La Garenne-Colombes, 7 January 2026 – Sage, a leader in accounting, financial, HR and payroll technology for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs), today announced the acquisition of Akao, a French specialist in digitalisation and automation solutions. This acquisition strengthens Sage’s position in a market set to be reshaped by the upcoming 2026 e-invoicing reform and supports its ambition to help French businesses accelerate their digital transformation.
Akao is a long-standing Sage Independent Software Vendor (ISV) partner serving 2,700 customers and handling over 100,000 invoices per day. The Akao solution covers the entire invoicing lifecycle, from receiving and processing supplier invoices to issuing customer invoices. It enables businesses to simplify operations, strengthen internal controls, and improve productivity and visibility across their financial processes by leveraging a comprehensive workflow engine and document management capabilities. Through this acquisition, Sage will expand its technological capabilities and enhance its ability to deliver a unified, integrated solution that complies with the upcoming e-invoicing mandates in France.
As technological innovation accelerates and e-invoicing reform draws nearer, businesses are being pushed to take a significant step forward in their digital transformation. In fact, according to a recent Sage study*, in France, only one in four SMBs feels prepared for these changes, despite the major impact they are expected to have on financial workflows. Akao’s SaaS solution provides a concrete response to these challenges by combining accounting automation, document digitisation, digital archiving, compliance and end-to-end process management, offering companies a reliable and fully digital environment for managing their invoicing flows.
“Millions of businesses across France are preparing for the pending e-invoicing reform requirements. By joining forces with Akao, Sage is uniquely positioned to support businesses through this crucial transition, helping them to effortlessly maintain compliance while unlocking new levels of efficiency, traceability and growth.” said Arnaud Petit, Managing Director, Sage Southern Europe.
“Our products were designed natively around Sage 100 and Sage FRP 1000, which is why Akao has always integrated so naturally within Sage environments. This acquisition is the logical continuation of that work. As part of Sage, we can accelerate innovation and deliver fully connected digital invoicing solutions to even more businesses.” said Abdel Halitim, CEO of Akao.
Fully integrated with Sage 100 and Sage FRP 1000 since 2020 under the names Sage Automatisation Comptable and Sage FRP 1000 Dématérialisation, the solution now becomes a native part of the Sage Platform, ensuring customers benefit from a unified, compliant and scalable platform.
*Unlocking Growth: Frictionless Trade for SMEs Powered by E-Invoicing and AI, 2025
About Sage
Sage exists to knock down barriers so everyone can thrive, starting with the millions of small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) served by us, our partners and accountants. Customers trust our finance, HR and payroll software to make work and money flow. By digitalising business processes and relationships with customers, suppliers, employees, banks and governments, our AI-powered platform connects SMBs, removing friction and delivering insights. Knocking down barriers also means we use our time, technology and experience to tackle digital inequality, economic inequality and the climate crisis.
About Akao
Initially created to meet digitisation needs, Akao now addresses the challenges of simplifying and digitising processes to improve internal productivity within companies. Its full SaaS solution optimizes and automates all internal business flows. Akao covers the entire invoicing lifecycle, from receiving and processing supplier invoices to issuing customer invoices.
