Legal scale-up DiliTrust, “the Salesforce of legal departments”, acquires French efficient meeting startup Aster
DiliTrust, the French scale-up, has announced its acquisition of Aster, a leading meeting management application designed to enhance the effectiveness of corporate committees. This marks DiliTrust’s fourth acquisition since securing a €130 million investment from Cathay Capital, Eurazeo, and Sagard in 2022. The move underscores DiliTrust’s commitment to expanding its portfolio, particularly within the Microsoft 365 and Teams ecosystems.
Aster: From Regional Success to International Recognition
Aster’s journey began in 2014 when three young entrepreneurs—Vincent Mendes (CEO), Thomas Dickelé (COO), and Jean-Baptiste Esbelin (CPO)—met as students. After four years of development, Aster was officially launched in 2018, driven by the founders' conviction that effective and inspiring leadership is crucial for aligning teams and achieving business goals. Aster emerged as the first solution designed to help managers run meetings more effectively, including executive committees, steering committees, and one-on-one meetings. The platform’s unique note-taking and visualization system enables real-time prioritization, decision-making, and action tracking. A strategic partnership with Microsoft Teams in the same year and a successful €4.2 million funding round further accelerated Aster’s growth.
Today, Aster is the preferred daily tool for managers, particularly as remote work and virtual meetings have surged. With employees attending an average of 62 meetings per month—many of which are deemed inefficient—Aster helps clients maximize the impact of their meetings and combat the pervasive issue of "meeting fatigue." As remote work continues to evolve, Aster remains a vital solution, integrating seamlessly with collaboration tools like Outlook and Teams to reduce meeting duration while enhancing their effectiveness. The platform not only streamlines meeting content based on objectives but also ensures consistent follow-up by generating automatic summaries shared with all participants.
Aster’s rapid adoption by major SMEs and large corporations, including BPCE, Air Liquide, and SNCF, highlights its effectiveness. Initially recognized in France and neighboring countries such as Switzerland, Belgium, and Luxembourg, Aster is now expanding into Canada, signaling its growing international footprint.
The DiliTrust and Aster Synergy: Accelerating Growth Together
In November 2023, DiliTrust’s leadership, focused on external growth, met with Aster’s founders. With DiliTrust’s flagship product, the Board Portal, already serving over 3,000 clients by efficiently managing Boards and Committees, the integration of Aster was a natural progression. This synergy allows DiliTrust clients to extend the value they experience in strategic meetings to more operational settings, such as executive committees and team rituals.
“The synergy between our offerings and our shared values as leaders—pragmatism, ambition, and a strong connection with our teams and clients—was immediately evident from our first meeting with Yves and Nadim, the founders of DiliTrust,” says Vincent Mendes, CEO of Aster. “Despite DiliTrust’s head start in development, the respect, recognition, and empathy they showed us gave us the confidence to co-create an international project.”
Yves Garagnon, CEO of DiliTrust, adds, “Our clients clearly see the benefits of our Board Portal, and we wanted to expand our offering to bring this simplicity and efficiency to all types of meetings within a company. With more internal collaboration happening online, the ability to offer tools that facilitate this work is essential. Acquiring Aster was an easy decision, and we’re thrilled to have Vincent, Thomas, Jean-Baptiste, and their teams join us to strengthen the DiliTrust suite.”
