Celonis SE is a German data processing company that offers software as a service (SaaS) to improve business processes. It is headquartered in Munich, Germany, with a secondary headquarters in New York, United States. The company specializes in process mining, using data analysis to identify inefficiencies in organizational workflows, and has expanded into execution management with artificial intelligence capabilities.
Celonis was founded in 2011 by Alex Rinke, Bastian Nominacher, and Martin Klenk as a spin-off from the Technical University of Munich (TUM). The three founders had previously analyzed internal service processes for Bayerischer Rundfunk as part of consulting projects at Academy Consult, Munich's largest student consulting firm. In 2012, Celonis joined the SAP Startup Focus program, an accelerator for analytics startups building on the SAP HANA platform.
History and Growth
In July 2015, Celonis signed a reseller agreement with SAP, becoming the first company from the SAP Startup Focus program to do so. The product has since been offered by SAP as Celonis Process Mining by SAP. This partnership helped establish Celonis as a leader in the process mining market, which grew rapidly as enterprises sought to digitize and optimize operations.
The company's funding trajectory reflects its rapid expansion. In June 2016, Celonis received $27.5 million in Series A funding led by 83North and Accel. A $50 million Series B round followed in June 2018, valuing the company at $1 billion. In November 2019, Celonis closed $290 million in Series C funding at a $2.5 billion valuation. The company raised $1 billion in Series D investment in June 2021, reaching an $11 billion valuation and becoming Germany's most valuable startup according to Forbes. In August 2022, Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority, led a $400 million Series-D expansion, bringing the total Series D to $1.4 billion and the company's valuation to approximately $13 billion.
Acquisitions and Platform Expansion
Celonis has grown through strategic acquisitions to broaden its technology. In April 2019, it bought Belgian software company Banyas for an undisclosed amount, integrating its technology to enable real-time connectivity to SAP. In October 2020, Celonis acquired Czech software startup Integromat.com for over $100 million; Integromat, later renamed Make, sells an integration platform as a service (iPaaS). In October 2021, Celonis acquired Lenses.io, a London and Athens-based company with over 100 employees specializing in real-time streaming data tools. In March 2022, Celonis purchased Process Analytics Factory GmbH (PAF), a Darmstadt-headquartered company providing process mining insights within the Microsoft Power Platform, for $100 million.
Products and AI Integration
In October 2020, Celonis launched its Execution Management System (EMS), a process analysis tool that extends beyond process mining to help organizations take action on identified inefficiencies. The platform integrates with enterprise systems like SAP and Microsoft, and increasingly incorporates Artificial intelligence and Machine learning capabilities to predict process bottlenecks and recommend improvements. The EMS includes modules for process mining, task mining, and process automation, positioning Celonis within the broader trend of Generative AI applications in enterprise software.
Celonis's AI features leverage Large language model technologies to provide natural language interfaces for business users, allowing them to query process data and receive actionable insights. This aligns with developments in Transformer (architecture) architectures pioneered by researchers at institutions like Google DeepMind and OpenAI, though Celonis applies these techniques to proprietary operational data rather than general-purpose text generation.
Recognition and Future Outlook
In 2025, Celonis debuted at No. 3 on the Fortune Future 50 list, recognized among the world's most promising companies poised for long-term growth. As of 2026, the company had raised a total of approximately $1.77 billion in funding and was valued at an estimated $11–13 billion. Celonis was widely regarded as an IPO candidate, with a listing expected in 2026 as the company focused on profitability and platform expansion ahead of a potential public listing in the United States.
The company operates in a competitive landscape that includes other process mining vendors and broader enterprise software players, but its early partnership with SAP and continuous investment in AI have helped maintain its market position. Celonis's focus on execution management represents a shift from passive analysis to active process improvement, a direction that aligns with industry trends toward Data Augmentation and real-time operational intelligence.