What would you do with $50 million? Data mining company Celonis is using it to go global.
The company currently has offices in NYC, Den Bosch and Munich, with more locations on the way. By the end of 2019, Celonis plans to grow the team from 400 employees to more than 1,000 — with a major focus on its NYC headquarters.
“NYC is a great market for tech talent,” said co-CEO Alexander Rinke. “We get a great diversity of backgrounds and cultures, high-level academic qualifications and a thriving fast-paced environment. We gain talent that wants to be a part of our experience as a disruptor and innovator in the market on a hyper-growth track.”
This type of growth may be unheard of for other companies in the tech industry, but it’s quite common for Celonis when you consider the company’s history. In the past four years, it’s grown 5,000 percent — and most of this was done without any VC funding.
When you are bootstrapped and your only source of funding is revenue from customer contracts, you are laser-focused on customer needs, customer success and the customer experience."
Co-founders Alexander Rinke, Bastian Nominacher and Martin Klenk launched Celonis in 2011 after realizing they could use data to cut down on the time it took companies to close their customer service tickets. From there, a product was born: technology that identifies obstacles in a company’s processes and offers recommendations for streamlining them.
“When you are bootstrapped and your only source of funding is revenue from customer contracts, you are laser-focused on customer needs, customer success and the customer experience,” said Rinke. “I believe that was a big part of creating our success and growth while maintaining profitability.”
The company announced its Series B funding a full two years after its $27.5 million Series A, bringing its total amount raised to $77.5 million and its valuation to $1 billion. The latest round was led by Accel Partners and 83North, both existing investors.
“In the short term, we are going to continue to execute and expand, particularly across the U.S.,” said Rinke. “Over the longer term, we are enhancing our offering with innovative features and capabilities that come from understanding our customers' needs.”
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