xentral
Founded 2008 · 193 employees on LinkedIn · 8 known investors
Xentral is a cloud-based ERP platform for retail, wholesale, manufacturing, and e-commerce businesses that integrates order management, inventory, warehousing, and accounting across multiple sales channels. The platform scales with growing businesses and serves companies across industries including fashion, food & beverage, electronics, and dropshipping.
Also known as xentral ERP · Xentral ERP Software GmbH
Founders & leadership
xentral was founded in 2008 by Torge Kahl and Fabian Richter.
Investors · 8
Also in the syndicate · 3
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Xentral is a German provider of cloud-based enterprise resource planning software for small and mid-sized commerce businesses that sell physical products across multiple channels. The platform consolidates order processing, inventory and warehouse management, picking and packing, shipping, returns, purchasing, production, product information management (PIM), CRM, point of sale, reporting and accounting into a single system, so that stock levels, orders and documents remain synchronized across an operator's own web shop, marketplaces, wholesale and retail channels.
The product is delivered SaaS-only and is modular: customers activate the functional areas they need. Xentral Connect, the company's own middleware layer, provides more than 200 ready-to-use integrations to systems such as Shopify, Amazon, Shopware, OTTO, eBay, Magento, WooCommerce, Pipedrive and DHL, plus an open API; customers can activate standard connections themselves, while certified partners build custom integrations. Xentral Flows lets users assemble rules and automations by drag-and-drop without code, and a Workflow Builder for partners was slated for release during 2025. Accounting functions cover invoicing, payment matching, dunning and DATEV exports; the company positions the product as complementary to DATEV rather than a replacement, and cites German compliance requirements such as GoBD and UStG.
The company is developing the platform toward an AI-native ERP in which specialized agents perform routine work in the background — creating orders, reconciling payments, pre-processing returns and answering product questions from ERP data — with the user approving actions. Announced or planned agents include address correction, payment reconciliation and delivery status.
Founding story
Benedikt Sauter and his wife Claudia Sauter could not find an ERP suited to their microcontroller business, Embedded Project GmbH, so Benedikt built his own inventory management system on an open-source foundation designed to be extended as new needs arose. The internal tool drew interest from their first hardware customers, and as Benedikt adapted it to further requirements, demand for the software outgrew demand for the microcontrollers. In 2017 the couple wound down the hardware business to focus entirely on the ERP, forming Xentral ERP Software GmbH in Augsburg. The early prototype had originally been built for their first business in computer hardware sales.
Business model
Xentral sells its ERP exclusively as a cloud-based SaaS subscription, billed monthly or annually, with no per-user fees and unlimited users on every plan. Five tiers are offered: Starter from €349/month (up to 500 orders per month), Business from €649/month (including Xentral Connect, Pick & Pack and API access), Pro from €849/month (dunning, cost centers, advanced invoicing), and Scale with custom pricing for the highest API performance, automation depth and SLA requirements. Actual pricing depends on annual sales and revenue volume, feature scope and business model mix (B2B vs. D2C, fulfillment complexity). A 14-day free trial is available, and certified implementation partners deliver customization and custom integrations, which may carry additional cost.
Recurring SaaS subscription revenue from tiered monthly or annual plans priced by company size, sales volume, feature scope and business model, with unlimited users included and no per-user fees; additional services such as custom integrations and partner-led process design are billed separately.
Traction
More than 2,000 merchants use the software, up from approximately 1,000 customers reported at the time of the August 2021 Series B (an ERP page also references over 1,700 customers). The team numbers 200+ across 17 European locations and 32 nationalities. The platform offers 200+ prebuilt integrations. Cited customer outcomes include elimination of 95% of manual order-processing work at one customer using Xentral with Procuros, and go-live timelines of six weeks (PetRhein), under two months (OlivenZauber) and four months during ongoing operations (Sallys Shop).
Latest developments
Xentral is repositioning the platform as an AI-native ERP, with agents operating inside the system on routine tasks and flagging bottlenecks; agents for address correction, payment reconciliation and delivery status are announced as forthcoming, alongside a Workflow Builder for Xentral Connect scheduled for release in 2025. The company is also running a switching incentive covering migration costs for customers moving before the peak season, advertised through 30 September. Leadership listed includes founder and Co-CEO Benedikt Sauter, founder Claudia Sauter, Co-CEO Domenico Cipolla, and VPs for commercial, customer and partner success, and product.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history
Market position
Xentral targets the segment between entry-level tools and enterprise ERP, describing itself as the step up for merchants outgrowing Excel or entry-level products such as Lexware or Billbee, while explicitly not serving enterprises with complex multi-entity structures. It reports more than 2,000 merchant customers in the DACH region and 200+ employees. Investors include Freigeist Capital, Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global, Meritech Capital and Visionaries Club; the 2021 Series B was framed against a global ERP market expected to reach $32 billion by 2023, with Meritech drawing a comparison to its 2008 investment in NetSuite.
Xentral positions itself around fast time-to-value and openness rather than enterprise breadth: implementation in roughly 8 to 12 weeks (customer examples cited range from a 6-week go-live to four months), a single platform covering sales, warehouse and accounting instead of separate tools, no-code workflow configuration and self-service activation of integrations without developers, open APIs, unlimited users with no per-user or feature-based pricing, and update-safe middleware customization that avoids scripts breaking on release. It explicitly scopes itself out of enterprise multi-entity deployments, pure service businesses and markets that do not require German-language compliance.
Technology
A cloud-only, modular ERP platform with twelve core functional areas, real-time inventory synchronization across sales channels, mobile apps for stocktaking (including batches, serial numbers and expiry dates) and paperless picking, and reporting that supports ready-made reports as well as SQL and external BI tools. Xentral Connect is a separately running middleware layer, provisioned per customer, that handles integrations without embedding custom scripts in the core code, keeping customizations compatible with automatic updates. Xentral Flows provides no-code, trigger-condition-action automation. AI agents operate on the customer's ERP data and prepare actions inside the system for human approval.
Go-to-market
Distribution combines self-service and assisted sales: a 14-day free trial requiring no installation or credit card, online consultation bookings, and a network of certified implementation partners (examples cited include BDG and digitalXL) that handle onboarding, custom integrations and process design. Supporting resources include an Academy with more than 200 training videos, a user community, a helpdesk with product documentation, and customer references from D2C brands. Onboarding is positioned at a few weeks to a few months depending on complexity.
Small and mid-sized commerce businesses in the DACH region and the Netherlands that sell physical products across online shops, marketplaces, wholesale and brick-and-mortar channels, typically with 5 to around 250 employees. Customer industries include fashion, food, cosmetics, home and garden, and pharma; named customers include 3Bears, YFood, KoRo, the Nu Company and Flyeralarm.
Geography
Headquartered in Augsburg, Germany, with additional offices in Berlin, Munich, Lohne and Amsterdam; staff are spread across 17 locations in Europe. The addressed markets are Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands. At the time of the 2021 Series B the majority of customers were in Germany, and proceeds were designated in part to expand the U.K. operation.
History
The software began as an internal inventory management tool built by Benedikt Sauter on an open-source foundation for the couple's microcontroller company, Embedded Project GmbH. Early hardware customers asked to use it, and demand for the software eventually exceeded demand for the microcontrollers. In 2017 the founders wound down the hardware business and incorporated Xentral ERP Software GmbH in Augsburg. The company raised a $20 million Series A led by Sequoia Capital — Sequoia's first investment made from its newly opened European operation — reported in early 2021, followed by a $75 million Series B from Tiger Global and Meritech in August 2021 with participation from Sequoia, Visionaries Club and Freigeist. In April 2022 it acquired Otaja ERP Consulting GmbH along with its staff and onboarding/learning platform. The company has since positioned the product as an AI-native ERP with agents and a no-code Workflow Builder.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 3
launches, deals, and filingsXentral is adding AI agents that run routine tasks inside the ERP (planned agents include an Address Correction Agent, Payment Reconciliation Agent and Delivery Status Agent) and a Workflow Builder for Xentral Connect scheduled for release during 2025.
Xentral took over Otaja ERP Consulting GmbH, including its operational business and all employees. Otaja's onboarding and learning platform is to be made available to all Xentral customers and service partners so they can set up the ERP platform independently, with instructional videos on a video portal.
Following its $75M Series B, xentral said the capital would be used to enhance the product, hire staff and expand its U.K. operation toward a more global ERP market.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- xentralxentral.com · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does xentral do?
- German provider of cloud-based, AI-augmented ERP software for small and mid-sized multichannel commerce businesses in the DACH region.
- Who founded xentral?
- xentral was founded by Torge Kahl, Fabian Richter in 2008.
- Who are xentral's investors?
- xentral's investors include Alkeon Innovation, Freigeist Capital, HubSpot Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Visionaries Club.