Open-source Unicorn, Odoo, Receives $215M Investment from Summit Partners, Takes Aim At ERP Industry Giants

Summit Partners invests $215M in Odoo, becoming the first IT unicorn in Wallonia, Belgium. Odoo is an affordable, user-friendly SaaS-based alternative to SAP, MS Dynamics, and Oracle. With 1700 employees and more than 7M users worldwide, Odoo has delivered growth of more than 50% per year over 10 years. The Company’s growth demonstrates that open-source business models have matured and extended their relevance from technical products to business management software.

Odoo announces an investment of $215M from Summit Partners. This makes Odoo the first IT unicorn in Wallonia, Belgium. In this operation, Summit acquires shares from preceding investors Sofinnova Partners & XAnge, who are doing a 149x and a 68x leap on their initial investments in 2010 and 2015.

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With 7 million users, Odoo is one of the most popular business management softwares in the world. Its offer includes applications covering all business needs: accounting, inventory, manufacturing, project management, HR, marketing, website builder, and more. Odoo’s vision is to streamline operations for small and medium-sized enterprises by offering accessible and affordable business management software.

“In our experience, traditional ERP is expensive and frequently fails to adapt to the unique needs of dynamic businesses. With its flexible suite of applications and a relentless focus on product, we believe Odoo is ideally positioned to capture this large and compelling market opportunity,” said Antony Clavel, a Principal with Summit Partners.

Odoo is not an overnight success. Bootstrapped in 2005, Odoo reached considerable scale with limited external funding: €10m had been raised in two rounds in 2010 & 2015. Odoo is the result of two decades focusing on building a great product and a strong community. Over the past 15 years, Odoo has achieved a sustained average growth rate of 63% per year.

“Odoo has delivered strong and profitable growth over the course of the last several years, and this momentum has only accelerated in recent months,” adds Clavel, who joined the Odoo Board of Directors upon Summit’s initial investment in the Company in December 2019. “We are excited to continue our partnership with the Odoo team and believe the Company is positioned to transform the landscape of business software.”

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Today, Odoo is profitable with an accelerated growth rate and forecasted billings of €160M in 2021. With 1700 employees, 3,850 partners, and 90,000 community members working with the software, Odoo has built a formidable world-wide ecosystem featuring one of the largest business app stores in the world with more than 30,000 apps.

“This transaction is a signal; a signal that open-source business models are not only dedicated to technical products, targeting developers or system administrators. Open-source software has been a catalyst for growth and change in the IT industry. Now, it is mature to transform business software too.” said Fabien Pinckaers, Founder & CEO, Odoo.

The future will tell, but Odoo clearly has the potential to disrupt a massive market, led by software giants like SAP, MS Dynamics and Oracle.

“We are thrilled to support the Odoo team for this next phase of growth,” said Han Sikkens, Managing Director and Head of Europe at Summit Partners, who joins the Company’s board with this investment. “We believe the future is bright, and Odoo clearly has the potential to disrupt the market led by software giants like SAP, MS Dynamics and Oracle.”

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