How A New Breed Of European ERP Providers Are Taking On The World
Europe's manufacturers need flexible ERP solutions to run their businesses more efficiently
Europe's enterprise resource planning (ERP) market is going through a wave of growth. A market valued at $17.8 billion in 2022 will be worth $35.1 billion by 2030, says Grand View Research – that implies annual growth of more than 9%. 'The ever-growing need for automation to streamline business processes, as well as the integration of ERP software in small and medium-sized enterprises for business scalability, are factors driving market growth,' the market research house explains.
Competitors in the space include the global ERP giants, including Salesforce, SAP and Concur, but also a number of disruptive start-ups. For example, London-based Keel raised $6 million to scale its ERP platform last October. Holded of Spain and Belgium's Odoo have also raised significant sums, while Light, in Denmark, is another competitor in the space.
The latest player to raise money in this segment is Bonx, a Paris-based start up with an ERP software solutiopn aimed at the manufacturing sector. It is today announcing an $8.6 million seed round led by 9900 Capital, with participation from Kima Ventures, Purple, OSS Ventures, and Dynamo Ventures.
ERP systems offer businesses an opportunity to organise all their operations and workflows, including relationships with suppliers, with much greater efficiency, explains Alexandre Barroux, who co-founded Bonx with Rémi Beges in 2022, but haven't always delivered on this promise. 'Traditional ERP implementations are lengthy processes, often requiring 18 to 24 months of work and they are typically hard-coded,' he says. 'It is very difficult for companies to make changes to the software as their businesses evolve.'
Europe's manufacturing sector faces particular challenges Barroux points out, with fast-changing regulatory requirements, disruption to global supply chains that requires increased adaptability, and a growing focus on improving sustainability. 'Many companies that have invested significant sums in ERP software are reverting to solutions such as Excel spreadsheets and even paper-based processes because they can't get their platforms working for them in the right way.'
By contrast, the new breed of ERP providers aim to deliver much more rapid implementation processes and to make it much easier for businesses to take charge of adapting the software to their needs over time. Lo- and no-code solutions, that enable businesses to change the platforms by themselves even if they lack software engineering skills, are increasingly ubiquitous.
Barroux says Bonx's software is built to integrate with customers' existing legacy systems, significantly reducing implementation timescales, and supports self-customisation. He claims to be able to get his software up and running in as little as six to 12 weeks, with the platform then handed over to the business so that it can iterate the software as it evolves.
This proposition has begun to attract customers, with Bonx increasing its client roster from 15 manufacturers to 30 since the beginning of the year. A number of suppliers to the French retail chain Decathlon have implemented the solution, along with emerging brands such as French Bloom. Bonx expects to be able to continue expanding in France and Spain, and is also pursuing expansion plans in other European countries.
Investors in the ERP sector think these new entrants have a big future. 'Bonx is redefining the ERP landscape by combining extraordinary implementation speeds with genuinely impactful AI-driven capabilities, driving enormous efficiencies within an industry plagued by legacy software,' says a spokesman for 9900 Capital, Bonx's lead investor. The funding gives Bonx additional firepower for further product development as well as investment in its go-to-market capabilities.
There is certainly a need to move quickly, with so many disruptors seeking to build scale with the same sort of pitch. At Keel, for example, CEO Benoi Machefer said of his company's fund-raise: 'Businesses are changing, and contemporary companies need to own their own operations software and tools; we see a future where many companies never need a traditional ERP.'
Such competition is good news for European businesses, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises that may lack the resources to properly integrate and manage ERP solutions, and industry specialists, which often need customised solutions. More choice means less reliance on the giant global legacy players.
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