The News

Sofinnova Partners invests in OpenERP

17/02/2010

London, UK – February 17, 2009 – Sofinnova Partners, a leading European venture capital firm, today announced that it has invested in OpenERP. Sofinnova’s investment is joined by that of Xavier Niel and Olivier Rosenfeld, manager and board member of Iliad, respectively. In total, 3 million Euros have been contributed in the form of capital growth.

The ambition is to make OpenERP a world leader in integrated open source software management ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning). Founded in 2005 by Fabien Pinckaers, OpenERP has already found success thanks to a strong community of more than 300 hundred members and integrators in 26 countries. OpenERP software already offers more than 500 modules and is downloaded by more than 1000 users each day.

The funds raised will be used to accelerate the company’s development strategy, which includes strengthening the managerial team, increasing distribution of the new SaaS OpenERP offering (www.odoo.com) and enhancing its internationalization. Additionally to its existing presence in India, the company will open a US office this year.

Olivier Sichel, Partner at Sofinnova Partners, says: “We are pleased to take part in the development of OpenERP and think that Fabien Pinckaers has the potential to revolutionize ERP solutions, just as Open Source has transformed the software industry worldwide”.

Fabien Pinckaers, CEO and founder of OpenERP, adds: “With more than 110 leads per day, the demand for integration services on OpenERP has exploded during these last few months. The funds raised will enable us to rebalance supply and demand by investing in our network of partners and to improve the software’s quality even further. The arrival of investors Olivier Sichel representing Sofinnova Partners and Xavier Niel will also herald a new era for the company”.

About Sofinnova Partners
Sofinnova Partners is an independent venture capital firm based in Paris, France. For over 35 years, the firm has backed nearly 500 companies at different stages of development – pure creations, spin-offs, as well as turnaround situations – and worked alongside Europe’s key entrepreneurs in the technology, life sciences and cleantech sectors. With €1.1 billion of funds under management, Sofinnova Partners’ experienced team and hands-on approach in building portfolio companies through to exit have created market leaders, from landmark historical investments including Genentech, Actelion and Vistaprint to more recent successes such as CoreValve, Novexel, Fovea and Sensitive Object. With a global mindset, the firm has a sister organization in San Francisco, California.