SD Worx acquires French payroll provider Socialea and strengthens presence in French SME market

9 July 2025

The leading European HR solutions provider SD Worx has acquired Socialea, a French payroll company with a strong foothold in the French SME market. With this acquisition, SD Worx continues its sustainable growth strategy and enters the domestic French SME segment, a market with promising growth potential.

Founded in 2007, Socialea has built a solid reputation in managed payroll services for small and medium-sized enterprises. The company, headquartered in Nantes and with additional offices in Saint-Nazaire and Rennes, reported a revenue of EUR 3.3 million in 2024, (+22% versus 2023).

Socialea's core business lies in managed payroll services and legal advisory services. It generates a substantial part of its business through accounting firms, a promising area SD Worx wants to further develop.

Serving a wider range of customers

With Socialea, we are acquiring a profitable growth company with a strong reputation in the SME market. This perfectly fits our strategy: continuing our European expansion and strengthening our local presence in existing markets. France is the third largest payroll market in Europe and offers a lot of growth potential. Socialea’s expertise, especially in the lower end of the SME segment, complements our existing offering and allows us to serve a wider range of customers. We look forward to working together with our new customers to unlock the next phase of joint growth.

Kobe Verdonck

CEO

SD Worx

“This acquisition is great news for our French business. Socialea brings in a wealth of local expertise, a strong client base, and a solid reputation in the SME segment — all of which are essential as we deepen our roots in France. We believe this move will help us grow further and gain market share in the French payroll market, especially among small and medium-sized enterprises that value both proximity and high-quality service. It also opens new opportunities to expand our partnerships with accounting firms and support more employers across France with integrated HR solutions.

Dominique Tassent

EVP Benelux & Southern EU

Joining SD Worx marks an exciting new chapter for us. We’ve always been proud of our deep expertise in payroll for French SMEs, and now, as part of a larger European player, we can contribute to a broader international growth story. From our very first conversations, we felt a strong cultural alignment with SD Worx: a shared focus on quality, people, and long-term customer relationships. This acquisition gives us the opportunity to continue doing what we do best, while benefiting from the strength, scale, and vision of a leading European HR solutions provider.

Gaëlle Arzur

Oprichter

Socialea

About Socialea

Founded in 2007, Socialea has consolidated its position as an expert in social and payroll management year on year. Backed by a wealth of experience, their team of payroll managers and labour law specialists are at the customer’s side to optimise their payroll and help them to manage their staff. A human-scale structure, Socialea is at the heart of the social life of companies with from 1 to 1,500 employees, as well as with chartered accountants. Socialea offers complete payroll outsourcing services or the provision of MySilae. Socialea is a recognised player in its sector for its reliability, rigour and the quality of its customer relations.

About SD Worx

SD Worx believes that success starts with people. A thriving workforce doesn’t just build a thriving company, it also contributes to society. Together with its customers, SD Worx sparks successful HR that benefits work, life and society.

As the trusted leading European HR and payroll solutions provider for all organisations and workers, SD Worx delivers software, services and expertise across payroll & reward, human capital management and workforce management. SD Worx has deep roots across Europe and has been leading the way for eight decades together with its customers, employers big and small, to spark employee engagement that ignites success at the heart of their business.

About 95,000 small and large organisations across Europe place their trust in SD Worx. The almost 10,000 colleagues operate in 27 countries. SD Worx calculates the salaries of approximately 6 million employees and ranks among the top five worldwide. It achieved a revenue of EUR 1.180 billion in 2024. 

More info on www.sdworx.com / Follow us via LinkedIn

Press contact

Pieter GoetgebuerCommunications DirectorPieter.goetgebuer@sdworx.com+32 (0)497 45 36 73