For a long time, financial management of small and medium-sized businesses was limited to the essentials: collect, pay, survive. Today, the situation is changing. Under the combined effect of pressure on margins, inflation and the maturity of digital tools, cash is becoming a strategic asset in its own right. “Invest, optimize, manage, automate”… this vocabulary, formerly reserved for large groups, is now essential among VSEs, SMEs and independents. In this changing context, some fintech players intend to accelerate the movement.
Financial management still too fragmented for small businesses.
Managers of VSEs and SMEs see this on a daily basis: a bank account to collect funds, another to invest a little cash, external tools for expense reports, a separate platform for travel, invoicing software elsewhere… Result: a multitude of interfaces, a fragmented ecosystem and a financial vision that is difficult to consolidate.
Added to this is a reality well known to accountants: large sums of cash are sitting in current accounts. In the absence of simple, accessible and truly flexible solutions, many companies prefer not to arbitrate. An understandable caution, but which ends up being costly, in a context of rising then gradual easing of rates.
Towards truly integrated finance.
The question is no longer whether to evolve small business financial tools, but how quickly and with what level of integration. The multiplication of solutions has allowed useful specialization… without providing the coherence necessary for global management. However, to arbitrate, invest, analyze and manage your cash flow with precision, a unified vision is essential.
It is this continuity between uses – from current account to investment, from spending to business travel, from management to automation – which defines the new generation of financial platforms. It is in this fundamental movement that the approach taken by Vivid.
From passive cash flow to active cash flow.
One of the shifts made by Vivid directly concerns the placement and investment of cash. Historically, this land was reserved for companies of a certain size, with substantial amounts of money and dedicated financial engineering. The platform has made the bet of making these mechanisms accessible to small structures.
From 2025, Vivid offers two options for investing your cash in a simple, flexible and accessible way:
- THE Interest Account allows you to invest your cash with a fixed rate of up to 4% per year. Interest is paid daily, and funds remain available at all times, with no time lock on funds.
- THE Professional securities account integrated both traditional assets (ETFs, bonds, stocks) and, for the first time on the market, crypto-assets. All brought together in the same interface. A development made possible by obtaining the European MiCA license, which now strictly regulates services linked to cryptocurrencies throughout the Union.
Cashback and fees as new margin levers.
Another area of innovation: the expense itself. Where they were historically incurred, certain expenses now become sources of value creation. Vivid has developed a cashback program of up to 10% on certain expenses and up to 30% on business travel.
In a context where every margin point counts, this mechanism transforms the reading of operational costs. The expense tracking tool, connected to accounting, opens the way to much finer and more proactive management.
When business travel becomes a financial issue.
One of the most significant movements of 2025 is integration of business travel directly into the financial ecosystem. Hotel reservations, soon coworking spaces, then trains and flights, real-time expense tracking, automatic cashback, etc.
Here again, the objective is clear: remove unnecessary interfaces between operations and finance. A single platform to reserve, pay, generate cashback, centralize receipts and analyze its flows.
The French IBAN, a new anchor point on the market.
To accelerate its establishment in France, Vivid launched its French IBAN at the end of 2025. A detail in appearance, but a strong signal for businesses.
“Having a French IBAN remains decisive for the adoption of a financial solution by companies,” underlines Carole Danancher, general manager France of Vivid. “It is an operational as well as symbolic prerequisite. »
Behind this launch, a broader strategy: establishing a lasting presence in the daily lives of small French businesses, with a platform designed as a real financial cockpit, capable of simplifying their operations and optimizing each euro that passes through.
AI as the new invisible layer of productivity.
Personal assistant, legal assistant, soon financial assistant… Vivid is designing a generation ofAI agents capable of automating a large part of the tasks that weigh on managers: organization, writing, compliance, reporting.
According to data communicated by the platform, these tools already save up to 13 hours per week and several thousand euros per month in indirect costs. An advance which is part of an underlying trend: AI is becoming an operational reinforcement for all companies, even the smallest.
Startups, freelancers, SMEs: the same financial equation.
Use cases are converging. For a startup in the post-fundraising phase, the challenge is to lengthen its runway without becoming further diluted. For a freelancer or SMEs, it is about securing the activity, smoothing income, absorbing ups and downs. In both cases, cash becomes a strategic asset.
“ Letting your capital lie dormant today is a real loss of value,” recalls Carole Danancher. “Our ambition is to help managers manage their money with the same precision as their business. »
A new generation of platforms facing historic banks.
Without directly opposing the traditional banking system, the model proposed by Vivid clearly contrasts with traditional approaches. Where banks pile up products, often compartmentalized, Vivid adopts unified platform logic, controlled from a single interface.
Regulation, long seen as a brake on innovation, is now becoming a competitive advantage. MiCA license, European compliance, clear supervision of financial products: essential guarantees which reassure a professional public that is increasingly demanding and attentive to risk.
France as a strategic base!
With more than 30,000 new professional customers in less than a year in Europe, Vivid is accelerating. France is establishing itself as a priority market where anchoring is now complete: local IBAN, dedicated team, advanced adaptation of functionalities. The roadmap is readable: develop the investment offering, extend services linked to business travel, generalize AI uses and consolidate the platform as a single entry point for financial management of small businesses.
SME finance is entering a new era.
The bank is no longer just a place of deposit. It becomes a tool for management, performance, optimization… and now automation. For managers of VSEs, SMEs and independents, this change is anything but anecdotal. It transforms their relationship to treasury, risk management and growth levers, paving the way for more active, more agile and more strategic finance.
