Klippa is demonstrating the power of SaaS with its automated document processing software

Traditional documentation practices are still used by many organisations around the world. Even though businesses are embracing digital transformation, the amount of paperwork and documentation followed by these companies becomes a challenge. One solution that has taken precedence is document automation.

With the implementation of document automation, companies can experience improved speed, fewer errors, decentralised processing, support for collaboration, and even security. One scaleup trying to make the process of digitising and administrative automation simpler is Klippa.

A desk full of receipts

The idea of Klippa originates from the personal experience of its co-founders, who often found themselves in front of a desk full of receipts and invoices. They observed that these documents lie around for administration, and it is often the least favourite job of many entrepreneurs.

This led them to think about a better way to do administrative work like document processing and they relied on automation. The Dutch scaleup based in Groningen was started by six IT specialists who became friends during university. Since its inception, the company has raised €1.7M in funding.

“The goal of Klippa is to use modern technologies like machine learning and optical character recognition (OCR) to enhance the effectiveness of organisations,” says Yeelen Knegtering, CEO of Klippa.

The scaleup offers specialised solutions and software to improve administrative processes, scanning receipts and invoices, processing expense claims, identity validation, and data extraction.

However, the primary product of Klippa is DocHorizon, which assists businesses worldwide with document process automation. It combines technologies like Mobile scanning, OCR, data extraction, classification, document conversion, anonymization, and verification.

With its AI-powered OCR tech, Klippa’s software is able to identify text in pictures and convert them into searchable text in any format. The scaleup also offers these solutions as a SDK or API that companies can directly integrate into their own application.

SaaS and understanding the market

The power of SaaS is often not very well documented despite the fact that the market for SaaS products is expanding at 18.4 per cent annually. According to Europe’s Capital Mind, the transactions in the SaaS industry are growing in volume by 25 per cent year-on-year.

However, what makes SaaS really interesting is the fact that there are a large number of small players in this dynamic market. With SaaS becoming one of the three main pillars of cloud computing, scaleups like Klippa are uniquely positioned to deliver software services that are critical.

This is most apparent in the business model of Klippa. The business sells software licences for automatically processing documents in high volume. It counts the likes of Vanmoof, Banijay, Nivea, Mercado Libre, DZ Bank, CarOffer, and others among its customers.

While SaaS offers opportunity, Klippa has also reinvented itself to stay ahead of the curve. “When a company grows really fast, you have to reinvent your company every year,” says Knegtering.

He adds that the founding team of Klippa were very much hands on with product, design, marketing, and sales, but had to “slowly develop into managers.” Klippa is now an international team of over 70 people with offices in Groningen, Amsterdam, and Brasov.

It owes its success to the very early vision of hiring international team members, which helped them understand the international markets fast. Chief Customer Officer Robert-Jan Verheggen says the understanding of the international market helped them address the broader market.

“With hindsight, those first internationals were very important hires or strategic decisions,” says Robert-Jan Verheggen. “Klippa is now mostly looking for experienced, specialised people that can help us bring our company forward,” he adds.

Rise helps challenge yourself

Klippa joined nine other Dutch scaleups to form batch #9 of Techleap.nl’s Rise programme this year. Knegtering says they joined the Rise programme to be “challenged, improve ourselves, and stay on our toes.”

With a strong product and capital efficient business model, Klippa has gained a lot of praise from the tech community as well as investors. However, the founders feel the need to be challenged and stay focussed on their mission. Techleap.nl did just that with its Rise programme.

The founders of Klippa say the opportunity to talk with experts and companies in a similar stage will help them forward. For them, the sessions at Rise programme have transformed into an opportunity to push themselves to “think bigger and without limits.”

“Have peers around you that face similar challenges and learn from each other,” says Knegtering when asked for a singular takeaway.

Best automated document processor

Klippa is a good example of how the Dutch ecosystem has become a hotbed for SaaS scaleups. With a strong product and effective founder team at the helm, Klippa wants to be seen as the best automated document processor.

With recent expansion to the US and a suite of products that can be used in industries like accounting software, banking and financial services, marketing, logistics and transportation, legal, and public sector, the scaleup is focussed on its MVP: product.

“We believe that a great product is the primary driver of growth,” says Robert-Jan Verheggen. “Capital can be fuel for that growth engine, so when we see that capital becomes a limiting factor, fundraising could be a solution, but it is not a goal on its own.”

For Knegtering, the success of Klippa comes on the back of a great team and a technically strong product. However, he is not getting carried away by the growth to set any lofty goals instead believes in enjoying the journey.

“We think it’s important to enjoy the journey, not just pinpoint an end goal,” he says. “We are successful when we enjoy building our company, when our team enjoys working for the company, when our clients enjoy using our products, and we keep improving and growing.”

For aspiring entrepreneurs, Knegtering has a very simple piece of advice. He suggests finding the strong founding team early and listening carefully to the first real clients. He also believes in persevering during the tough times, an advice that can be followed at all times.