fosters collaboration with in-store teams (Local Expert), and an All-In-One platform. 
• Our strong company culture enables us to bring together 350 committed employees, all driven by our mission to help businesses get closer to their clients.

However, not everything has gone according to plan. A year ago, we hoped 2024 would mark the recovery of the global economy. Unfortunately, the crisis – exacerbated by a challenging geopolitical environment – has persisted. The tightening of financing has led to widespread layoffs and bankruptcies around us. We, too, had to adapt by withdrawing from certain markets.

Despite these challenges, Partoo has grown by nearly 15% this year, driven by its unique positioning, which has stood out against the competition. This growth was achieved without increasing the size of the team, demonstrating our growing collective efficiency. In the face of difficulties, we can take pride in our efforts and the work we have accomplished together.

Looking back, Thibault and I believe our greatest achievement remains successfully delivering foundational projects essential to ensuring our long-term success. These solid foundations allow us to look to the future with confidence: 2025 will mark a pivotal milestone with the strengthening of our leadership, paving the way for renewed acceleration in 2026!

Key Structural Decisions in 2024

We have always believed that Partoo stands out from the competition through its speed of execution and agility. However, by the end of 2023, we recognised that some of that flexibility had been lost: our operations had become more complex, and our priorities were insufficiently clear.

A year ago, to tackle this situation, we launched several foundational projects organised as branches of the Hyperion Tree. I believe it is important to revisit the key aspects of these initiatives in this memo:

1. Adjusting the SMB Positioning

We have streamlined our offering and increased our pricing to better reflect the true value of our solutions. Alongside this, we redefined our “target customer” by ceasing prospecting efforts towards independent and micro-businesses (MIC). Instead, we have shifted our focus to local businesses with multiple locations. These businesses inherently have a significantly higher renewal rate compared to MICs or independent professionals. These adjustments have enabled us to build a profitable SMB model with strong growth potential, both in France and Italy.

2. Customer Segmentation

To further personalise our support and to enhance customer satisfaction, we transitioned from a two-market approach (Enterprise and SMB) to a customer segmentation model based on four pillars: SMB (Small and Medium Businesses), SME (Small and Medium Enterprise), Mid-Market, and Key Accounts.

This shift required significant changes, including merging the activities of AE (sales people) and KAM (account managers), reallocating accounts, and redefining customer support, service, and pricing policies for each segment. Starting in 2025, this new structure will enable us to unlock more upsell opportunities (through stronger collaboration between AE and CS, i.e., our project managers), to improve performance in both client acquisition and renewals, and to better tailor our offerings to the size of each customer.

3. Improved Cash Flow Management

During this period of economic uncertainty, we placed significant focus on optimising cash flow management. To expedite client payments, we have implemented enhanced tools and strengthened collaboration between the Sales, Customer Success (CS), and Finance teams. The positive results give us confidence in our ability to further reduce financial needs in the short and medium term.

4. Enhancing Customer Relations

Over the last 12 months, we restructured and resized our Support team in order to align with industry standards. By improving our product, streamlining workflows, and incorporating AI, we have managed to maintain strong results in terms of customer satisfaction (response time, CSAT), and to allow the team to focus on higher-value tasks.

The Continuation of the Hyperion Plan

These developments align with Hyperion, Partoo’s three-year strategic plan unveiled in 2024. Today, we are proud to highlight the key advancements achieved under the three pillars of this roadmap.

1. Escape from the Presence Management image

To position ourselves as a strategic partner in the eyes of our clients and the broader ecosystem, we are focused on Partoo being recognised as an all-in-one solution. Thanks to the remarkable efficiency of our tech teams, we have made significant strides recently:

• With the launch of Jim and various client case studies (e.g., Orange, Dentego, France Parebrise, Cash Converters), we are now seen as one of the most credible and promising players in the conversational commerce market.
• The numerous developments in Review Management (revamped Analytics page, auto tag, auto reply, Feedback Management, etc.) have significantly widened the gap between us and generalist competitors, while establishing us as a serious competitor to niche market leaders.
• Enhancements on our Store Locator (back office, new blocks, UX, etc.), combined with the successful deployment of major French companies’ Store Locators, have positioned us as one of the leading solutions, delivering both SEO performance and user-friendly design.
• Finally, the release of our Competitive Benchmark has opened doors to supporting customers in implementing and monitoring their strategic action plans – a dimension of our business we’ve always aspired to expand into.

2. Increase our Addressable Market

To become one of Europe’s leading software company, we needed to expand our addressable market. Over the past year, it has grown by 300%, increasing from € 200 million to € 800 million.

• International: This expansion has been driven by revenue growth in Latin America and the MENA region of 30%, as well as the signing of European and global contracts with companies like Manpower, Kia or Europcar
• SMB: We have also successfully defined a profitable SMB model focused on local businesses with multiple points of sale, with a market size estimated at € 300 million in France and € 200 million in Italy.
• Product: Finally, the developments in our product make us confident in our ability to significantly increase the average revenue per client and expand the size of our Enterprise market from €200 million to €800 million over the next five years. 

3. Achieve Sustainable growth

As early as 2023, we emphasised the importance for Partoo of establishing a sustainable model where revenues exceed costs. Thanks to the growth of our ARR in 2024, and the satisfaction of our existing customers (renewal rate of 90% among enterprise clients, with an NPS of over 50), we will begin 2025 in a profitable position – a trend we expect to continue throughout the year.

However, “Sustainable Growth” encompasses more than just financial performance, and we’ve achieved significant progress in several important areas: 

• Our collective engagement with Partoo has grown stronger, as evidenced by the rebound in our employee NPS. This trend is palpable in our daily work: there is a strong collective drive, combined with a shared ambition for the years ahead.
• Our commitment to exemplarity, inspired by our Make Things Right vision, has also positively impacted our reputation, which remains excellent among clients, prospects, partners, and candidates. 
• Additionally, achieving our B Corp certification marks the beginning of an ambitious journey to create a positive impact on our ecosystem, particularly in terms of environmental responsibility, respect for our employees, customers, and partners.
• Finally, we have made significant progress in professional development. Career paths and salary frameworks were rolled out across multiple teams, internal mobility doubled compared to 2023, and we delivered over 70 training sessions and coaching opportunities! 

It’s incredibly gratifying to reflect on all these developments! 

A New Positioning Launched 5 Years Ago

In 2019, we outlined Partoo’s unique positioning – one that would enable us to become the leader in our market. Five years later, this positioning remains unchanged and continues to rely on three essential pillars, which have only grown in importance over time:

• Trusted Partner: Our mission is to help businesses with physical locations deliver optimal customer experiences. In a world where purchasing journeys are constantly evolving, it has become clear that our role goes beyond simply designing a high-performing product: we must guide and advise our customers. While our competitors position themselves as “technology solution providers”, we have chosen to stand out as a “trusted partner”. This approach is reflected in our values of curiosity and empathy, our unique expertise, the distinctiveness of our interactions with our clients (consultative selling, webinars, marketing events), and the dedicated support provided by our Customer Success and Customer Care teams, which goes far beyond what other players in the market offer.

• Local Experts: Historically, our clients were hesitant to share Partoo access with in-store staff, fearing low-quality social media posts, inappropriate responses to reviews, or neglected updates to store opening hours. From the beginning, we were convinced that local adoption of a platform like Partoo’s was the key to addressing many of their challenges: providing responsive and personalised replies to reviews, promptly updating critical information such as opening hours, and incorporating customer feedback to continuously improve in-store operations. In 2020, Carrefour’s CEO stated “We cannot envision the digital transformation of our company without involving store teams, who represent the majority of our workforce”. Since then, this trend has only intensified. Today, Partoo is the only European player offering a mobile app of such high quality, coupled with responsive support and an intuitive, user-friendly interface that fosters collaboration.

• All-in-One: With the rapid growth of the software market, our clients have significantly increased the number of tools used by their marketing teams: CRM, social media, SEO, competitive monitoring, reputation, customer interaction, etc. Today, they all face the same challenges: the complexity of managing these tools and the underutilisation of many of these platforms. Over the past three years, the trend has shifted towards consolidating solutions, reducing the number of tools to simplify workflows, increase adoption, and cut costs. In this context, our generalist, all-in-one platform is a major advantage compared to specialised players. This multi-product approach is increasingly appealing, with a growing number of customers choosing us for this reason (Atol, Casino, Technocasa, etc.).

However, when the three pillars of our positioning were established in 2019, it was far from obvious. At the time, Partoo was viewed primarily as a Presence Management solution, and fewer than 10% of our clients shared access with in-store teams. Today, this narrative resonates more strongly than ever: over 15% of the brands we work with now use three or four of our products, and 40% share access with their local teams. This figure is set to grow further as more marketing teams recognise the value of collaborative tools within decentralised organisations to enhance the customer journey.

This simplicity-focused approach is becoming a true barrier to entry for our competitors. Building a simple platform is difficult, but simplifying an already complex platform is even more challenging! Achieving this often requires removing features and accepting the potential for customer dissatisfaction, which could lead to higher churn rates.

By continuing to prioritise user experience, we will further widen the gap with our competitors and solidify our reputation as the best product on the market.

2025: Strengthening Our Leadership

Over the next 12 months, our goal is to consolidate our positioning and assert our leadership in market share, innovation, and expertise. To achieve this, we will focus on four key strategic priorities: Product, Geographic Leadership, People, and Company Culture.

1. Product

This year, more than ever, we aim to empower store networks to build lasting relationships with their customers by reinventing the shopping experience – from the first interaction to fostering loyalty.

Our ambition to become an All-In-One platform will truly come to life. Over the next 24 months, we will not only enhance our recent features – such as Competitive Benchmark and Feedback Management- but also introduce groundbreaking products that will completely change the game: outbound communication campaigns via WhatsApp, Instagram, or SMS, as well as the launch of a solution to manage action plans locally. And this is just the beginning!

Each of these tools, powered by Artificial Intelligence, will enable Partoo users to act faster, customise interactions, and amplify their impact with their own customers. Because in 2025, more than ever, excellence in customer relationships will be a decisive factor for success.

Moreover, with the launch of the App Directory in the coming years – a key milestone in our evolution – we will usher in a new era of digital collaboration. This portal, the result of years of careful thought, will become a fully interconnected ecosystem. Our clients will be able to tailor their use of Partoo by integrating their key tools. Initial use cases will include adding review monitoring platforms (such as Trustpilot or Ubereats), communication channels (live chat, TikTok, LinkedIn, X…), product catalogue integrations within Jim, and connections to scheduling tools. This development will significantly enhance our ability to meet the specific needs of our clients, positioning us as the essential partner for their growth, regardless of their industry.

2. Geographic Leadership

We will also continue with the approach launched last year, which aims to secure the number one position in all the markets where we are already firmly established.

For Partoo, we will focus this year on our priority markets – France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, the Middle East, and Latin America – aiming to reach over 50% market share in each. This leadership will deter our competitors and prepare us to explore new geographies!

3. People 

In 2025, our priority will be to improve the way we work, aligning quality of life with operational performance.

We will continue to focus on employee well-being, ensuring that teams come together regularly to strengthen the collective sense of belonging. At the same time, we will build on the initiatives already underway regarding mental health, paying particular attention to sources of stress by improving prioritisation and communication when strategy changes occur.

We aim to empower everyone to succeed in their role. We will continue to develop expertise across all areas through more internal training and fostering constructive feedback – an essential driver for rapid individual growth. Managers will benefit from additional support, including targeted training and the arrival of a third PEX. Furthermore, recruit external hires – whose leadership will serve as a source of inspiration for all – will further contribute to the ongoing seniority of our management team.

Finally, we will focus on career development within Partoo. A stronger recognition policy for talent, including a dedicated salary increase budget (exceeding typical industry averages in France and Spain) and improved career development support will be implemented. Additionally, we will continue to promote internal mobility, further enriching the diversity of skills across teams.

4. Culture

During the October seminar, you unanimously highlighted “the people” as one of Partoo’s main strengths. In 2025, we will continue to invest in this cornerstone of our success by hiring individuals who share our values and shining a spotlight on those among you that embody them fully. We will also create numerous opportunities to meet, strengthen our connections, learn from each other, and celebrate our achievements. 

This year, we also aim to rebuild collective trust. By being clearer about certain contexts and decisions, we intend to encourage accountability, improve the quality of our choices, and reinforce shared commitment.

These efforts will help us achieve our target of 400,000 points of sale by 2025, with an ARR of € 40M – an objective that will depend on the recovery of the global economy, our collective performance, and our ability to maintain the enthusiasm of our early days! Furthermore, the investments mentioned earlier will equip us with the strength needed to kick off a new phase of significant growth.

2026: Resuming Acceleration

We are fortunate to operate in a market undergoing a profound transformation. Artificial intelligence offers significant opportunities to help retail businesses stand out from their competitors and to meet evolving customer needs. Innovations such as ChatGPT allow users to receive instant, personalised responses, revolutionising how they search for information online and challenging Google’s dominance. Large Language Models (LLM) are reimagining online shopping experiences: conversational commerce and product recommendations via interactive interactions could soon become the new standard, surpassing traditional navigation on e-commerce sites. Finally, the Digital Markets Act has reshaped the SEO landscape, restoring the Store Locator’s vital importance.

On all these fronts, Partoo is already ahead of the curve, supported by a curious and committed team ready to make the right decisions. Driven by this market momentum, our growth prospects have never been clearer or more promising.

In the coming weeks, we will share our plan to achieve this ambitious goal of the Hyperion strategy: 1,000,000 clients. This plan is based on levers we already control. That said, over the next 24 months, we will launch new projects and undergo transformations that go beyond our current forecasts, and that could have a significant impact on Partoo. 

We will indeed strengthen our expertise to secure more Key Account contracts and accelerate our growth. By enhancing our Messaging product, we are likely to expand our addressable market by meeting the needs of e-commerce players. Additionally, as our product gains more traction at the local level, we will enable business managers to subscribe to premium options for their point of sale, encouraging their wider network to deepen their engagement with Partoo.

We are also exploring the launch of a free version of our application, aimed at generating leads from businesses that may not otherwise have been convinced. Finally, we are considering an expansion into the United States, a market that appears to need a simple solution that facilitates collaboration within decentralised networks.

While these initiatives are still at the conceptual stage, we felt it was important to share them with you.

If we continue on this path, which we have embarked together over the past few months, we have no doubt in our ability to convince them to join us on our journey towards Hyperion!

Strength and honour,
Thibault