The Munich startup Envoria plans to compete against the dinosaurs on the market with an affordable and fast solution for financial and sustainability reporting . Launched in May 2018, the fintech has made a million in revenue. Sven Schubert, co-founder of Envoria, answered our Seven Questions.
Munich Startup: Who are you and what do you do? Please introduce yourselves!
Sven Schubert, Envoria: Companies now have many incentives to become more sustainable. It might be to improve their reputation, to comply with new laws and regulations or because an increasing number of investment funds are banking on sustainability.
Our software makes it possible for these companies to collect the necessary data and process it in dashboards and reports. That not only helps management navigate business, but most importantly secures sustainability KPIs and provides audit assurance. Our system also automatically creates reports and increases efficiency.
A classic example for a sustainability KPI is a carbon footprint. We have algorithms and databases to calculate the figures. But it’s about much more than that: When we talk about sustainability, that not only involves key figures about the environment, but also values in the social sector, such as equal opportunities or child labor.
“Companies have many incentives to become more sustainable”
We are all experienced managers from the field of consulting and met while working on a joint project. The founders — who in addition to me, Stefan Siemers, are Thimo Brinkmann and Andreas Ahlert — are between 33 and 55 years old and studied business informatics or economic sciences.
It bothered us that there are only big and expensive software providers in our market. We all agreed that there had to be a way to standardize it all to make it more affordable and faster. Companies shouldn’t have to spend a fortune to be compliant or more sustainable. And that was the idea we founded the company with.
Envoria: Neither dinosaurs nor a hodgepodge
Munich Startup: But that’s nothing out of the box!
Sven Schubert, Envoria: At the moment, you either have major providers who are extremely expensive and slow — let’s call them dinosaurs. Or you have niche providers or startups, who only offer something like carbon footprint calculation.
But companies don’t want to spend a fortune on the dinosaurs and also don’t want to use a hodgepodge of individual startup tools. We’re the flexible all-in-one solution in the field of CSR. CSR, by the way, means corporate social responsibility.
Munich Startup: What has been your biggest challenge so far?
The biggest barrier for us was, as is the case for most startups, finding our first customers. We can now present a good portfolio from a wide range of industries. What does need to be said is that we concentrated on reporting financial KPIs in the beginning (starting in May 2018) and most of our clients are still from that time period. But it’s still incredibly helpful for us that we can list some very big names among our references. We now also have pilot projects underway for sustainability KPIs.
A million in revenue and organic growth
Munich Startup: How is business going?
Business is going great. Since our marketing launch in May 2018, we’ve made more than a million in revenue. And we’ve done so without any investors and based solely on organic growth. Despite the current crisis, things still to look good for us. We’re currently hiring several people and want to really get going!
Munich Startup: What does Munich mean to you?
There are many interesting potential customers and good employees in Munich. However, our current customer base is spread across the entire German-speaking region and we’re even hiring employees from abroad.
We don’t have that much contact with the Munich startup scene at the moment, which is primarily due to our strong focus on B2B business with medium and large companies.
Munich Startup: How will your startup become the next unicorn? Or will we be seeing you at an Epic Fail Night soon?
The former, of course! The field is growing rapidly and we have the right product. Celonis had a product in the field of B2B that wasn’t self-explanatory and was dismissed by many initially, and now they’re stars. With the right strategy, a good product and the ability to adapt, we’re going to go really far.
A balance between security and risk
Munich Startup: Risk or security?
Both! We actually strike a balance. We take risks and grow, but always have a plan B.