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Personio Buys Berlin Spend Management Fintech Circula

co-produced by AI06. October 2026, 09:45

Hanno Renner, co-founder and CEO of Personio. © Personio

From payroll to expense reports, all from a single provider: Personio, the Munich-based HR unicorn, is acquiring Circula, a Berlin fintech that helps companies manage reimbursements, travel expenses, corporate cards and employee benefits. It is the largest acquisition in Personio’s history. The two companies did not disclose financial terms.

Salaries, Benefits and Expenses on One Platform

Personio grew big with software for HR and payroll and says it is used by more than 16,000 companies with a combined 1.6 million employees. Circula brings more than 3,000 customers and about 250,000 users, including Aston Martin, DATEV, Securitas and tonies. With the deal, Personio says it will become the only European provider to handle all of a company’s spending on its employees on a single platform: salaries, benefits, reimbursements and corporate cards.

“Spend management is one of the features our customers ask for most often,” said Hanno Renner, Personio’s chief executive and co-founder. In Europe, he said, it is not an easy problem to solve, because, as with payroll, the rules differ from country to country.

The two companies know each other well. They have worked together for years and already share more than 500 customers, including Everphone, About You and Westwing. Employee data such as names, cost centers, bank details and approval workflows already flows from Personio to Circula. Both also rely heavily on tax advisers and deep integrations with DATEV, Germany’s dominant accounting software, through which expenses feed directly into payroll.

Circula Keeps Its Brand

Circula will now operate as “Circula by Personio,” and its team will move to Personio. For customers who do not use Personio, the product will remain available as a stand-alone service and continue to be developed. “Until now, the tax logic for spend management and payroll was always built by two different companies,” said Nikolai Skatchkov, Circula’s chief executive and co-founder. “The merger with Personio changes that.”

Circula was founded in Berlin in 2017 by Mr. Skatchkov and Roman Leicht and specialized in German tax law and midsize companies. Last year, the fintech raised about 15 million euros from existing backers, including Carsten Maschmeyer’s Alstin Capital and Capnamic Ventures. Circula is Personio’s second acquisition this year: In the spring, the company bought aurio, a Munich-based recruiting A.I. start-up, and reported its first profitable quarter.

Fierce Competition in Spend Management

With the deal, Personio is entering a crowded market in which several European unicorns are courting the same midsize customers:

Pleo: The Danish fintech for corporate cards and expenses was valued at $4.7 billion in late 2021.
Spendesk: The Paris-based fintech became a unicorn back in 2022.
Moss: The Berlin fintech reached a $1 billion valuation this summer with a $30 million Series C round.

Pressure is also mounting in Personio’s core HR business: The Spanish unicorn Factorial is challenging Personio with a similarly broad all-in-one platform for small and midsize businesses. Personio says its advantage lies in combining HR data, payroll and expenses in a single employee record.