Paris based Rivage has raised €2.6 million in a pre seed funding round to accelerate the rollout of its next generation payroll software for accounting firms, targeting one of the most structurally important yet technologically stagnant segments of the French business software market.
The round was backed by Partech alongside a group of well known business angels from the technology and accounting ecosystem, including founders of Skello, Hexa, Quarksup, and Teledec. The capital will be used to strengthen product development and expand regulatory and collective agreement coverage as Rivage scales its platform across France.
A core system under pressure
Payroll is a foundational function for French businesses. More than half of employees in France depend on accounting firms or outsourced providers to handle payroll processing and social security declarations. This places payroll software at the heart of daily operations for thousands of firms and millions of workers.
Despite its importance, the market remains dominated by legacy systems that are often rigid, closed, and poorly adapted to the accelerating digitalisation of very small and small to medium sized businesses. Many accounting firms rely on tools that were not designed for modern interoperability, automation, or real time advisory use, increasing operational friction and limiting productivity.
As regulatory requirements continue to grow more complex, payroll managers face rising workloads and pressure, while firms struggle to evolve their service offerings beyond compliance driven tasks.
Building an open and interoperable payroll platform
Founded in July 2025 by Ayoub Saidane, Hector Vergeron, Paul Lemoine, and CEO Tancrède d’Hauteville, Rivage was created to rethink payroll software from the ground up, with accounting firms at the centre of the design process.
Rivage is developing an open and interoperable payroll platform designed to increase the productivity of payroll managers while transforming payroll data into a strategic asset for broader HR advisory services. Rather than operating as a closed system, the platform is built to integrate smoothly with other tools used by firms and their clients, including HRIS solutions.
The software automates complex and time consuming tasks across the payroll cycle, helping firms reduce manual effort, improve reliability, and adapt more easily to regulatory change at scale. Rivage is already live across eight partner accounting firms, providing early validation of its approach.
Breaking free from legacy constraints
According to CEO Tancrède d’Hauteville, payroll has become a growing pain point for firms due to a combination of regulatory complexity, digital transformation among clients, and long standing dependence on legacy providers.
He explained that Rivage was built in close collaboration with accounting partners to help firms regain control over their tooling, improve long term productivity, and better align with client expectations. Advances in AI are opening new opportunities in a segment that has seen limited innovation for years, allowing firms to move beyond basic processing toward higher value services.
Product development and coverage expansion
The newly raised funding will support two main priorities. First, Rivage will continue developing the platform to improve efficiency and reliability across every stage of the payroll cycle. This includes deeper HRIS integrations, simplified advanced configuration, and enhanced auditability of payroll and DSN calculations.
Second, the company plans to expand its collective agreement coverage, a critical requirement in the French payroll landscape. Rivage aims to significantly broaden the number of supported agreements by the end of the year, enabling more firms to transition onto the platform.
With fresh capital and growing traction among accounting firms, Rivage is positioning itself as a modern alternative in a market ready for change, seeking to turn payroll from an operational burden into a foundation for smarter advisory services.
