German data miner Celonis reinforces management as growth rolls on

[BERLIN] German data mining software startup Celonis said on Tuesday it aimed to double revenue this year - as it has done every year since its founding in 2011 - as it reinforced its top team with a former Oracle executive.

Munich-based Celonis, which has been compared with business software giant SAP, has taken a lead in the emerging field of using artificial intelligence to help companies analyse complex data and boost their efficiency.

Clients range from scientific publisher Elsevier, which uses Celonis to sift submissions for peer review, to telecoms giant Deutsche Telekom, which has saved tens of millions on procurement by deploying Celonis.

"When we set out, we said this is such a huge market and we want at least to double the company each year," said co-CEO Bastian Nominacher, who founded Celonis in his dorm with fellow students at Munich's Technical University.

Revenue in the fiscal year to next June 1 should again double from the more than US$100 million achieved last year, Mr Nominacher said.

Celonis, whose service is subscription based, has launched new apps to help clients preserve cash and sharpen supply-chain management amid the coronavirus pandemic.

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It has just hired Oracle veteran Malhar Kamdar as chief ecosystem officer.

Mr Kamdar follows Miguel Milano and Arsenio Otero, who joined this year from Salesforce, and Hala Zeine, who came on board from SAP in 2019.

Celonis' growth has fuelled speculation that it may look to float on the stock market, but Mr Nominacher said it was still well funded after raising US$290 million from investors last November at a US$2.5 billion valuation.

"Public markets can definitely be at some point in time relevant for us, but the nice thing is that, because of the strength of the business model and our funding, we don't have timing needs," he told Reuters.

REUTERS