Munich, Germany-based execution management software startup Celonis last week announced a bumper $1bn Series D funding round.
The company is active in a broad range of enterprise software areas, with its execution management system helping companies mine processes for efficiencies and implement them, from analytics to strategy and planning, management, actions and automation.
“As companies grow, inefficiency creeps in and business execution becomes a struggle. Employees feel it, customers feel it, and it leads to significant financial losses and environmental impact,” said Alex Rinke, co-CEO and co-founder of Celonis. “We are thrilled and honored that the rise of execution management is defining a new software stack that helps customers reimagine how they execute. It is the biggest shift in software since cloud computing.”
Process Optimisation in the Customer Journey
One such example is the CRM space, with the company offering a Celonis for Salesforce product which is aimed at identifying areas where customer service and deal-closing is hindered. Citing the complexity of the operations that connect businesses with customers, the company says its product combines with the Salesforce Sales Cloud and Service Cloud to improve marketing investment and provide more opportunities to capture revenue.
“Business execution is what sets the leaders apart from the laggards,” said Carsten Thoma, co-founder of Hybris and Celonis board member. “No transformation can happen without fixing the processes that drive day-to-day execution. That’s why Celonis is in such a unique position to lead the execution management category.”
The company counts the likes of AstraZeneca, Coca-Cola, Dell, Siemens, Uber and Vodafone among its customers.
Since its 2011 foundation, the company has raised around $1.4bn across four funding rounds. Its latest $1bn Series D was led by T. Rowe Price and Durable Capital Partners, alongside Splunk Ventures, Franklin Templeton Investments and Arena Holdings.
“Celonis uniquely sits at the centre of one of the biggest technology trends of our time — modernising businesses with data-driven and intelligent execution,” said Henry Ellenbogen, the Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Durable Capital Partners. “Celonis is a rare gem that has a massive market potential to create a new and modern way to run your business.”
The round valued the company at more than $11bn, catapulting it to among the top 30 most valuable startups worldwide.
