Les Echos newspaper: Sequoiasoft takes over Cegid's hotel-restaurant assets

Sequoiasoft's buyout of the hotel-restaurant division of Cegid, the management software developer, took effect on the 1st July. The Sequoiasoft group, based in Sophia Antipolis (France), raised 5 million Euros in funds to finance their first external growth operation to take over Cegid Hotel-Restaurant. The move will position Sequoiasoft, which specialises in software aimed at tourist accommodation, restaurant and wellness professionals (spas and thalassotherapy centres), among the French frontrunners in this sector. The company is expected to achieve a consolidated turnover of 10.9 million Euros for the financial year 2014.

Sequoiasoft was born from the merger between ADN-informatique and Softbooking in 2010, and is one of the only software developers in a highly fragmented market to offer Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions to tourism professionals, covering the whole of the customer journey from online booking to check-out, managing overnight stays and events, and restaurant and wellness services along the way. "At the moment, we've got an individual product for each market, using distinct technologies. Our strategy is to develop a comprehensive product using one single platform with different modules, under the same brand: Sequoiasoft", explains Patrice Guyot, Company President.

International growth

The group will also use the extra funds to speed up its development on the international front. Sequoiasoft has overseas clients in the spa and distribution industries, based in North Africa, the Netherlands and England... But the turnover represented by these international operations is only marginal for the time being. "We're looking at the possibility of entering the tourism industry in North America," explains Patrice Guyot.

The group is present in Sophia Antipolis, where the head office of the holding company is based, and Challes-les-Eaux in the Savoy region, and will soon open a new office in Lyon to accommodate the Cegid Hotel-Restaurant teams (21 employees). With 4 new recruits on the way, its overall workforce will soon total 84 employees.

By Christiane Navas