Deventer, Netherlands, OpusFlow, a SaaS startup specialising in modular ERP solutions, announced on Tuesday that it has secured €1.7M investment from Peak.

The Dutch company will use the funds to enhance its product offering further and expand its market reach across the European continent, including Spain, Belgium, Germany, France, as well as the United Kingdom,

Revealing the company’s expansion plans to Silicon Canals, Diego Smits, co-founder and CEO, says, “In addition, we are always looking for partnerships with distributors, installers, and other companies in a similar sector. Our goal is to use our knowledge to connect all different players in the sustainable installation market eventually. We believe that this is something we can accomplish by setting up initiatives.”

Birth of OpusFlow

Founded in November 2022 by Diego Smits and Joey Teunissen, OpusFlow focuses exclusively on developing modular ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) functionalities for sustainable installation companies specialising in sustainable technologies.

However, OpusFlow was initially established as a digital agency developing custom software solutions using a new-generation development stack, focusing on serving companies with over 50+ employees.

“We always searched for the next big SaaS opportunity where we could make the most impact, whereas a large solar installer inspired us to build OpusFlow. We realised there was no ‘real’ all-in-one solution available for solar/sustainable installers,” reveals Smits.

As a result, the company expanded to around 40 employees and reorganised its internal structure in 2022-2023. Following the initial launch, Opus Flow received about 100 requests from solar installers, indicating significant interest in our products, claims Smits.

Why OpusFlow?

The Dutch startup aims to simplify operations and enhance client efficiency through its API-first approach, which enables seamless integration and rapid feature development.

“Enabling sustainable installers to become digital champions by being able to spend more time with their customer while getting significantly more margin out of each project with less effort through a verticalised all-in-one (ERP) solution,” answers Smits.

With its vast experience in the installation market and in the way installation companies function, the Dutch company allows for active design and development with and for its users.

Additionally, the company’s platform includes:

• PDF builders and customer portal for detailed customisation
• “Template Environments” to create streamlined back-office processes with planning and stock management modules
• Integrated CRM and PV design proposal tools for quote acceptance rates and revenue

“Our high-end automation system allows for detailed workflow automation and tailored fit solutions for complicated workflows. This reduces the room for error and allows for efficient streamlined workflows. Do more with less!” adds Smits.

Notably, the Dutch startup also enables the companies to share data between different systems easily.

“As we use the newest technologies, all data within OpusFlow can be sent or received from external systems. It is one of our cornerstones, but there are many more aspects to our strategy. The benefit of this is that our customers can easily integrate existing or other solutions,” he says.

According to Smits, the clients who used the OpusFlow solution have witnessed a 30 per cent efficiency gain in back-office processes while also increasing their revenues, as they can make fast, high-quality proposals.

As a result, the company’s MoM growth increased by 10 per cent.

He adds that their expertise and templates are really helpful for smaller companies because they don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

Adding more industry-specific functionalities

OpusFlow has also developed a heat pump calculator and is working on combinations with more tools and calculations for other sustainable installations.

“After all, we do not only want to support our users with what they need right now but also with the challenges that they face in the market,” he adds.

In addition to the heat pump calculator, the company can calculate any type of sustainable installation (battery, charging station, air conditioning).

Additionally, they are working on drawing tools in combination with their quote builder.

According to Smits, the focus is on providing easily understandable quotes for their users’ customers, making installations more understandable for the buyer.

“We focus on developing tools that allow companies to let their installers spend more time on the roof. OpusFlow enables them to run their business on autopilot so that they can focus on their expertise and do more work with less,” he explains.

Additionally, the company is also planning to focus on improving the client’s interaction with their customers, such as the Calendly-like feature, sending out (inspection) forms, or other information through the customer portal.

“Through OpusFlow we allow them to create more touchpoints with their customers so that they can offer better service and create more connections with the customer,” he explains.

Challenges

Talking about the initial challenges he faced while setting up the company, Smits says, “We worked day and night with the whole team to create an all-in-one solution that delivers real value within all those processes. We worked on a tight schedule with tight deadlines which resulted in at least four all-nighters to keep up with delivery deadlines to be able to ship the product.” 

After its initial launch in November 2022, the Dutch startup received more requests than it could handle, prompting the need to scale the organisation quickly to approximately 40 employees.

He adds, “We also needed to mature our internal processes and set up efficient systems to provide our clients with an A+ experience.”

Hiring

Currently, the company employs around 38 people and is looking for:

• Customer success/onboarding specialist (1)
• Hybrid (account executive/onboarding) Germany (1)
• Head of Finance / CFO (1)

“We primarily focus on characteristics that fit within our performance-driven, optimistic, risk-taking environment. We are always looking for the best hires and talent,” says Smits about the skills and qualities needed to hire new team members.

Moving forward

OpusFlow currently serves clients in the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, and Belgium. 

According to Smits, expansion can be slow and expensive.

“We think that local offices and teams are necessary, but require a lot of time and resources. Therefore we aim to use a hybrid approach where we have experts in a hybrid sales-product expert role, while we provide the main support from our expert teams in the Netherlands and Spain. After gaining traction and a foothold in a country, we can start expanding there more locally,” he concludes.

The company’s majority of clients are active in sustainable installations like solar panels, heat pumps, home batteries, and electric vehicle charging stations. 

However, the company’s solution is also widely adopted by installation and maintenance companies in Airco’s, Wind Turbines and cooling. 

The investor

Peak is an early-stage venture capital firm based in Amsterdam, Berlin, and Stockholm, investing across Europe with a focus on SaaS, marketplace, and platform companies.

Among its investments are leading companies such as Channable, Catawiki, Hygraph, Trengo and Circula.

“From the day we met the team, we were excited about their vision and rapid execution. OpusFlow’s has a tremendous dedication to customer-centric development and has been executing extremely well in delivering a broad solution for a specific customer group. This aligns well with our thesis of an increase in successful vertical SaaS solutions,” remarks Thijs Dijkman, Partner at Peak.

“We are excited to support the Opusflow team in its journey to enable sustainable installers to realise their ambitions quicker and more efficiently by providing the best-in-class all-in-one ERP solution,” adds Dijkman.