After 17 years of self-financing the growth of their technology company, the co-founders of GSoft last week received $125 million from the Caisse de depot et placement du Québec (CDPQ) to make acquisitions.
“We have thousands of customers in a hundred countries, so for us, seeking products that complement our offer and creating value for our customers makes a lot of sense today,” says GSoft president Simon de Baene.
GSoft made its first steps into services in 2006 and began developing its own software three years later. Its flagship products include ShareGate, a management solution in Microsoft 365, used by IT professionals to achieve digital business transformation, and Officevibe, designed to drive team performance, engagement and recognition.
A rare course
GSoft’s journey is an exception in the tech world: self-funding product development for such a long time, growing from 0 to 400 employees and achieving international success is very rare.
“When we offered services at the beginning, we billed for hours. We paid ourselves a very low salary and we put all the surplus in the bank, knowing that it would be useful one day. We still have a Desjardins receipt with $1 million in the bank account!” smiled the entrepreneur, happy to have been disciplined.
The money was invested then in the creation of ShareGate, the first product, and so on. The CDPQ joins the shareholders while GSoft is in excellent financial health.
“It will give us even more means for our ambitions, foresees Simon de Baene. And I’m glad I was never given any money when I was 20 and had just founded GSoft! At 20, I knew nothing. At 37, we know what we are doing and we have done well for 17 years.
Enhance the employee experience
The acquisitions targeted by GSoft will aim to offer more products to enhance the employee experience in companies. Recently, GSoft got hold of Didacte in Quebec, which specializes in the management of in-house training. The transformation of the world of work brought about by the pandemic represents great potential in the eyes of Mr. de Baene.
“It’s as if the world of work had reset itself and we had traveled back in time 15 to 20 years ahead. For us, it’s an opportunity to innovate and take advantage of this moment to bring GSoft to another level with the Caisse,” says the entrepreneur.
GSoft is becoming a bit of a laboratory for experimenting with all the solutions to improve the employee experience in the context of remote work. The company had inaugurated beautiful office spaces three months before the pandemic, which caused it to become a “distributed” company, therefore with employees across the country. Renowned for its culture, GSoft had to adapt to a new reality.
“We have managed to remain a company that arouses passions. We get together two or three times a year,” says Simon de Baene, for whom people and projects must now be at the center of attention.