French legaltech company LegalPlace said on May 5, 2026 that it had acquired Legalstart, its longest-standing competitor in online company formation, and had raised €70 million (about $80 million) to pay for the deal and for further technology work. The round came from Move Capital Fund I, XAnge and Eurazeo.
The companies did not disclose the purchase price or how much of the €70 million went to the acquisition. French tech site info.fr reported that LegalPlace bought 100% of Legalstart and paid in cash.
Both companies will keep their own names and brands and continue to operate side by side. Legalstart president and co-founder Pierre Aïdan described the deal as a step toward building the French reference player able to support millions of entrepreneurs.
What Legalstart built
Legalstart was founded in 2013 by Timothée Rambaud and Pierre Aïdan. It offered founders online help with company formation and other legal paperwork, and LegalPlace's investors described it as the historic reference for online legal support in France. Before the deal it had about 150 employees.
The company was backed by ISAI, the Paris investment firm. According to info.fr, Legalstart had been held under a leveraged buyout backed by ISAI before LegalPlace bought it. The terms of ISAI's exit were not disclosed.
Info.fr also noted how close the two rivals had been: they competed for about ten years under very similar brand names, with Paris offices a few streets apart.
“LegalPlace now establishes itself as THE indispensable one-stop shop for entrepreneurs.”
Why LegalPlace is buying
LegalPlace was founded in 2016 by Racem Flazi, Mehdi Ouchallal and Samuel Goldstein. It says it has grown by 60% a year over the past three years and has about 50,000 subscribers. Its services cover company formation, business address domiciliation, professional bank accounts, accounting and insurance.
Before the deal LegalPlace had served more than 300,000 entrepreneurs, according to info.fr. Co-founder and chief executive Racem Flazi said that when the company launched, starting a business in France was too complex and opaque, and that joining forces with Legalstart was more than a move for growth. Info.fr reported that the group's long-term aim is to handle one in three company formations in France.
With Legalstart, the group says it now handles close to 20% of company formations in France and has about 500 employees, with offices in Paris, Montpellier, Toulon and Marseille. It is aiming for revenue above €100 million (about $115 million) as early as 2026.
Ouchallal, LegalPlace's co-founder and chief business officer, said making it easier to start a business is an important lever for economic competitiveness. XAnge managing partner Nicolas Rose said the deal makes LegalPlace a one-stop shop for entrepreneurs.
What the money will pay for
Beyond the acquisition, LegalPlace said the funds would go into its technology platform. It plans to launch a product for creating a company instantly, which it described as imminent, and to build an AI agent that handles accounting and corporate formalities.
According to XAnge, the combined group's distribution network reaches hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs, which it plans to serve with a single set of services from formation through to accounting and insurance.
The company is also preparing to expand outside France. It said it wants to support the European Union's proposed "28th regime", a single set of company rules that would let founders operate across the bloc, and the related EU Inc framework.
Move Capital Fund I managing partner Sophie Sursock said the combination with Legalstart would allow the group to reach a decisive milestone.
Open questions
Several points were left unanswered at announcement. The companies did not say what roles Legalstart's founders would take in the combined group or how the two teams would be organised, and info.fr reported that no merger-control review had been publicly mentioned.
Info.fr also reported that LegalPlace had sold Kanoon, its unit selling HR legal documents, to payroll software company Silae for about €5 million (about $5.8 million), citing Les Échos.
