Ignaz Forstmeier is one of four co-founders of Personio. The others are Hanno Renner, Roman Schumacher and Arseniy Vershinin. All four studied at CDTM in Munich, and they founded the company there in 2015.
The early months were tight. The company had about €200 left in the bank before its first funding. It sold software to small firms by word of mouth. A seed round came in 2016, and the first 100 customers arrived in about 18 months.
A Series A followed in 2017. In 2021 Personio became a unicorn at a $6.3 billion valuation, and a 2022 round valued it at $8.5 billion.
By 2024 Personio had about 12,000 customers in 70 countries and 2,000 staff. The company is privately held.