Froda has launched in France with Shine, making its financing available to 200,000 self-employed people and small firms via the Shine app.
The economics of small-ticket lending
France recorded 1,165,800 new business registrations in 2025. Most of them were sole traders, micro-entrepreneurs, and companies with a few employees. Small businesses account for 99% of French companies. According to the companies, traditional lending models do not always serve this segment well. Assessing a small loan can cost almost as much as assessing a much larger one, which makes small-ticket lending less economical for banks. Olle Lundin, CEO and co-founder of Froda, illustrated the point by noting that a EUR 5,000 investment can matter as much to a small business as a EUR 500,000 investment does to a larger company.
Froda assesses creditworthiness using real banking data instead of manual review, which lowers the cost of processing smaller loans. It distributes financing through the banking, accounting, and payment platforms its customers already use. The company has provided more than EUR 2 billion in financing to 30,000 small businesses and has financed over 160,000 loans across Europe.
How the offering works
Shine customers complete applications within the app and receive approval in real time. Funds are paid out the same day, often within an hour. Froda lends in France as a Swedish credit institution supervised by Finansinspektionen, the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, and operates across the EU under passporting rules. Shine is authorised as a payment institution by the ACPR, France's prudential supervisory authority.
The launch followed a pilot with a controlled group of Shine customers over the summer of 2026.
This is not the first joint project for the two companies. Two other Shine group brands, Kontist in Germany and Billy in Denmark, already provide loans powered by Froda, which makes France their third collaboration.
Shine combines a business account, e-invoicing, and accounting on a single platform. It serves one million entrepreneurs and 15,000 accountants in France and across Europe. The current company resulted from the combination of Shine and Cegid engaged in 2026, and it aims to cover the chain from the end customer's invoice to the accounting firm's financial statements.
Backing from the European Investment Fund
The European Investment Fund (EIF), part of the European Investment Bank group, is guaranteeing the French loans through a microfinance instrument under the EU's InvestEU programme. The EIF channels this kind of support through authorised lenders such as Froda to reach entrepreneurs who struggle to obtain credit elsewhere. The guarantee lets Shine users borrow more easily and on cheaper terms.
Froda aims to add further partners in France. The current launch follows the company's first partnership with a traditional bank, SpareBank 1 Østlandet. Its partners range from fintechs and software platforms to incumbent banks, across the Nordics, the UK, Ireland, Germany and now France.
