Belgian unicorn Odoo raises USD 215m from Summit

Greg Gille
29 July 2021

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Summit Partners has invested USD 215m in Odoo, a Belgian developer of open-source business software.

Odoo stated that the latest round makes it the first IT unicorn in the Wallonia region of Belgium. According to a source close to the situation, the round valued Odoo in the region of USD 2bn-2.5bn.

Summit is currently investing from Growth Equity Fund X, which closed on USD 4.9bn in March 2019.

As part of the round, the VC has acquired shares from previous investors Sofinnova Partners and XAnge, with the latest valuation being a 149x and 68x jump on the company's valuation at the time of their respective investments, according to a statement by Odoo. The two VCs have now fully exited the business.

Summit had previously led a USD 90m funding round for the enterprise management software company in late 2019. Also participating in the 2019 round were Odoo's management team, existing investor SRIW Digtal and its affiliate Noshaq.

In 2010, Sofinnova invested in a EUR 3m funding round for the company (then known as OpenERP). The firm led a USD 10m round in 2014, which saw XAnge and SRIW also invest.

Mega-rounds have fuelled a record first half for venture and growth capital investment in Europe, as reported by Unquote. Europe was home to a record EUR 38bn's worth of venture and growth capital investment in the first half of 2021, shattering previous records. Unquote recorded no fewer than 45 rounds of EUR 200m and above in H1 2021 alone, against 22 and 26 over the whole of 2020 and 2019, respectively.

Company
Odoo's software offers enterprise resource planning, facilitating the management of accounts, stock control, manufacturing, customer relationships, projects, marketing, human resources, websites and e-commerce. It positions itself as an alternative to the likes of SAP, MS Dynamics and Oracle.

Founded in 2005, the company operates 10 offices worldwide, including in the US, India, Hong Kong and Dubai. It is based in Grand-Rosière, Belgium, and employs 1,700 staff.

Odoo stated that it is now profitable, with an average growth rate of 63% per year since inception and forecasted billings of EUR 160m in 2021.

People
Summit Partners – Han Sikkens (managing director).
Odoo – Fabien Pinckaers (founder, CEO).