What is Personio?
The establishment and development of an enterprise is not a piece of cake. From funding to logistics, the head of the company needs to manage every aspect perfectly to reach the heights of success. However, the biggest resource of an enterprise is the employees working for it. Without their efforts and day-to-day hard work, it is almost impossible for the company to be profitable. It is the reason why all businesses make a considerable investment in human resources management. This sector looks after the hiring, training and welfare of the employees which in turn contribute to the prosperity of the company. Personio is a German-based software provider that makes these tasks much easier.
Personio (1) was founded in 2015 in Munich, Germany with the aim to ease the procedures of the HR department. They provide their software to more than 2000 small and medium enterprises in around 40 nations. Personio has made major progress over the years and has offices in London, Munich and Madrid as of now. The vision of Personio is to make the HR procedures as straightforward and effective as could reasonably be expected. Through their services, the HR team can save time to concentrate on the most important resources in the organization, that is, the individuals.
The benefits that Personio gives to the companies comprise human resources management processes like enlisting, financial support etc. It assists in all the important aspects of HR that each business needs to do. The sales of Personio has improved drastically from the year 2019 to 2020. They have also acquired twice as much the number of employees and it now stands at 350. By the end of 2020, Personio hopes to expand its team to include 700 employees.
The birth of Personio
The concept of Personio is something that entrepreneurs have ignored for a long time. They often disregarded the prospect of developing HR solutions for small and medium enterprises. The founder of Personio, Hanno Renner had recognised this large and growing market of customers. Most of them were hungry for better solutions for their businesses. Hanno had a friend who was the chief technology officer at a small enterprise. The company had only 100 members but it was a huge task to manage their payroll and organise the recruitment.
Hanno came up with the notion of Personio after he saw his friend struggling with the paperwork of HR procedures. It was due to the absence of an appropriate software to help him out. A software provider like Personio could help to provide all kinds of assistance to the HR procedures. Therefore, Hanno decided to formulate this idea further and establish a startup. When developing Personio, Hanno was a 25-year-old college student at Germany’s Technical University of Munich. His only job at the time was that of a skipper of sailing yachts. Being a yacht skipper, he had the opportunity to travel and visit various places in the world.
When the idea of Personio came to him, Hanno did not want to quit college to begin the startup. It was during a time that many entrepreneurs from the USA were dropping out of colleges to begin their business. Even famous businessmen like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg had stopped their education before they could graduate. However, Hanno did not want to follow this trend so he decided to finish his degree. Finally in 2015, he started Personio with a group of three companions from other institutions in Munich, Germany.
The relevance of Personio
Traditionally, all the data collected from the employees were stored using the pen and paper method. With the arrival of computers and intent, new methods were adopted. Microsoft Excel also provided a much more convenient way of storing information. However, when managing a huge company, simple software is not sufficient to store every detail about all the employees. After the recruitment procedure, there’s a great deal of data you need to get from a worker. The service provided by Personio includes a collection of gadgets that will help you to oversee and arrange this information.
With the assistance of Personio, the HR team of a company can effectively manage everything from applications for employment to the employees’ financial aid, welfare and feedback. Millions of SMEs can make use of Personio for a more improved human resource and recruitment management. Personio’s highly-ambitious team strives every day for further enhancement of their technology and to improve the services.
The idea of Personio is as simple as it is promising because it solves a significant and complex problem for HR managers and companies alike. Anyone who works in the HR services sector will know the value and impact this can have on businesses. The expansion of Personio will now enable them to bring that value to small and mid-sized companies across Europe and even the world.
Funding and achievements
Hanno Renner and his team have built a fast-growing company and a great product over the last few years. They have also maintained a relentless focus on the customer. As of now, Personio is quite close to becoming a $500 million company. The major investors in this enterprise are Lars Dalgaard who is the CEO of SAP’s Success Factors, Accel, Northzone, Global Founders Capital etc. The seed round of investment for the firm was in July 2016 which raised a total of 2.1 million euros from Global Founders Capital. They conducted the series A round of funding a year later through which the company collected 12 million dollars from various investors.
The company carried out the series B round of investment which was in January 2019 and it raised 40 million dollars. In the same year, tech consultancy GP Bullhound selected Personio in the list of 50 European startups with a potential to become a unicorn soon. Personio was also able to bring up 75 million dollars of funding through a series C round in January 2020. With this most recent venture, Personio has now raised over $129 million from its investors, which consists of Lightspeed and Lars Dalgaard. The company plans to use the money to employ more members as well as expand into countries like the UK and Ireland.
Nidhia Sebastian is an English literature graduate who looks forward to a career that complements her passion. Her never-ending love for language has brought her to creative writing. Having an open heart to knowledge is what leaves her with a thirst to explore the world. She believes in living life to the fullest and hopes to convey the same enthusiasm through her words.
