Utrecht-based SaaS scale-up OutSmart acquired by Norway-based Visma: Know more

Oslo-based Visma, a SaaS startup, announced on Wednesday, October 26, that it has acquired Utrecht-based SaaS scale-up OutSmart (previously WerkbonApp). The Norwegian company did not disclose the financial details of the acquisition. 

OutSmart will continue to operate under its name and with the current team of 45 employees as an independent unit within the Visma Group. 

The announcement comes a few weeks after Visma acquired Belgian scale-up Beeple, a planning and communication tool for companies working with shift workers.

Why the acquisition?

According to Outsmart founders Steven Rigter and Bas Langenhuizen, growing a scale-up requires additional skills beyond software development, sales, and support. In an attempt to professionalise other aspects of the business, OutSmart has now joined Visma.

Rigter says, “We immediately experience the family feeling at Visma and love that we get support for technology, marketing, and sales. It means we don’t have to reinvent the wheel ourselves. This allows us to take OutSmart to the next phase of growth.”

Visma has acquired 20 European firms this year, including OutSmart.

OutSmart: What you need to know

Founded in 2011, OutSmart develops field service management software for small and medium-sized businesses. 

Field service workers can use the digital work order to register their activities, after which the inside sales department processes them into invoices. The software includes: 

• Digital scheduling 
• Materials management 
• Quotations
• CRM
• Time recording 
• Invoicing 
• Project planning 
• Contract and object management 
• Specific functions for refrigeration installers

The Dutch company says the cloud application works on laptops, smartphones and tablets, and has over 80 connections with accounting and ERP systems. 

More than 4,000 companies in installation engineering, construction, and other service providers use its solution for their daily operations, claims the company. 

The Dutch company aims to grow to 120,000 users by 2025, which is certainly achievable, predicts Rigter.

“Our main competitors are Excel and WhatsApp. We are therefore entering a blue ocean. Especially in the Benelux, Germany, and France, we see growth opportunities,” adds Rigter. 

“Since its founding, OutSmart has been focusing on interfacing with financial and ERP systems,” explains Langenhuizen, co-founder and CCO at OutSmart. “We believe it is essential that field and inside sales can work together in a seamless digital way. That is possible with OutSmart connected to our customers’ other business systems.”

The company has offices in the Netherlands, Germany, and Portugal.

Visma: What do you need to know 

Visma offers a suite of business software products, including financial management, payroll, accounting, HR, and others to simplify and digitise business processes to more than 1.2M SMEs across the Nordic, Benelux, and Baltic regions. Previously, the company acquired Teamleader, Lyanthe, Appical and more. For the public and non-profit sectors, the company provides solutions for improving work processes, reducing bureaucracy and simplifying collaboration.

The company’s target market includes small businesses and startups, central and local government as well as institutions and organisations providing education, welfare services, and healthcare services, non-profit and non-government organisations, large enterprises and retailers, and enterprises of all sizes looking to outsource parts of or their entire administrative processes.

The company has 15,000 employees, and 1.3 million private and public sector customers in the Benelux, Nordic countries, Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America.  Visma Benelux consists of 36 companies that all focus on mission-critical cloud software.

John Reynders, Area Director for Benelux at Visma, says, “OutSmart fits perfectly with our mission to simplify and automate work processes within companies. Their API-first approach is great. OutSmart interfaces with any business system. This allows installers, construction companies, and other service providers to better, faster, and more profitably serve their customers. In doing so, OutSmart contributes to a better and more effective society.”