Personio announces funding boost as it continues to grow HR platform for SMEs

Personio, the all-in-one HR platform, has announced US$125 million of new and pre-emptive Series D funding in an investment round that values the business at US$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. Personio is already helping more than 3,000 SMEs across Europe unlock their productive potential by digitising and automating their people operations.

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 aims to build Europe’s leading HR operating system for recruiting, personnel administration and payroll for small and medium-sized companies.

Personio’s plans for the coming year include:

• Further enhancing and deepening the product’s core capabilities, to cover more processes that support HR teams in their daily work and streamline people operations across their organisations
• Launching the Personio Marketplace with new integrations in Q1 that will allow customers to automate workflows across tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams and other HR-related software
• Continuing fast growth across Germany, Austria and Switzerland, while doubling down its investments in markets that the business successfully entered in 2020, such as Spain, UK and Ireland, the Nordics and Benelux. In 2021 it will also enter new markets, including France and Italy.
• Doubling international headcount from 500 to 1,000 by the end of 2021, across its four offices in Munich (HQ), Madrid, London and Dublin, where its new international sales and engineering hub has been established

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 digitisation 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.”