How a used car and process mining X-rays changed the face of business execution

To our customers, partners, and people, 

This story of our early days is a great example of how Basti, Martin and I started our business — and how we still run Celonis today. We always do what it takes to get the job done. 

And back then, driving around in Basti’s old car, we knew our job was to help our customers discover where all of their process pain was coming from. 

We joked that we were the process doctors. And we had done our jobs right when we saw that “ah-ha” look in our customer’s eyes when we showed them their first process mining X-rays. This is as true today as it was 10 years ago. 

Nobody would have guessed that all of those magic “ah-ha” moments would trigger the rise of execution management. This is why we are so excited about today’s news. 

Today, Celonis announced a $1 billion dollar round to meet the industry-wide demand for process mining and execution management. Our company is now backed by the best-of-the- best long term investors with Durable Capital Partners, T. Rowe Price Associates, Franklin Templeton, Splunk Ventures, and Arena Holdings. 

This round is a major milestone for Celonis, our customers, our partners, and our people. And the reason why we raised such an unprecedented round is because we face an unprecedented opportunity with execution management.

Our customers have a simple problem. As companies get big they typically become inefficient and this slows everything down. Employees feel it, customers feel it, and it leads to significant financial and environmental impact. But, in this new age, you can be big and fast. Execution management makes big companies fast :)

That’s why we consider the total addressable market for execution management to be every process, in every company, in every industry — making execution management the largest Total Addressable Market in enterprise software!

We have a massive mission ahead of us — to unlock the world’s processes. By doing so we can make every company more efficient, we can drive sustainable business execution, and ultimately accelerate progress for humankind. 

Fixing this problem requires an industry-wide shift in mindset. The old way of running processes inside of aging transaction systems creates a lot of waste and inefficiency. We need to help our customers elevate execution out of their legacy systems, and into the new world of modern execution management. 

At Celonis, we are approaching this execution management challenge with the same spirit we had when we were pushing that old Opel through the forest — we will do what it takes to get the job done. 

(We are going to need a bigger car! Or better yet, a rocket ship!)

Let’s go! 

Alex, Basti, and Martin

Alexander Rinke, Bastian Nominacher and Martin Klenk

Co-Founders of Celonis

Alexander Rinke, Bastian Nominacher and Martin Klenk founded Celonis in 2011.