Unifiedpost and French federation of accountants sustainably join forces

Ongoing partnership for French e-invoicing platform jefacture.com will be anchored in joint venture

La Hulpe, Belgium – December 22, 2022, 7.00 a.m. CET, European leader in e-invoicing Unifiedpost Group (Euronext: UPG) (Unifiedpost, the Group or the Company) has set up a joint venture with ECMA – the entity linked to the digitization of the cabinets of the French National Council of the Order of Chartered Accountants – to establish their ongoing partnership in the long term. It will also allow both parties to maximise the full market potential of jefacture.com. This e-invoicing platform developed by Unifiedpost for ECMA enables French chartered accountants to help their clients in the transition towards mandatory B2B e-invoicing. Next to that, it facilitates the additional, direct market entry of the platform to tens of thousands of SMEs.

As from 1 July 2024, all French companies should be able to receive e-invoices. This implies a significant implementation of calibrated technology by all businesses in order to comply with this VAT-based regulation. Already in 2020, ECMA therefore closed a partnership with Belgian listed e-invoicing provider Unifiedpost in order to provide French accountants with a platform to manage the e-invoicing flows of their clients. Today jefacture.com allows SMEs to dematerialize and route all purchase and sales invoices in Factur-X format and to integrate them in their management tools. In France, there are about 20.000 accountants serving 2,75 million of SMEs. More than 600 million B2B invoices are send out yearly in the country.

Now this partnership is taken to the next level. As ECMA wants to invest heavily in the ongoing transformation and therefore wants to sustainable anchor the exploitation of jefacture.com, also to SMEs directly, the joint venture Facturel was created together with Unifiedpost.

François Millo, Director of ECMA stated: “Although mandatory e-invoicing will bring productivity gains for businesses, and in particular the smallest ones, it will nevertheless remain complex to implement. With jefacture.com, chartered accountants know that they can rely on a trusted e-invoicing platform in the context of this crucial reform. jefacture.com enables them to be at the heart of the invoicing flows, to assist their clients in passing this legislative milestone.”

Hans Leybaert, CEO and founder of Unifiedpost Group stated: “Thanks to the joined expertise and experience of ECMA and Unifiedpost, accumulated by the jefacture.com platform since its launch in 2020, chartered accountants and companies have a functional and efficient tool that allows them to anticipate the transition to electronic invoicing without waiting until July 2024. With the creation of Facturel, we are sending a message to the market of a joint long-term collaboration. It shows the necessary commitment and allows the pooling of significant resources to meet the security requirements set by the public authorities.”

Investor Relations & Media

Sarah Heuninck
+32 491 15 05 09
sarah.heuninck@unifiedpost.com

Financial Calendar 2023

• 6 March 2023                                Publication FY 2022 Financial Results
• 18 April 2023                                 Publication Annual Report 2022
• 16 May 2023                                  Annual General Meeting of Shareholders
• 22 May 2023                                  Publication Q1 2023 Business Update
• 29 August 2023                             Publication H1 2023 Financial Results
• 16 November 2023                      Publication Q3 2023 Business Update                       

About Unifiedpost Group

Unifiedpost is a leading cloud-based platform for SME business services built on “Documents”, “Identity” and “Payments”. Unifiedpost operates and develops a 100% cloud-based platform for administrative and financial services that allows real-time and seamless connections between Unifiedpost’s customers, their suppliers, their customers, and other parties along the financial value chain. With its one-stop-shop solutions, Unifiedpost’s mission is to make administrative and financial processes simple and smart for its customers. Since its founding in 2001, Unifiedpost has grown significantly, expanding to offices in 32 countries, with more than 500 million documents processed in 2021, reaching over 1,600,000 SMEs and more than 2,500 Corporates across its platform today.

Noteworthy facts and figures:

• Established in 2001, with a proven track record
• 2021 turnover €171 million
• 1400+ employees
• Diverse portfolio of clients across a wide variety of industries (banking, leasing, utilities, media, telecommunications, travel, social security service providers, public organisations, etc.) ranging from large internationals to SMEs
• Unifiedpost Payments, a fully owned subsidiary, is recognised as a payment institution by the National Bank of Belgium
• Certified Swift partner
• International M&A track record
• Listed on the regulated market of Euronext Brussels, symbol: UPG

(*) Warning about future statements: The statements contained herein may contain forecasts, future expectations, opinions and other future-oriented statements concerning the expected further performance of Unifiedpost Group on the markets in which it is active.  Such future-oriented statements are based on the current insights and assumptions of management concerning future events.  They naturally include known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which seem justified at the time that the statements are made but may possibly turn out to be inaccurate.  The actual results, performance or events may differ essentially from the results, performance or events which are expressed or implied in such future-oriented statements.  Except where required by the applicable legislation, Unifiedpost Group shall assume no obligation to update, elucidate or improve future-oriented statements in this press release in the light of new information, future events or other elements and shall not be held liable on that account.  The reader is warned not to rely unduly on future-oriented statements.

About ECMA

Being a non-profit organisation created by the French National Council of the Order of Chartered Accountants, ECMA provides digital solutions simplifying and securing daily business of chartered accountants. ECMA supports French chartered accountants and their clients to their constantly digital transformation. Among these solutions, jefacture.com is the e-invoicing platform designed by chartered accountants for their clients. jefacture.com is used on a daily basis by thousands of accounting firms and SME’s.