A time-saver for our finance team
Faced with significant growth in its employee shareholder base and a major fundraising round, Withings needed to regain control of its capitalization table: with Equify, the company is centralizing its data, gaining greater autonomy, and simplifying the day-to-day work of its finance team.
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"Equify has enabled us to regain control of our capitalization table while centralizing information. It is a tool that combines ease of use with powerful functionality, making it a valuable ally in effectively managing our employee stock ownership program and corporate governance."
About Withings
Founded in 2008 by Éric Carreel and Cédric Hutchings, Withings designs user-friendly, connected health devices for tracking vital signs on a daily basis. Its ecosystem includes watches, scales, blood pressure monitors, and sleep sensors, all connected to the Health Mate app to view trends and share health insights. With a presence in more than 30 countries and recognized at CES, the company employs more than 400 people across its offices in Paris, Boston, Hong Kong, and Shenzhen.
About François
After starting his career at Philips, François Regnier joined Withings in 2014 as Head of Management Accounting, before becoming Chief Financial Officer in 2018. He has been part of three key phases in the company’s history: its startup-style growth, its integration into the Nokia Group in 2016, and its return to independence in 2018. His career has been marked by the structuring of the finance function, the implementation of data-driven processes and tools, and the management of demanding hardware operations (inventory and procurement). He is committed to ensuring the reliability of financial information and disseminating data internally, while supporting teams in a changing macroeconomic environment.
Autonomous management of capital transactions
Withings adopted Equify in 2020 following a large issuance of BSPCEs in 2019 and a significant fundraising round the following year. At this critical juncture, the company found itself with a growing number of employees holding financial instruments but limited visibility into their management.
This transition to Equify was part of an effort to digitize and bring in-house a process that is crucial to the company. By integrating this management process with Equify, Withings was able to eliminate the multiple back-and-forth exchanges previously required to update the register and the capitalization table, thereby significantly improving efficiency and responsiveness. This direct access to information has also streamlined communication with attorneys.
"Before Equify, the management of our BSPCEs was entirely outsourced to our lawyers, which made it difficult to access information and slowed down our internal processes," explains François Regnier, CFO of Withings. "We needed to regain control of our capitalization table and provide more transparency to our teams."
Up-to-date information
For François, Equify’s greatest strength lies in its ability to centralize all capital-related data and facilitate real-time updates. "I like the 'live' aspect that Equify offers-being able to process all withdrawal or exercise requests quickly and thus always have up-to-date information."
Having a centralized platform also simplifies the day-to-day work of the finance team in its interactions with shareholders.
"Having all our documents centralized in Equify saves us a considerable amount of time. When someone asks me a question about BSPCEs, an employee’s rights, or the cap table, I can answer right away, without having to search through different files or contact our lawyers. It’s a major efficiency gain in our day-to-day work."
Simplified Governance
Corporate governance is another important area where François uses Equify. The platform enables effective management of communications related to general meetings, a process that can become complex as the number of shareholders grows.
"With the growing number of employees and shareholders, Equify ensures that we don’t forget anyone when we convene our annual meetings," explains François. “This helps us avoid a major risk, and I no longer have to worry, because everything is right there and I know that no one will be left out.”
Another major advantage of Equify for corporate governance is the ability to access a complete history of previous general meetings, including detailed tracking of responses to meeting notices.
"Thanks to Equify, we can easily see who responded to our AGM notices, who granted a proxy, and access all related documentation. This traceability allows us to optimize the organization of our upcoming meetings by better anticipating attendance."
An Employee Area
According to François, one of Equify's major advantages is that it makes information more widely accessible. Employees now have direct access to their documents related to BSPCEs, without having to go through the finance department.
This approach offers a twofold benefit: first, it empowers employees by allowing them to access their information whenever they wish, and second, it frees up the finance team, which no longer has to process each individual request. Thanks to this system, finance teams can respond quickly and accurately to more complex questions about BSPCEs, focusing on adding value rather than simply forwarding documents.
"We grant employees direct access to this information. From now on, the CFO is no longer the only one with access to this data. If an employee needs to view a document, they can access it on their own, without going through an intermediary."
The Future with Equify
Looking ahead, Withings plans to expand the use of Equify, particularly in terms of collaboration with external parties such as lawyers and investors:
"Equify offers great potential for streamlining our day-to-day work. I am convinced that we can derive even more value from the platform, particularly by strengthening its collaborative capabilities. By helping our lawyers and investors become more familiar with the tool, we will be able to truly take advantage of all its collaborative features."
