The freelancing market has already supplanted the temping market, and more and more companies are calling on the services of independent consultants. The Freelance.com group, which puts freelancers in touch with companies, has seen its sales explode in just a few years.
Freelancing for flexibility and cost optimization
The Freelance.com group, listed on the stock exchange, presents itself as the French leader in connecting freelance consultants with companies. In just a few years, its sales have soared from 37 million euros in 2015 to 672 million euros in 2021.
According to its CEO, Sylvestre Blavet, the freelancing market is now worth 40 billion euros, surpassing the 30-billion-euro temping market. Of the 4.5 million self-employed workers in France, 1 million are intellectual service providers offering consulting services to companies.
According to Freelance.com vice-president Claude Tempe, freelancing has been on the rise for around 5 years, driven by a dual phenomenon: on the one hand, the number of self-employed workers is increasing; on the other, companies have realized that using freelance consultants enables them to optimize costs and benefit from a degree of flexibility.
Freelance.com, a fast-growing group
The Freelance.com group has benefited from this transformation: after 10 years of deficits, it has achieved double-digit growth for 26 consecutive quarters, and recorded organic growth of 34% over 1 year. On June 21, its share price stood at 6.88 euros, up from 65 cents at the end of 2015.
According to its vice-president, the secret of the group's success lies in its strategy of building customer loyalty, rather than in the accumulation of independent consultants. Freelance.com's corporate clients include L'Oréal, Atos, Ugap and Bouygues Telecom. The group's top 10 clients alone account for 48% of its sales.
In 2017, Freelance.com acquired AD'Missions, a freelance administration company, then Inop's, a network of digital experts, in 2020, and finally Helvetic Payroll, the leading freelance administration company in Switzerland, last year.
Like its competitor Malt, Freelance.com aims to reach sales of one billion euros within 2 years.