Personio
Munich HR software for small and mid-sized organisations with more than 16,000 customers, native payroll in Germany and a first profitable quarter in 2026.
| Founded | 2015, Munich |
|---|---|
| Founders | Hanno Renner (CEO), Roman Schumacher, Arseniy Vershinin, Jonas Rieke (COO) |
| Ownership | Private; about US$724m raised in seven rounds from 2016 to 2022, the last a US$200m second Series E in June 2022 at a US$8.5bn valuation; investors include Greenoaks, Index Ventures, Accel, Lightspeed, Meritech, Altimeter and Northzone; the Personio Foundation holds 1% of the shares |
| Customers | More than 16,000 organisations with over 1.6 million employees; Personio Recruiting has 9,000 customers and Personio Payroll more than 1,500 |
| What it does | Core HR for companies with 10 to 10,000 employees: employee files, documents and e-signatures, time tracking, absence, workflows, analytics and payroll preparation, with add-on apps for recruiting, performance, compensation, surveys, whistleblowing and employer of record, an AI assistant, and native payroll in Germany |
| Recent moves | First profitable quarter in Q1 2026 and acquisition of Munich recruiting AI startup aurio (April 2026); payroll business growing 80% a year; Personio Assistant opened to all employees (October 2025); Payroll Expert Plan with tax advisers (January 2025); embedded employer of record with Remote (March 2025); Certified B Corp (September 2026) |
| Pricing | Core and Core Pro plans, priced per employee; prices not published, custom quote after a demo; one-time set-up fee by company size; apps cost extra; 10% discount for annual upfront payment |
| Markets | Europe; sites in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Dutch; offices in Munich, Berlin, London, Dublin, Madrid, Barcelona, Amsterdam and New York; native payroll in Germany only, with Xero and Sage 50 links for payroll run elsewhere; data stored in Europe |
| Peers | PayFit, HiBob, Factorial, Rippling, Deel |
Why it matters
Personio runs HR for more than 16,000 European small and mid-sized companies and reached its first profitable quarter in 2026, after raising about US$724 million. Its native German payroll, growing 80% a year and offered with tax advisers, puts it in direct competition with PayFit and the payroll startups for finance teams that want HR data and payroll in one system.
Updated October 2026.
Part of Accountio’s accounting technology coverage.
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