Under the title "Startup Turns $200 into Over $6 Billion in a Few Years," the Arabic website reported that within just six years, the software company Personio has become one of the most valuable startups in Europe, reaching a valuation of $6.3 billion. However, the beginning was not easy, as CEO Hanno Reiner noted a time when the company had only 200 euros ($226) left in the bank account before receiving its first real funding.
Reiner co-founded Personio in Munich, Germany, in 2015 with Roman Schumacher, Arseniy Vershinin, and Ignaz Forestmaier, where the four met during their studies at the Center for Digital Technology and Management, a joint institution of two major colleges in Munich. The idea for Personio, which focuses on serving small and medium-sized enterprises, stemmed from hearing how a friend struggled to manage HR processes in the company where he worked as a Chief Technology Officer, because he lacked the necessary software.
As students, they tried to find a solution, even though they had no office, so they worked from wherever they could find space in the college to build Personio's first software product, pooling their savings to share the costs. Once customers paid to use the initial part of the software, they used the revenue to purchase software licenses for design, and they rented a small office space and hired a few employees.
Then, in July 2016, Personio raised 2.1 million euros in a seed funding round, with investors including Global Founders Capital, which supported companies like LinkedIn and Facebook in their early days. Reiner noted that before Personio could receive that first round of funding, the founders had to ensure they paid all outstanding bills, which he explained is a standard requirement for fundraising deals. He added, "I still have a screenshot of that bank account: we had about 100 euros left in the account before we then received our first round of funding, which was 2 million [euros] at the time, but what was really interesting was how much we were dealing with the tight situation up to that point."
Recently, Personio's financial situation changed significantly, as the company raised up to $270 million in its latest Series E funding round last October, valuing the company at $6.3 billion, compared to a valuation of just $1.7 billion in January. In total, Personio has raised over $500 million from investors to date. Unlike when it was a startup in 2016, Personio stated that it still has "significant reserves" from the investment round in January when the last funding was announced last month.
