Munich-based HR startup Personio raises $75 million in its Series C financing round, bringing its total investment volume to $130 million. Accel is the lead investor. Additional capital is coming from Lightspeed Venture Partners, a business angel, and existing investors.
Founded in 2015, the startup, a provider of comprehensive HR software for small and medium-sized enterprises, aims to use the new capital to further advance its rise to become the European market leader. The renowned investors will support this effort.
Top VCs and industry experts as investors
The international Venture capital investor Accel with roots in Silicon Valley, has already invested in companies such as Slack and Facebook and supported Spotify's IPO. Lightspeed Venture Partners, in turn, helped build innovative companies such as Snap, Appdynamics, and Mulesoft. Also on board is industry expert and business angel Lars Dalgaard. He founded Successfactors, a cloud-based HR software, which he sold to SAP for $3.4 billion in 2011. Previous investors Index Ventures, Northzone, Global Founders Capital, and Picus Capital are also participating in the financing round.
“I am very pleased to have additional highly experienced partners at our side through this new financing round, who have already successfully supported numerous software companies in their growth,”
so Hanno Renner, CEO and co-founder of Personio. After just last year a large financing round took place, the Series C round came faster than expected, explains the founder:
“The strong market interest in a renewed investment, which we had originally planned for a much later date, validates Personio's development and growth to date, as well as its enormous market potential.”
“Needs identified early and successfully addressed”
Harry Nelis, General Partner at Accel and now a member of the Personio Board, believes that other software companies have not paid enough attention to the needs of small and medium-sized businesses. Nelis says:
"Personio recognized this need early on and successfully addressed it. Millions of SMEs are currently looking for solutions to sustainably improve their HR management and recruiting. We believe Personio's HR software is leading the way in this area and are excited to support the ambitious team in their future growth."
Also Lars Dalgaard, the industry expert, finds Personio's idea promising because it solves a complex problem for HR professionals and companies. Dalgaard explains:
"Having developed HR software for companies myself, I know the contribution it can make to a company's success. I'm excited to now support Personio in its mission to deliver this added value to small and medium-sized businesses across Europe."
Personio: Continued growth
Personio currently digitizes the recruiting, HR management, and payroll processes of nearly 2,000 small and medium-sized enterprises in over 40 countries. The startup's revenue has nearly tripled in the past twelve months.
With the renewed investment of the equivalent of just over €67.5 million, the software startup plans to expand into additional markets. The number of employees, which more than doubled to over 350 last year, is expected to grow to 700 across three locations in 2020. As Hanno Renner explains, dealing with the strong growth, he explained to us in an interview last fall. What he said about financing at the time:
"It's important not to confuse a large financing round with success. It's an important milestone and enables you to work toward a big vision while continuing to grow rapidly."
