Celonis today announced a Series D financing round of $1 billion. This values the Munich-based company at more than $11 billion. The unicorn Celonis thus becomes a decacorn. A decacorn is defined as a startup with a market value of over $10 billion. The Munich-based startup is thus the first decacorn from Germany. Another rare decacorn in Europe is the Swedish payment provider Klarna.
The current financing round is led by Durable Capital Partners LP and T. Rowe Price Associates. Franklin Templeton, Splunk Ventures, and a group of other investors are also participating. Existing investors, including Arena Holdings, are also reinvesting.
"Celonis is a rare gem that sits at the heart of one of the biggest technology trends of our time—the modernization of businesses through data-driven, intelligent business decisions. Celonis has massive market potential to create a new and modern way of managing businesses."
said Henry Ellenbogen, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Durable Capital Partners LP.
High demand for execution management solutions
Just six months ago, Celonis launched its new Execution Management System. This new software category offers companies a way to manage their entire business processes intelligently and in a data-driven manner. The high demand for execution management solutions demonstrates how severely companies suffer from outdated and fragmented transaction systems and how they need support to sustainably optimize their performance. The resulting added value has led to strong demand for the Celonis Execution Management System.
“Our customers were thrilled when they realized that with the Execution Management System, they could now use their process data to run their businesses as efficiently as Amazon – without having to change anything in their underlying systems,”
said Bastian Nominacher, Co-CEO and co-founder of Celonis.
"This realization led to a sharp increase in demand. Thanks to our 10 years of experience with 'process X-rays,' we can provide our customers with extremely comprehensive process knowledge. With the Execution Management System, they can now finally incorporate data-driven insights into every single business process, thus sustainably improving their company's performance. This means that Execution Management has the potential to impact the software landscape just as much as cloud computing has."
New Chief Financial Officer
To guide the company through its next phase of strong growth, Carlos Kirjner joins Celonis's executive management team as its new Chief Financial Officer. In this position, he will be responsible for the company's global financial organization and strategy.
"Carlos Kirjner is a visionary leader with an impressive track record. He has identified some of the biggest industry trends long before others and has proven his ability to act with agility in a dynamic environment,"
says Nominacher.
“He has the vision and experience to drive forward our ambitious goals and will support us in building a long-term, successful technology company of high strategic relevance.”
