How to deposit your capital online with Qonto

Today is the big day. The day you launch your business. 

Everything is ready to go. You’ve found your business partners (if you want any), you’ve been saving for months, you’ve chosen your locations and purchased all the necessary equipment. There's just one thing left to do before this idea swimming around in your head for months becomes a reality. In banking lingo, we call it “depositing your capital”.

Behind this rather obscure vocabulary hides a series of administrative hoops you need to jump through. Obstacles that have many would-be entrepreneurs running for the door and chucking their ideas on the back burner.

But you’re different. You belong among the 18,000* entrepreneurs who have come before you. Qonto has made depositing your capital as simple as possible, outlining each and every step here. ⬇️

One big problem with a capital deposit is that the rules vary depending on your chosen legal structure. The challenge, therefore, lies in having to adapt to all types of businesses (we’re working on it, we promise).

Also, only certain types of activity are accepted. Qonto will deny your capital deposit if you plan on opening a firearms trading company, for example. Or a casino, or cannabis farm. 

Our advice is simple: before you start, click here to check that we are a good fit for you and that you are actually able to deposit your capital with Qonto. It only takes a moment but could save you plenty of time further down the road.

Let’s start by opening an account and getting to know each other better. 

Once you’ve clicked on “In the process of creation”, we will ask for your legal structure, address and name of the company you’re building. To clarify: be sure to enter the name under which you will be registering your company (which is sometimes different from the one printed on your business cards).

Then, it’s like with any other administrative process: your name, date of birth, address, and so on... Of course, we will need supporting documents to back up this information: ID and proof of address, for example.

You see, we need to make sure it’s really you, and not an imposter. It may seem finicky, but we simply want to protect you from having your name attached to an account that you didn’t open! By that same token, we will need the same information from your business partners (if you have any, of course).

By this stage, you should've already reached an agreement with your partners on the amounts you are willing to commit to this venture (or you’ve at least discussed it). Now is the time to bring us into the loop. 

If you’re independent, the sum you’ve indicated is your total share capital.

If others are joining you on this journey, you will need to indicate how much each of you have committed. Take your time to think about it, because the contributions you enter for yourself and your partners must match those indicated on the documents you will be submitting to the commercial court register in the region where you are requesting to register your company.

You now have a key decision to make: which monthly subscription is best for you? Qonto offers two options for capital deposit: Solo or Standard. Identifying the right one for your business is easy: it’s all in the name.

For freelancers, liberal professions and other independents, the Solo plan is ideal. For those embarking on an adventure as a team, the Standard plan is for you.

However, during the first year of activity, limiting fees is crucial. You'll need to save every cent you can.

This is why we offer annual packs to save on your monthly plan. These famous packs include the cost of the capital deposit (€50 for management and notary fees) and the first year’s subscription to your chosen plan.

All that’s left to do is sign the contract to move on to the next phase. 

Statutes are a document that collects all the legal information regarding your company. Here is where you select the type of activity and where you have made your capital deposit.

If you choose to go it alone, you will have to make some modifications to these statutes. Two, to be precise. To make your work easier, we provide you in this article with the statements to be modified, and the information to be replaced. 

Once your statutes have been updated, simply log in to your Qonto app to submit the document. We will take this opportunity to request proof of address for the head office (this is part of the legal provisions). 

Then, it’s our turn: our teams will verify the two documents. When that's done, you can deposit your capital.

Provided you have followed the previous step properly, verifying your statutes and proof of address is just a formality. 

Next, each partner will immediately receive an email containing the temporary banking information. A transfer will then need to be sent from a personal (or joint) account for the amount indicated in the statutes.

Once the funds have been received (which could take up to 48 hours depending on the issuing bank), we will send you an email to have you sign the capital deposit request. As the account holder, you are the only one who can sign this request.

Having received the signed deposit request, we send the funds to one of our notaries, who will give all the documents you have sent a once-over. We want to be sure that your application will be accepted by the commercial court register.

Then, our notary will send your capital along to the Caisse des Dépôts to be deposited. 🏦

To give you peace of mind, you will receive a deposit certificate, initially by email then through the post. This certificate is the final piece of the jigsaw before you can head over to the commercial court register to obtain the Kbis for your company.

This step can take time. It all depends on the number of requests submitted to your local commercial court. We recommend requesting your Kbis online, which is much faster.

Once you have received the Kbis, you can submit it via your Qonto app to be verified by our team of notaries. For this final verification, they use a database of all registered companies to make sure the SIRET number actually exists.

Finally, you will receive the request to release the funds. Simply sign this request to wrap up the process.

Your permanent account details are thus created. You will receive an email along with all the documents in your file.

You will then find your capital deposit funds, previously entrusted to the Caisse des Dépôts, in your current account (which corresponds with your new account details). And voilà!

You now have a current account, account details, capital that is ready to invest, and... a business! The rest is up to you and your partners; you now hold all the cards. That is, all except your Qonto card; you will need to order that.