Circula joins forces with Personio to unite HR, payroll and spend management
Circula GmbH
Circula is one of Europe’s leading spend management platforms, bringing together expenses, corporate cards, accounts payable and tax-optimized employee benefits in one platform. More than 3,000 European middle market businesses rely on Circula to manage their spend.
Founded in Berlin in 2017, Circula serves 250,000 users and helps reduce manual effort and manage expense processes smoothly.
Circula has built deep compliance and tax expertise in expenses and benefits. The company has also developed deep DATEV integrations that transfer data into DATEV’s payroll and accounting systems and facilitate collaboration between tax advisors and their clients.
The Deal
Lincoln International acted as exclusive financial advisor to Circula on its sale to Personio, Europe’s leading HR and payroll platform.
Personio and Circula have already worked closely together for several years, serving many of Personio’s European customers together. The acquisition makes that partnership permanent and enables an even deeper integration of data and business workflows. Their products meet exactly where payroll and spend connect, combining Personio’s expertise in HR and payroll with Circula’s expertise in expenses and benefits.
Together, Personio and Circula aim to run all business spend—salary, benefits, expenses and corporate cards—in one integrated platform. For HR, that means less manual work and fewer systems. For finance, it means clean books and a faster close. Circula will operate as Circula by Personio and will continue to be available and further developed as a standalone product for customers that do not use Personio.
Our Perspective
Dr. Ashkan Kalantary, Managing Director in Lincoln International’s software team, commented, “We are delighted to have advised Circula on its sale to Personio. Circula has built one of Europe’s leading spend management platforms, bringing together expenses, corporate cards, accounts payable and employee benefits while developing deep compliance and tax expertise across its offering.
Personio and Circula have worked closely together for several years, and the combination brings HR, payroll and spend management together in one integrated platform. Personio’s leading position in HR and payroll and Circula’s expertise in spend management make this a highly complementary combination. This transaction further underscores Lincoln International’s expertise in advising leading software companies across Office of the CFO.”
Personio
Personio is Europe’s leading HR and payroll platform, used by more than 16,000 companies employing 1.6 million people. Founded in Munich in 2015, Personio has six offices in Europe with more than 1,500 employees and helps organizations with 25 to 5,000 employees run every part of HR from hiring to payroll.
Lincoln sat firmly on our side of the table through every turn of this process. While the market was busy declaring the end of SaaS, they kept investors, founders and management pulling in the same direction and created the momentum that led to Circula joining Personio. Exceptional commitment, start to finish.
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