Paris-based Venture Capital fund Truffle Capital released its annual Truffle100 list of the 100 top revenue-generating Software & SaaS editors in France.The 2014 edition marks the 10th anniversary of the annual report, which originally started as an internal survey for the firm. It quickly grew to become a standard in the French & European tech market (the firm also puts out a European edition every fall), after Truffle Partner & Co-founder Bernard-Louis Roques mentioned the internal survey in a conference shortly after the first edition in 2005.
The report highlights some of France’s top software companies – Dassault Systemes, Axway, Avanquest, among others – but it also is used as a benchmark for growth in the industry. The report highlights the nearly 250% growth in total amount of annual revenue represented by the 100 companies, as well as the increased threshold in revenue required for making the list. The number 100 slot in 2005 had just €1 Million in annual revenue, while this year’s slot had €8.4M, an 8-fold increase.
In a telephone interview with Roques, we talked about the evolution of software companies towards SaaS models. Roques noted that less than 10% of overall revenue from the Truffle100 was attributed to SaaS services – License-based software development is still a strong part of the revenue cycle, especially for the Top 10 of the list, which account for 64% of the total revenue.
While most of the companies featured are unknown to me beyond name, I did see Talend & Talentsoft on the list – both of which are featured in our Rude List.