The most commercially active French marketplace for acquisition deals, used by the full ecosystem of French business transfer professionals and the first place to register as a buyer looking for brokered deal flow in France.
CessionPME is France’s leading online marketplace for the sale and acquisition of SMEs, fonds de commerce and commercial premises. Founded over 23 years ago and now a subsidiary of the Ouest-France media group, it aggregates listings from business brokers, accounting firms, notaires, franchise networks and direct owners, producing over 20,000 buyer-seller introductions per month. The platform is a Bpifrance partner and a reference platform for Pôle Emploi’s business transfer programme, giving it strong institutional recognition across the French SME ecosystem.
Why searchers use it
France has a well-established infrastructure of professional intermediaries involved in business transfer, and CessionPME is where a significant portion of that activity surfaces digitally. A France-focused searcher monitoring CessionPME alongside direct outreach ensures visibility into businesses that owners have decided to sell through a formal channel. The platform’s particular strength is its coverage of accountant and notaire-listed businesses, which reflect genuine and often well-prepared seller intent rather than speculative listings. A searcher can post a buyer profile for free, signalling their acquisition criteria to the network of seller-side intermediaries who use the platform to find qualified buyers.
Core capabilities relevant to search funds
- Business listings: Over 108,000 listings updated in near real time from brokers, accounting firms, notaires, franchise networks and direct owners
- Buyer profile: Post a free buyer profile describing your acquisition criteria so sellers and their advisors can approach you directly
- Search filters: Filter by sector, region, asking price and revenue to identify relevant listings
- Email alerts: Automated notifications when new listings matching your criteria are posted
- Introduction service: Anonymised introductions managed by the platform between buyers and sellers, with seller confidentiality protected until both parties agree to connect
- Advisor directory: Access to the network of French business transfer professionals active on the platform
Honest limitations
CessionPME covers the full range of French business sizes and types including fonds de commerce and franchise opportunities that are not relevant for a search fund acquirer. A searcher will need to filter carefully to surface the subset of listings in the relevant revenue range and sector. As with all open marketplaces, listed businesses are available to multiple buyers simultaneously so there is no proprietary advantage. The platform is entirely in French.
Getting started
Register, post your acquisition criteria as a buyer profile and configure email alerts for new listings. Contacting sellers or their advisors is free for buyers. The introduction service for anonymised seller contact is a paid service.
Pricing
- Free for buyers to browse, post a buyer profile and receive alerts
- The anonymised introduction service is paid
- Pricing for paid services available on the website
