Welii raises €520,000 to help companies optimize their SaaS purchases 

In 2020, companies spent $102 billion on SaaS according to Gartner ... but 30% of that spend is wasted on unused or vastly underutilized online services. Sound like a lot? It's the reality for the vast majority of companies, especially growing SMEs and scale-ups. Vincent, our CEO, has experienced this himself as a CFO in a start-up: 

"When I arrived at ReachFive, I was involved in ops missions, with the integration of tools like Salesforce in particular. I quickly managed - and suffered - a lot of SaaS contracts, with unwanted renewals. Having a global view of the situation and controlling all the SaaS tools was mission impossible, unless I spent a lot of time on it."

The idea germinates: if his company is experiencing these malfunctions, it's likely it's not the only one. Vincent talks about it with different people in the start-up, who confirm his observation. A former colleague put him in touch with Jean-Guillaume, our CTO, who also wanted to start his own business: 

"I had just finished an experience as a developer in fintech. I had made the same observation about SaaS spending by start-ups, and it turns out that I had already been thinking about the subject for two years! We were totally aligned on the product vision with Vincent and decided to launch together."

Welcome to the world of SaaS management

This is how Welii was born. Our initial idea: to help companies manage their SaaS contracts. This is what we call SaaS management. 

Why do companies need it? As mentioned earlier, a large majority of start-ups and SMEs pay for SaaS licenses: 

• That they do not use, or very little, because the tools are tested a few weeks before being abandoned because they do not meet a real need,
• Which overlap each other, since each team manages its SaaS purchases on its own, without talking to IT (hello the #shadowIT),
• Which renew themselves automatically, without anyone realizing it until it's too late, 
• And whose compliance with IT security requirements is too often forgotten.

In short, managing SaaS contracts is a nightmare for most SMBs and scale-ups. With Welii, we proposed a solution that identifies all existing SaaS in the company, removes duplicates, manages contracts before their renewal and ensures the right level of compliance of the tools. The result for the company: significant savings and visibility into all SaaS spending. 

The promise was attractive. However, in talking to customers and prospects, we realized that the time spent by their teams on the SaaS procurement process was an even bigger issue than financial optimization. Managing existing SaaS contracts is not enough: companies need to be supported throughout their SaaS supply chain. 

From SaaS management to SaaS procurement

Growing SMEs and scale-ups do not have a dedicated procurement department. When teams need a new tool, each department fends for itself. It is often the person who expresses the need who ends up doing the purchasing process... without having the skills or the time to do it. As a result, prices are rarely negotiated due to a lack of time and the tools rarely correspond to the precise need, due to a lack of global benchmarking. 

This is where SaaS procurement comes in, which consists of delegating the SaaS procurement process to a third party. This third party is Welii! In concrete terms, the company delegates to Welii and its experts its entire purchasing process (search for service providers, comparison of offers, negotiation of contracts, etc.). The client only has to intervene at certain stages of the purchasing process, such as the product demos or the signing of the contract. Teams can fully concentrate on their business, rather than spending time on time-consuming research for which they are not trained.

SaaS procurement has 4 key advantages for companies: 

1. SaaS tool inventory is optimized, 
2. Shadow IT risks are managed, 
3. SaaS contracts are under control, 
4. Teams are supported by procurement experts who have a thorough understanding of the market and the prices charged. The company can make a data-driven choice and pay the right price for its licenses without spending too much time. 

The company saves money, its teams are more productive and it has access to the right tools at the right price. We decided to incorporate SaaS procurement into our services to bring even more value to our customers, who are very satisfied: 

"Welii gives us visibility into shadow IT and our SaaS spend across the company. We've been able to lock down access to unauthorized applications that employees had signed up for and paid for themselves, without telling our team. That's a risk to the business, which we're eliminating with Welii." - Anthony Gillaizeau, Aircall IT Director 

This new positioning also appeals to partners in identity access management, such as Okta, with whom we are complementary. In fact, some of our clients are already combining the two services: 

"For us, the implementation of Welii is the logical continuation of Okta. It's a useful platform to store my contracts, manage renewals and implement a data-driven purchasing strategy with the support and expertise of our dedicated buyer." - Benoit Paternot, IT Director at Jellysmack. 

Raising €520,000 from Kima Ventures and Innovation Nest to accelerate

The SaaS procurement market is growing rapidly. 7.8% average annual growth rate: that's what's expected worldwide between 2022 and 2027, for a market worth $7 billion in 2026. In France, SaaS procurement is still in its infancy, but the massive migration to SaaS tools in the coming years offers an opportunity. Today, SaaS represents 25% of the software market share. By 2026, it will be over 60%! SMBs, who were late to the party until now, are following this trend. 

Welii enables growing SMBs and scale-ups to save time and money by optimizing the purchasing process and management of all their SaaS software. To accelerate, we decided to raise €522,000 from Kima Ventures, Innovation Nest and business angels.

"We were very impressed with the teams' execution and product vision. Welii addresses the key themes of the SaaS purchasing and management market, enabling organizations to discover, optimize and purchase their licenses on an intuitive, easy-to-use platform." - Alexis Robert, Kima Ventures

"The product demo brought Welii to life and the team had a great time walking through the platform's features. We are convinced that their financial vision, revolving around procurement and optimization, is the right one. We see the same thing they do when we interact with our portfolio companies." - Marcin Szelag, Innovation Nest

With this fundraising, our objectives are simple: to invest massively in our main competitive advantage, our product, and to launch the commercialization on a large scale on the French market.

Our mission: to change the way companies manage their purchasing processes

We are at the very beginning of the Welii story, but we already know where we want to go. We are starting with SaaS software because the need is obvious. It's a first step in our overall mission: to revolutionize the way companies manage their entire procurement journey. We want to change the way companies procure, by implementing a data-driven procurement strategy and an optimized journey for teams. 

Want to follow us on this journey? We will be delighted to share our progress with you! You can find our news on Linkedin and on our blog.