← All cases/Nexaris
IndustryTax · R&D Credit Optimisation
ContextCFOs & CTOs, French Tech SMEs
Engagement8 months
PublishedJanuary 2026

Nexaris × Outbound Empire:
€868K in CIR claims unlocked for 14 companies.

Nexaris is a Paris-based tax advisory firm specialising in Crédit d'Impôt Recherche (CIR) and R&D tax credit optimisation for French technology companies. In 8 months of cold outreach to CFOs and CTOs, we signed 14 mandates representing €448K in advisory fees — and unlocked €868K in previously unclaimed R&D tax credits for their clients.

Sophie L., Managing Partner, Nexaris
Nexaris.
Sophie L. · Managing Partner, Nexaris
Mandates signed
14
CFO and CTO-level at eligible French tech companies
CIR unlocked
€868K
Previously unclaimed R&D tax credits recovered across 14 clients
Reply rate
14.3%
To ROI-first CIR eligibility sequences
Avg mandate value
€32K
Advisory fees; average CIR recovered per client: €62K

Most eligible companies don't know.

The French Crédit d'Impôt Recherche is one of the most generous R&D incentive programmes in the world — a 30% tax credit on qualifying R&D expenditure, available to virtually every technology company with engineering staff. The French government allocates over €7B per year to the scheme.

And yet, 60% of eligible companies are under-claiming — or not claiming at all. Not because they don't qualify. Because their CFO filed a conservative claim, or their accountant didn't specialise in CIR, or nobody ever told them they could claim software development costs, cloud infrastructure, or the cost of internal researchers writing specs.

Nexaris had built deep expertise in CIR optimisation after five years of work with CAC 40 subsidiaries. Sophie wanted to bring that expertise to growth-stage tech companies — the segment most likely to be leaving money on the table. But her team had no business development capacity and no systematic way to reach the right decision-makers. The brief: reach CFOs and CTOs at eligible companies, make them understand what they're leaving behind, and convert them to mandates.

Outbound Empire as the CIR awareness engine

We started May 2025. The angle was unusually simple: most companies we were reaching had never done a proper CIR claim. The first email didn't pitch Nexaris — it told them what they were leaving on the table, with a rough calculation specific to their company size and headcount.

01
Weeks 1 – 3
Eligibility signal mapping

Identified 1,740 CFOs and CTOs at French tech companies with 10–300 employees and engineering headcount above 30%. Cross-referenced against public job postings and LinkedIn to estimate R&D intensity and likely under-claim amount per company.

02
Weeks 3 – 5
"Here's what you're missing"

Each email led with a personalised CIR estimate: "Based on your 45 engineers and current French R&D tax rules, you may be under-claiming between €40K and €80K per year." No pitch. No features. Just the number. Reply rate hit 14.3% by week 5.

03
Weeks 5 – 18
Free diagnostic CTA

Replies were invited to a free 30-minute CIR diagnostic — a structured review of their current claim methodology. Nexaris ran the diagnostic regardless of mandate potential. Conversion from diagnostic to mandate: 68%. The diagnostic sold itself.

04
Months 5 – 8
CFO referral network

After mandate close, each CFO received a one-page "CIR recovered" summary they could share with their board. That summary became a referral tool — 3 mandates came from CFO-to-CFO introductions made within the same investor network.

14 mandates, €868K CIR, 8 months.

Cumulative CIR unlocked
€0 → €868K
Total R&D tax credits recovered for clients over the 8-month engagement. Accelerated from month 4.
Mandates signed
0 → 14
All CFO or CTO-level. 68% converted from free diagnostic. Average mandate: €32K in advisory fees.
Reply rate progression
7.8% → 14.3%
Personalised CIR estimates nearly doubled reply rates compared to generic advisory outreach benchmarks.
Advisory fees generated
€0 → €448K
From 14 mandates, avg €32K each. ROI to client: 1.9x on advisory fees paid vs. CIR recovered.

Why it worked

The number opened the door. A personalised estimate of unclaimed CIR is not a pitch — it's a service. CFOs replied because we had told them something useful, not because we had a clever subject line. The money framing created urgency without pressure.

The free diagnostic replaced the sales process. Nexaris ran a 30-minute structured review regardless of mandate potential. But the diagnostic itself demonstrated so much expertise that 72% of diagnostics converted. There was no hard sell — the work sold itself.

CFO-to-CFO referrals are the highest-quality pipeline in B2B. The one-page "CIR recovered" summary was designed to be shared — and CFOs shared it at board meetings, in investor updates, and with portfolio peers. The 8 referral mandates had an average close time of 9 days.

"We had filed CIR claims for three years and thought we were doing it right. Nexaris's diagnostic showed us we had been leaving €55K per year on the table because we hadn't included our spec-writing costs. That email was the most valuable cold email I've ever received."

Matthieu D. · CFO, Series B SaaS company, Lyon

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