Odoo has opened its first African office in Kenya to address the specific needs of Kenyan and African SMEs.
Earlier this year, Patrick Lukusa was appointed as the director of Odoo KE LTD, the new subsidiary of Odoo S.A. opening in Africa. In a few weeks, the company was incorporated, an office was leased in Nairobi, and completely fit out and recruitment started with the goal to launch activities on July 1st with a headcount of 15 new colleagues (Sales consultants and business analysts).
“It was very important for us to open this new office and 2022 was the year to do it. We wanted to be closer to our customers and address them locally, with local talents, which is something we cannot achieve from afar,” says Fabien Pinckaers, CEO & Founder of Odoo S.A.
Odoo S.A. already had a customer base in Africa. Its business applications suite is indeed used by more than 7,5 million users worldwide, but it lacked the local presence and support. Additionally, SMEs are facing new challenges and cannot keep on operating the way they did 10 or 20 years ago.
“Digitization cannot be ignored anymore. Today an SME in Nairobi or Abidjan faces the same challenges as one in Sydney, Madrid, or Mexico in terms of efficiency gains. We want to equip these SMEs with a modern, fully integrated suite of business applications that can address their needs at a reasonable cost and boost their competitiveness”, explains Patrick Lukusa, director of Odoo KE LTD.
To ensure its ability to address the market’s needs, Odoo KE LTD has already announced several new features specifically designed for Kenya: Kenyan Chart of accounts, new eCommerce acquirers accepting payments methods such as credit cards, debit cards, mobile money (Mpesa, Airtel, MTN, etc) throughout Africa, and the Kenyan Payroll.
Furthermore, several new colleagues have been recruited, and trained and have already commenced duty in the new office on Chiromo Lane, Westlands.
What’s next? Several goals have been set for Odoo KE LTD, one of which is to achieve a turnover of 250 million Kenyan Shillings (the equivalent to 2 million EUR) in year one.
