Munich-based HR tech-startup Personio plans international expansion after raising €103.6M in latest funding round

In the past few years, HR tech startups have gained notable momentum in Europe. One such startup that has made a name for itself is Munich-based Personio. Back in January last year, the startup raised €67.5M in a funding round and fast forward just a year later, it has now secured €103.6M in its latest funding round. Here’s what the company is up to and what it intends to do with the freshly acquired funds. 

Funds to accelerate development and further international expansion

The latest funding round of €103.6M for Personio was led by the company’s existing investor Index Ventures, which has previously supported notable software companies such as Slack, Dropbox and Zendesk to their IPO. Other existing investors like Accel, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Northzone, Global Founders Capital and Picus also participated in the funding round. Meritech is a new investor in the company. 

Alongside accelerating international expansion, Personio will be leveraging this fresh funding to broaden its footprint across Europe. Furthermore, it plans to focus on the further development of its cloud-based software by deepening the product’s core capabilities to cover more processes. 

Hanno Renner, Co-founder and CEO of Personio says, “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.”

We previously interviewed Renner on SC, which you can read here. 

Making HR processes transparent and efficient

Personio tackles some of the more tedious parts of the HR process, which include contract management, payrolling and more. The company aims to digitise the entire HR lifecycle, from recruiting and managing employees, drawing up contracts, payroll management and more. With the new funding round, the company has also shared its plans for the coming year. 

Personio’s plans for the coming year include deepening its product’s core capabilities to further support HR teams in their daily work. The company will also launch the Personio Marketplace with new integrations in Q1, which is slated to enable workflow automation for users across tools such as Slack, Microsoft Teams and other HR-related software. In addition, it plans to further its growth across Germany, Austria and Switzerland, while doubling down its investments in markets that the business entered in 2020. 

These markets include Spain, UK & Ireland, the Nordics and Benelux. In 2021, the startup will also foray into new markets like France and Italy. It also intends to double its international headcount from 500 to 1000 by the end of 2021, across its four offices in Munich (HQ), Madrid, London and Dublin. The latest funding round for the company also raises its valuation to over €0.83M.