VKARD buys rival Cardynale to consolidate France's digital business card market
What's the deal? VKARD, a Vendée-based digital business card specialist, has acquired CardynaleDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a Nancy-founded networking platform, in a deal announced in September 2026. The transaction covers Cardynale's assets; terms were not disclosed.
The context: Both companies were founded in 2021 on the same premise — replacing paper cards with an NFC card or QR code linking to a customisable digital profile. Cardynale, launched as JustOneCardDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → by former Mines de Nancy students Antoine Payre and William Bellity, offered NFC cards and an AI-powered contact scanner.
Who's buying? VKARD, founded by Thibaut and Nicolas Oger, manufactures in France at a workshop in Mouzeuil-Saint-Martin that opened in 2023. It reports more than 45,000 business customers and holds ISO 27001:2022 certification. Its offering now extends beyond the card to an email signature product.
What changes for users? Cardynale profiles stay active, with data transferred under the same GDPR-compliant conditions. Those users gain access to VKARD's wider ecosystem, including CRM integrations, custom forms, Apple and Google Wallet, and an AI scanner.
Why it matters: In this market, value lies less in the physical card than in the digital profile and contact data it aggregates. Any break in service would have risked losing part of the acquired user base.
What's the endgame? The deal supports VKARD's growth plans, which include a CRM module and data enrichment features due in the coming months. It strengthens the company's position in a European market where the digital business card is becoming a professional standard.
The signal: The move reflects a classic consolidation phase. After many players emerged around the same idea, the market is narrowing to those that can broaden their offering — differentiation now sits in services like CRM, office-tool integration, and automated contact processing, not the low-barrier card itself.
Read more: auris-finance.fr
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
