74Software makes the boring bits matter

At Azqore, the difficulty was approaching retirement age. The Swiss banking technology company had maintained its file-transfer platform for nearly forty years. As Axway tells it, obsolete technology and retiring specialists were making the system harder to sustain. Azqore chose to move more than 34,000 flows, connecting over 1,200 partners, to Axway in sixteen months. A file arriving safely can sound like a small accomplishment. Try running a bank without it.

That is a useful way into 74Software. Created in 2024 through the combination of Axway and SBS, the group owns software businesses whose work happens behind other businesses. Axway connects systems and moves information. SBS supplies banking and financing applications. Their customers buy the ability to keep consequential operations running while changing the machinery underneath. The parent company supplies financial discipline and shared support; the operating brands retain their identities.

01A number with a return address

The name has a geographical punchline. Seventy-four is the number of Haute-Savoie, the French department where Sopra began in 1968, near Lake Annecy. A modern software group has put its family address on the door.

There are three clocks here. The legal company was incorporated in 2000. Axway became a separately listed business in 2011. The 74Software identity arrived in December 2024, after Axway bought SBS. Confusing those dates makes an established software portfolio look like a startup.

Patrick Donovan, the founding CEO of the group, had already served as Axway’s finance chief and then its chief executive. Chairman Pierre Pasquier founded Sopra with partners. The company says its founder’s family office remains heavily invested. Its stated value, “We take the long view,” has an ownership story behind it.

“We take the long view.”

74Software’s stated company value

02Two businesses, different jobs

Axway sells the connective tissue: managed file transfer, business-to-business integration, API management and a Financial Accounting Hub. An API lets software systems communicate; governing those connections becomes important when sensitive information crosses organizational boundaries. Its published customers include Alaska Airlines, Novartis and Banco do Brasil. The work extends well beyond finance.

SBS goes deeper inside financial institutions. Its portfolio covers core banking, deposits, lending, payments, regulatory reporting and digital engagement. Its published customer list includes Santander, Société Générale, KCB Bank and Toyota Financial Services. SBS says more than 1,500 financial institutions and large lenders use its technology across 80 countries.

SBS also works through a partner ecosystem that includes Red Hat, HCLTech, Tink and Worldline. For enterprise buyers, a product lives among other products, delivery teams and local requirements. The partner list is a reminder to examine the surrounding implementation capability.

SBS says its software processes 40% of instant payments in France and services a quarter of UK mortgages. Those are company-reported shares, but they indicate how specific its niches can be.

The distinction matters for a buyer. A bank replacing a lending application has a different problem from a manufacturer connecting trading partners. The group houses both kinds of expertise without requiring them to become the same product.

03The €330 million decision

The combination had a price: €330 million in enterprise value for the acquired SBS activities. Axway financed the September 2024 transaction with approximately €131 million in gross proceeds from a rights issue and roughly €200 million in new credit facilities.

The deal also had a boundary. Some service entities were carved out before completion. What came across was chosen to fit a software publisher’s model. In 2025, SBS services revenue fell 12.2% organically as the business shifted away from lower-margin services toward recurring software revenue.

That helps explain the parent’s design. Axway and SBS operate largely independently, while the group provides administrative support. Product decisions stay close to specialist markets; shared functions benefit from greater scale. “Independent” here describes operating room inside a listed group.

04Reliability has a revenue model

Subscriptions, maintenance, licenses and services pay the bills. Customers can manage software themselves or use vendor-managed offerings. Calling the whole company SaaS would miss a meaningful part of its business.

Full-year 2025 revenue reached €707.2 million. Profit on operating activities was €107.3 million, a 15.2% margin. That adjusted measure differs from operating profit, which was €73.3 million.

For January through June 2026, recurring revenue represented 91.3% of product revenue. Product revenue is the denominator, rather than all group sales. Contracts also have renewal cycles, and some customer-managed subscription revenue is recognized upfront. A recurring customer relationship does not produce a perfectly smooth quarterly chart.

The proposition competes with familiar names. Axway’s own comparison pages address IBM, MuleSoft, Kong, Boomi and AWS Transfer Family. Its pitch centers on managing complex connections across existing environments. Buyers still have to compare the particular workload, deployment requirements and cost.

05Move first. Improve second.

Azqore offers a practical lesson. The team moved flows as-is, compared them one-to-one, and fixed the migration tool for subsequent cases. Improvements went onto a separate backlog. The decision to change followed obsolete technology, skills risk and a desire to concentrate on core banking. This was a supportability problem before it became a migration project.

The sequence is worth copying when continuity matters and existing behavior can be tested. It has limits: preserving an existing flow also preserves its assumptions. A process that already mishandles data needs correction before anyone scales it. Buyers should budget for migration and ongoing operations alongside the software contract.

06The next connection

The portfolio is moving into AI through its existing territory. Amplify Fusion connects and orchestrates applications across hybrid environments. In July 2026, the group reported 48 Fusion wins year-to-date. SBS launched AI Foundation that month, with its first customer live, combining governed data with tools intended to assist banking operations.

In September, 74Software announced a legal reorganization to move Axway’s French operating activities into a subsidiary. Completion was expected before the end of October, subject to remaining conditions. The listed parent would oversee the portfolio. It also joined three CAC indices on September 21.

These developments make the strategy easier to see: build a home for specialized software businesses, then help them keep earning their place inside customers’ operations. For the customer, the test remains pleasantly concrete. Did the file arrive? Does the banking process work? Can the next change happen without losing control?