Hanno Renner, founder and CEO of Personio. Image: Personio
Following a $75m Series C funding round, Personio will launch in Ireland and the UK, opening a new London office to support this expansion.
On Tuesday (21 January), human resources, recruiting and payroll platform Personio announced its plans to launch in the UK and Ireland after raising $75m in its latest funding round. Since it launched in 2015, the HR platform has raised a total of $130m.
Its recent Series C funding round was led by Silicon Valley VC firm Accel, which has invested in the likes of Slack, Facebook and Spotify. There was additional funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Lars Dalgaard. Previous investors include Index Ventures, Northzone, Global Founders Capital and Picus Capital.
Personio co-founder and CEO Hanno Renner said: “Adding Accel and Lightspeed Venture Partners, both highly experienced investors, to our list of supporters shows how much people believe in our product.
“This pre-emptive funding comes earlier than we had anticipated. Such strong interest and support from the market demonstrates not only the value of Personio’s offer, but also the huge potential the business has for further development and growth in the future.”
What’s next for Personio?
The Munich-based company said that the new funding will be used to support expansion into Ireland and the UK.
“Businesses in these markets can take advantage of our best-in-class German engineering to automate HR admin processes and free up more time for valuable tasks,” Renner said.
“Whether it’s fintech or food delivery, SMEs across the UK and Ireland will now have our full support when it comes to choosing and transitioning to Personio.”
According to the start-up, sales of Personio’s software have almost tripled over the past 12 months, while the number of employees has doubled to more than 350. The company hopes to have 700 employees by the end of 2020.
The software company said that it has digitised the HR departments of almost 2,000 customers in more than 40 countries, including German fintech Raisin and Millimetric in the UK.
To help launch its UK and Ireland expansion, Personio will open a new office in London, adding to its existing offices in Munich and Madrid.
‘A growing market’
Commenting on the latest funding round, Accel partner Harry Nelis said: “While software entrepreneurs have traditionally overlooked developing solutions for SMEs, Personio has recognised this large and growing market of customers hungry for better solutions for their businesses.
“With millions of SMEs looking for improved human resource and recruitment management, Personio will lead the way. As Personio’s highly ambitious team moves into their next stage of growth, we are excited to be part of the journey.”
Investor and SAP SuccessFactors co-founder Lars Dalgaard added: “Having had the chance to meet and work with Hanno and his team over the past few months, it’s remarkable to see how they’ve built a fast growing company and a great product, both with relentless focus on the customer.
“Having built HR software services for enterprises myself, I know the value and impact this can have on businesses. Working with Personio as they now bring that value to small and mid-sized companies across Europe is an exciting prospect.”
