Personio becomes unicorn

And the next billion-euro valuation: The Munich-based start-up Personio receives 103 million euros in a current financing round. This brings its valuation to 1.4 billion euros.

The year is only three weeks old and already the third German start-up announces a valuation beyond one billion euros. Munich-based start-up Personio has received €103 million in a recent funding round and is now valued at €1.4 billion.

The round was led by existing investor Index Ventures, which has also invested in successful companies such as Slack and Dropbox in the past. Other investors include Accel, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Northzone, Global Founders Capital and Picus Capital. The startup has been offering HR software that organizes payroll, recruiting and HR management primarily for small and medium-sized businesses since 2015. So far, the company says it has 3,000 customers served by 600 employees in four locations. By the end of the year, the number of employees is expected to reach 1,000. It also plans to enter new markets such as France and Italy.

Only last year Personio had been able to collect 75 million euros and expanded, for example, to Spain, Ireland, Great Britain and Scandinavia. Founder and CEO Hanno Renner expressed his motivation to Handelsblatt

: "However, this valuation only reflects a fraction of our potential. There is no reason why we shouldn't be valued at 20 or 40 billion one day." In his view, an IPO is a logical next step, but not in the next two years.

The current round also included a new investor from Silicon Valley: Meritech. "We've 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 Personio can build a business that is as successful as it is impactful," says Alex Clayton, partner at Meritech.