Since 1 January, a new reality applies in IncubaThor: een professionele omgeving met een bruisende community.Belgium: digital invoices are sent via Peppol. For many organisations—especially SMEs and non‑profits—the transition remains technical, complex, and above all… expensive. Let’s Peppol was created to change this.
Let’s Peppol is an open‑source solution that already helps more than 700 Belgian organisations work in a simple and cost‑effective Peppol‑compliant way. The software was developed by SoftwareOplossing.be and supported by Brightest, both based at IncubaThor, the hotspot for start‑ups in Limburg.
An accessible solution for SMEs and non‑profits
When the obligation for structured invoices was announced, many developers expected a free tool to appear. It didn’t. So Bart Stukken and his team at SoftwareOplossing.be built one themselves.
“Let’s Peppol is an open‑source, community‑driven solution that makes SMEs fully compliant without having to incur major costs,” says Stukken.
Thanks to a Dutch subsidy (€15,000), the project could be developed and made freely available to everyone. For now, SoftwareOplossing.be covers the operational costs of running the platform, although they are looking for sponsors in the future to guarantee the community‑driven approach.
Today, Let’s Peppol has about 700 users. A striking number of non‑profits use the tool because it is fully non‑profit itself and does not offer a freemium model. There is no limited free version with paid upgrades—Let’s Peppol wants to remain free and avoid collecting user data.
“In a time when data is worth money, it doesn’t feel right to collect it, so we don’t,” Stukken explains.
How Brightest and SoftwareOplossing.be found each other
The collaboration between SoftwareOplossing.be and Brightest was no coincidence. Bart has known Kevin Pieters and David Vandingenen (Brightest) for years. As the tool began to take shape and the launch approached, the need arose to test the platform professionally. Bart wanted to leave nothing to chance—it had to be truly solid. Brightest is known as a quality‑driven testing partner that likes to contribute to innovative projects with clear societal value.
“Let’s Peppol is such a project: honest and designed to help small and medium‑sized organisations move forward. Those are exactly the initiatives we like to strengthen. If we can make a project like this scalable and secure with our expertise, we gladly do so.”
Brightest performed extensive performance testing, conducted a security scan, and evaluated the entire functional quality of the tool.
Kevin Pieters (Brightest), Bart Stukken (SoftwareOplossing.be), David Vandingenen (Brightest)
Peppol: what is it and why is it important?
For readers who are not yet familiar with it, Peppol is a standard that structures digital invoices. Instead of sending a PDF, you receive an invoice that can be automatically read by accounting software. Belgium is strongly committed to accelerating this digital shift, although Europe is not progressing at the same speed everywhere. By 2030, structured invoicing will likely become mandatory across the board. For small businesses and non‑profits, this transition is complex and often expensive. That is where Let’s Peppol makes a difference, says Bart Stukken.
“The first steps toward Peppol are complicated for many organisations. Not because they don’t want to comply, but because it often seems technically overwhelming and the costs can escalate quickly. We want to keep that threshold as low as possible so that small companies, start‑ups, and non‑profits can join the digital transformation without stress or unpleasant surprises.”
Bart and his team aim to provide the software solution for the manufacturing industry. Their goal is to help local companies work more efficiently, further digitalise, and grow. This ambition builds on eight years of experience in custom software for the metal industry, where demanding quality requirements are often the standard.
Thor Park as the home of this collaboration
Both Brightest and SoftwareOplossing.be operate from Thor Park, and that turns out to be a strategic choice. “The ecosystem here truly helps. The connections, the support, the companies in the same niche… you really feel a community here,” explains Kevin Pieters.
Brightest previously came into contact with relevant partners through Thor Park, while SoftwareOplossing.be found a place at IncubaThor through Hubs4Growth. The fact that Brightest was already established there gave Bart an extra push to further develop his company from this location. “That we are here is actually thanks to Brightest. Thor Park brings the right people together.”
What does the future hold?
Looking ahead, both parties mainly envision a future in which the community plays an even more central role. Let’s Peppol is growing today thanks to users who spontaneously help one another and help shape the project, and they want to further strengthen that dynamic. The importance of a free, independent tool is only increasing, especially now that more organisations are required to use structured invoicing. “We will continue to focus on testing, quality, and an intuitive interface. The community wants this, and we want to keep contributing.”
The collaboration between Brightest and SoftwareOplossing.be therefore remains essential. With Brightest as the software quality check and SoftwareOplossing.be as a partner in broader software development, they aim to grow Let’s Peppol in the coming years without losing its core: a solution that truly works for everyone.
