Building Software Out of Europe

What does it take to create new tech giants in Europe and manage rapid growth around the world? This DLD session brings together the founders of two German unicorns – Alexander Rinke of Celonis and Personio’s Hanno Renner – with Sifted founder and Financial Times innovation editor John Thornhill to explore the secrets of successful entrepreneurship.

Personio describes itself as “The People Operating System” and has seen its valuation grow to more than $6 billion. Its software helps small and medium-sized companies streamline processes around “the most important resource every business has, which is their people”, says Renner.

Celonis also specializes in business optimization, especially for large enterprises, as Rinke explains. “We help them find and fix the inefficiencies that they can’t even see today.” The novel approach called “process mining”, which grew out of a university project, has turned the company into an investor favorite, pushing its valuation to more than $11 billion.

The success story of his company shows what has changed in Europe’s startup ecosystem.

“When we started Celonis in 2011, we struggled to get funding”, Rinke recalls. There was a lack of venture capital as well as successful founders who served as role models and angel investors.

Now the landscape looks very different. “If you look at any major European city, Berlin, Munich, Madrid, Athens”, there are vibrant tech ecosystems, Rinke says. “I think Europe is coming strong.”

Renner agrees. He sees Europe gaining “that same momentum that Silicon Valley had years before” – but with a crucial geographical advantage. “Apart from the fact that we have the same levels of great talent and good universities”, he notes, “we also have the fact that it’s distributed when in Silicon Valley prices explode for everything.”

The discussion also touches on global competition, overcoming failure and dealing with regulation.