In 2019 alone, Scale-up launched the first digital account that is, at the same time, a management system, Omie.Cash; created the Omie Entrepreneurial Innovation Award, which will distribute more than R$ 50 thousand to encourage innovative projects; and put the One.Flow accounting software to run alongside accounting giants and became one of the indicated by BNDES to increase the chances of access to credit for MSMEs.
According to its managers, the startup has grown by about 107.5% per year since 2016, and brings together, in one place, financial services, entrepreneurial education and management system - which includes unlimited issuance of notes and slips, inventory control, CRM and integration with counter, among many other features. In the last twelve months, its more than 25,000 customers have already issued nearly R$ 60 billion in invoices – equivalent to almost 1% of Brazilian GDP.
As its activities branch out, the focus on solving entrepreneurs' challenges remains in the company's DNA, founded in a small “war room” by a team of 7 software engineers. “Omie was born from an old desire to create a complete, different solution. The market is full of shallow solutions, which do not really meet the needs of small businesses”, emphasizes Omie CTO and co-founder Rafael Olmos.
The software company offers financial solutions such as the anticipation of receivables and the first digital account that is a management system in the world, Omie.Cash, operating in a disruptive way in the fintech sector. The digital account earned the company an honorable mention for product innovation at the Global SME Finance Awards and led to Omie being singled out as a threat to traditional financial institutions in a Credit Suisse report.
The prominence achieved by Omie meant that, also in 2019, the company raised an investment round worth R$ 80 million from the American fund Riverwood Capital, which has already invested in companies such as 99, Mandic and VTex. In addition, this year it entered the ranking of the fastest growing SMEs in Brazil for the second consecutive time.
winning strategy
In addition to having created a platform that tackles the main problems faced by Brazilian SMEs – difficulty in accessing credit, complexity of the tax system and lack of entrepreneurial education -, Omie also got the revenue from sales channels right. The winning strategy helps explain the performance of the company, which already employs more than 400 people.
Another highlight of its strategy includes 110 franchises spread throughout the Brazilian territory. “Omie understood that, in order to establish a close relationship with customers in all regions of the country, it was necessary to have local representatives who would take the companies' solutions in the right way, to the right audiences. The technology company also bets on partnerships with more than 15,000 accounting offices, which indicate the system to their clients”, completes Rafael Olmos.
The founder and CEO of Omie, Marcelo Lombardo, says that the idea was born spontaneously: “When we were still testing business models, we noticed that the clients who came to us were indicated by their accountants, who had an efficiency gain of up to 70% when their customers were using Omie”.
Omie has invested in offering a complete and easy-to-use product that brings entrepreneurs and accountants together and in entrepreneurial education initiatives for accountants, so that professionals can better sell their services and act in a more consultative and less operational way, for through Omie.Academy, an entrepreneurial education platform that offers online courses in the areas of social media management, sales, marketing and Business Process Outsourcing, among others.
“Getting here was not easy: more than 60% of companies closed 5 years after its foundation and it is with this in mind that Omie develops its solutions. Our purpose is to show that it is indeed possible to undertake and prosper in Brazil - especially when you have the support of tools that expand access to credit, facilitate business management processes and teach entrepreneurs to manage their company more efficiently. strategic and efficient”, concludes Lombardo.
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