WiSEED integrates Namirial’s electronic signature with their crowdfunding platform.
WiSEED is the first French crowdfunding website. The platform offers private investors the opportunity to invest in innovative startups with significant societal impact. With over 50,000 registered investors, WiSEED has allowed for the financing of over 70 French companies in the health, sustainable development, digital and industrial sectors. WiSEED’s goal is to bring together private investors looking to support the development of visible and tangible economic activities and become truly active shareholders.
>50K
registered investors
95%
of signatures carried out electronically
>400%
increase in electronically signed documents (Jan 2014 – Jul 2015)
A simplified subscription process
The crowdfunding sector is particularly regulated and supervised. In this regard, the French Financial Markets Regulator (the AMF) pays particular attention to the protection of private investors’ investments, and to the integrity and legal value of documents presented. WiSEED has been an accredited “Crowdfunding Advisor” since 2014. Issued by the AMF, this accreditation offers a clear and precise legal framework and introduces a certain degree of regulation.
WiSEED offers investors the opportunity to sign a series of documents to finalise transactions and secure investments, while complying with AMF regulations.
“In practice, future shareholders are not investing directly in the company requesting financing. We create an intermediary company, in which our subscriber-customers become investors. Through a domino effect, this intermediary investment vehicle then purchases shares in the target company. This particularity requires a precise and thorough procedure, which includes the signature of documents with evidentiary value.”
— Nicolas Cougoulic, web developer at WiSEED
The future investor’s path is marked out on the WiSEED platform: filling in the registration file, analysing the options and deciding on their choice of project to finance, before finally filling in the subscription form which formalises their investment in the selected project. The investor attaches their signature to several regulatory documents throughout their “customer journey”.
Until 2013, this process included a “physical” stage. The company used to ask the customer to print the documents and the subscription form, sign them by hand and return them by mail, enclosing a cheque or transfer order for the payment of their investment. This phase created a break in the user experience and their investment cycle.
The change of their technical provider at the end of 2013, who had previously managed their contractual documents, accelerated their considerations on the matter. WiSEED effectively found itself having to internally manage the administrative aspects of the contracting processes for subscription forms, which had previously been outsourced. This was a significant workload for the company.
Considering the growth of the company and the desire to improve the user experience, there was a real need to digitalise the processes of subscription, signature and payment. WiSEED therefore undertook research to find a solution capable of simply and seamlessly managing all aspects of the contracting process, while offering their investor customers a simple, streamlined and ergonomic user experience.
They therefore established five aims:
- To offer an entirely digitalised user experience for the signature of regulatory documents.
- To reduce the costs paid by customers in eliminating postal deliveries and reducing the need for travel.
- To gain time between the investor deciding to invest and their actual investment.
- To gain productivity by limiting internal administration and collecting approved and signed registration documents more quickly.
- To secure the storage of digitalised documents and subscription forms.
A pioneer of the electronic signature for crowdfunding
After a phase of comparative analysis and research, WiSEED was able to paint a clear picture of the players in the electronic signature market. The evaluation was guided by technical, regulatory, and economic criteria. One of the most important technical criteria was the availability of a “turnkey” API that was easy to integrate and focused on the user experience. At the same time, given the sensitive nature of the documents being processed, it had to guarantee the identity of the signers and the evidentiary value attributed to the documents: in other words, the company had to be certain that the signed documents could not be disputed.
WiSEED needed a technically agile and legally reliable solution. They found that the signature and timestamping solution was the choice offering them the best legal guarantees.
The consultation phase was truly beneficial. In short, it allowed the WiSEED engineers to proceed, in total transparency, to carry out technical tests with the API, thanks to the provision of precise and detailed documentation, and to make test accounts and signatures. Their goal was to ensure the compatibility of the API with their platform, and the proper technical functioning and solidity of the solution.
The professional support and the educational role of the teams was also a determining factor in the choice to opt for Namirial.
“Namirial was very easily implemented. The clear, simple and effective documentation allowed for integration to be carried out in under 4 days. Very quickly, we were able to carry out the first signatures on our platform. We were attracted by the instructive approach offered by the Namirial team, who took the time to explain the different types of signatures and to support us in our various choices. The support service was always present and responsive.”
— Nicolas Cougoulic, web developer at WiSEED
WiSEED simplifies the customer experience for their investors as far as possible, thanks to Namirial
With a view to improving the customer experience, WiSEED hoped to simplify the different signature stages as far as possible. They therefore opted for the Namirial integration in iframe mode, to maintain the entire subscription process within their platform, in an environment which is familiar for the investor.
Its implementation has also encouraged an overhaul of the registration and subscription procedures. Before they can view the details of a project and subscribe, the investor completes a registration file in advance and transmits their identity documents. Their investment is then carried out via the signature of a subscription form, offering them the choice between an electronic or handwritten signature. WiSEED wanted to maintain the “physical” process with handwritten signatures, to allow users who were still resistant to the “100% digital” approach to continue investing.
For the “digitalised” process with electronic signature, the subscription form is displayed directly on the site, within the WiSEED interface. The investor reads the document before accepting, approves it by checking the acceptance boxes and receives an SMS code on their mobile phone. Once the SMS code is validated, the subscription is activated and the shareholding finalised.
Immediate productivity gains thanks to the electronic signature
From January 2014 to July 2015, the number of documents signed electronically has increased by 400%. 95% of signatures carried out on the WiSEED platform are done electronically with Namirial. Support is almost unanimous. The electronic signature also offers the advantage of adding a new level of security to our procedures.
Since the integration of the electronic signature within their platform, WiSEED has enjoyed significant time savings in several areas. The electronic signature frees signatories of burdensome stages like the printing and scanning of signed documents, or certain administrative processes (travel to a post office, sending letters, etc.). The time saved throughout the subscription cycle (signature stages, automatic management of digitalised documents, etc.) is considerable. The prior approval of files secures the entire process and therefore avoids any back and forth with incomplete or incorrect files. At the same time, financial gains are also not negligible, particularly for the investor: as they no longer have to pay for any postal deliveries, nor bear the cost of the electronic signature.
“We’re bringing together gains in productivity at all levels. The documents are directly stored in our IS, which saves on the human cost of processing mail, and the costs of administrative processing and physical archiving. The very competitive pricing system brings us closer to the price of a postal delivery… Overall, the financial gains are not negligible!”
— Nicolas Cougoulic, web developer at WiSEED
A solution capable of supporting your growth
The success of the adoption of the electronic signature for registration and subscription forms, the simplicity of the implementation within the WiSEED environment and the various gains generated have encouraged the use of the electronic signature for other documents. Delegations of powers, voting instructions and annual general meeting minutes for investment vehicles, signatures of subscription amendments or even the acceptance of GCU/GCS by startup directors looking for financing can now be carried out via digitalised processes, thanks to the electronic signature.
Thanks to the Namirial electronic signature API, it’s very easy to replicate existing workflows and apply them to new types of documents that require a signature. All it took was developing a new workflow within the WiSEED platform and replicating the process. In just a few days, the company was able to offer a new feature to its customers, which was very well received!
Disclaimer: this success story was originally produced and published by Signaturit. Following the integration of Signaturit into the Namirial Group, it is now hosted on the Namirial website for archival and informational purposes. The results, figures, branding, and product references reflect the customer experience at the time of original publication and may no longer represent current offerings or outcomes.