Personio, the all-in-one HR platform, announced $125 million of new and preemptive Series D funding in an investment round that values the business at $1.7 billion.
The new funding will accelerate the further international expansion of the software company, supporting its ambition of becoming Europe’s leading HR platform for SMEs. It follows a strong year of growth for the business in 2020, which saw it double revenues despite adverse market conditions.
Personio offers an all-in-one HR software for small- and medium-sized companies with 10 to 2,000 employees. Its mission is to make HR processes as transparent and efficient as possible so HR can focus on the most valuable assets in the company: the people.
Personio’s software includes human resources, recruiting, and payroll and supports all core HR processes every business needs to do. Personio is already helping more than 3,000 SMEs across Europe unlock their productive potential by digitizing and automating their people operations.
The latest funding was led by existing investor Index Ventures, which has previously supported high-profile software companies including Slack, Dropbox, and Zendesk to their IPO. All of Personio’s other existing investors – Accel, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Northzone, Global Founders Capital, and Picus – participated in this latest funding round.
They have been joined by Meritech, which has a long-standing track record of backing highly successful SaaS companies, including Salesforce, where they were the first outside investor, as well as recent high-flyers Datadog, Snowflake, and UiPath.
The new capital will enable Personio to increase its expansion across Europe and focus on the further development of its cloud-based software, as it builds Europe’s leading HR operating system for recruiting, personnel administration, and payroll for small and medium-sized companies.
Hanno Renner, Co-founder and CEO of Personio: “While the past year has proven difficult for many industries and businesses, it has at the same time accelerated the digitization of small and mid-sized businesses. It has also showcased the important role of HR teams, especially while so many of us continue to work remotely. We are grateful for a strong year in which we could grow to serve over 3,000 European SMEs. By further expanding our platform, we’ll continue to support our customers in tackling their current challenges and beyond.”
“This preemptive investment comes earlier than we had anticipated, as we’re still well funded from our previous round in January 2020. Such strong interest and support from our investors demonstrates not only the value of Personio’s offering, but also the huge potential the business has for further development and growth in the future. We are only scratching the surface of the market potential.”
Martin Mignot, Partner at Index Ventures and Personio Board Member: “SMEs are the backbone of the European economy, employing 100 million people across the continent, but it is also a sector that has been neglected by software companies focused predominantly on large enterprises. Personio changes that, having created a set of powerful tools tailored to address the needs of small businesses. Under the leadership of the company’s co-founder Hanno Renner, Personio has quickly become one of the most impactful and impressive businesses in Europe, and we’re thrilled to be working with him and the team as they scale and respond to rising demand for their products.”
Alex Clayton, General Partner at Meritech Capital and Personio’s newest Board Member: “We have had the pleasure of working with some of the most successful SaaS companies in the world, and given Personio’s success over the past five years and the immense market potential, we strongly believe in Personio’s ability to build an equally successful and impactful business. After many great discussions with Hanno over recent years, we are now excited to be joining the journey.”
Personio recently announced the expansion of its executive team, with the hiring of three high-profile leaders over the past year: Geraldine MacCarthy as Chief Revenue Officer (ex Dropbox), Ross Seychell as Chief People Officer (ex Transferwise), and Birgit Haderer as Chief Finance Officer (ex Zalando), as well as the promotion of Jonas Rieke, the company’s first employee, to Chief Operations Officer.
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