Societe Generale, a French multinational investment bank, announced this week the acquisition of Shine, a neobank based in France, to expand its retail banking offering for small business and VSE clients.

Under the acquisition, Shine will continue its independent development with the added resources available from Societe Generale. The French fintech will be marketed by SocGen in addition to its existing offer. 

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Shine is a neobank which provides banking and administration services to its clients and is available online seven days a week. The company serves more than 70 thousand clients and provides a business account that is completely online.

Societe Generale has created more than one hundred dedicated business centers, as well as extended its range of services for business clients, in line with the strategic focus of the Group’s development plans.

Societe Generale to focus on entrepreneurs

The French bank has acquired Shine as part of these plans and its ambition to become the leader in the rapidly growing sector of small businesses and self-employed entrepreneurs. Through the neobank, services, such as credit, insurance, and payments, can be offered to clients.

Commenting on the acquisition, Marie-Christine Ducholet, Director of Societe Generale Retail Banking in France, said in the statement: “Through the acquisition of Shine, we will be able to offer entrepreneurs the widest offer in this growing, high-value market.”

“Shine’s model appealed to us because it reinforces our relational promise to offer clients the best of mix of people and digital technology.  Finally, there are many synergies with our various businesses allowing us to take our Open Banking strategy to the next level.”

The French neobank was established in 2018 and raised €10.8 million from Daphni, Kima Ventures, XAnge, and several business angels. According to the statement published on Tuesday, the transaction will not have a significant impact on the Societe Generale group’s CET1 ratio.

“We created Shine to make the lives of entrepreneurs easier and allow them to concentrate on their business. We are pleased and proud to join Societe Generale group, further proof of the solidity of our model, based on digital technology, human support, and responsible development,” added Nicolas Reboud, CEO and co-founder of Shine. 

“This acquisition will provide entrepreneurs with a solution that is still simple but considerably enriched (credit, insurance, payment, etc.). We can’t wait to speed up the work that has been going on for two years!”