The Brazilian management platform (ERP) focused on mid-sized companies Omie announced on Tuesday that it has received a BRL 580 million funding round led by SoftBank and followed by the funds Riverwood and Dynamo, Velt, Bogari Capital, Hix Capital and Brasil Capital.

The investment puts Omie close to becoming a unicorn (startups with a valuation of at least $1 billion), said Marcelo Lombardo, president and founder of Omie.

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The newly raised capital will be used to attract customers, expand distribution channels and offer more financial services such as credit, cash management and collection. Also, Omie will launch a partnership with Itaú Unibanco to jointly offer ERP and financial services to about 1.5 million companies.

The partnership shows how management and financial product companies like Omie are rapidly integrating offerings at a time when innovations like PIX instant payment and open banking are increasing competition and pressure on the banking industry.

“We realize that ERP is the new Internet banking,” Lombardo said.

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Founded in 2013, Omie has 950 employees and 70,000 customers. The company had been selling its integrated management service and financial products to companies with average revenues of around BRL 10 million per year. With the pandemic, it began to seek clients with revenues of up to BRL 200 million, competing in a market served by giants such as the German SAP.

“This market was exclusively dominated by suppliers with old technologies and concepts,” said Lombardo. “We offer a much superior service for a fraction of the cost,” he added, stating that Omie’s software costs 5% to 10% of the amount charged by large ERP platforms.

Translated by LABS