Peakon Acquisition, Valuation, Funding & Investors
Peakon was acquired by Workday for $702M in January 2021, a 22.9x multiple on $31M of revenue.
Peakon revenue at acquisition
$31M
Last twelve months · Jan 2021
Peakon revenue multiple at acquisition
22.9x
EV/Revenue · Jan 2021
Cumulative funding Peakon raised
$68M
across 4 funding rounds
About Peakon
Peakon is a London-headquartered employee engagement platform acquired by Workday in 2018. The software collects anonymous feedback through web, mobile, SMS, and kiosk channels in over 50 languages, analyzing responses from organizations with up to 100,000 staff. It benchmarks data against 6,000 companies worldwide, delivering eNPS scores and driver insights for sectors like tech and finance. Clients including Airbnb and Uber use its dashboards to track sentiment trends quarterly. Peakon supports complex hierarchies across 100 countries.
Founded
2014
HQ
CopenhagenWebsite
Status
Acquired
Customer focus
B2B
Revenue model
Subscription
Revenue
$31M (Jan 2021)
Valuation
$702M (acquired Jan 2021)
Peakon Acquisition
Peakon was acquired by Workday for $702M on 28 January 2021.
The acquisition price implies a 22.9x revenue multiple on $31M of revenue.
Before the acquisition Peakon had raised $68M across 4 funding rounds.
| Acquirer | Date | Type | Price | EV/Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Jan 2021 | Strategic M&A | $702M | 22.9x |
Peakon Funding History
Peakon has raised a total of $68M across 4 funding rounds.
Peakon's first fundraising round was a $4M Series A in January 2016. The most recent completed round was a $35M Series B in March 2019.
Peakon funding rounds
| Date | Stage | Investors | Raised | Deal Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 2019 | Series B | Atomico (lead); Balderton Capital; Heartcore Capital; Idinvest Partners; EQT Ventures | $35M | Peakon is a Copenhagen and London-based employee retention platform founded in 2014 by CEO Phil Chambers, Christian Holm, Dan Rogers, and Kasper Hulthin. It provides a SaaS solution for measuring employee sentiment through ongoing weekly surveys, offering insights into employee engagement, predictive churn prevention up to 250 days in advance, actionable recommendations, and competitor benchmarking against proprietary industry data. Customers include Capgemini, Verizon, BMW, Trustpilot, Harrods, and easyJet. In March 2019, Peakon raised a Series B extension of approximately $35M (or €30M) led by Atomico, with participation from existing investors Balderton Capital, EQT Ventures, Idinvest Partners, Sunstone, and Heartcore Capital. This brought the total Series B funding to €48M, following an initial $22M tranche in early 2018 led by Balderton. Prior to Series B, Peakon had raised about $11M across 2016 and 2017 rounds. Atomico co-founder Mattias Ljungman joined the board. The funds were intended to double presence in Europe and APAC, triple footprint in North America (including a new New York office), and invest in product development and engineering. By then, Peakon had grown rapidly with over 180 employees across offices in Denmark, UK, Germany, New Zealand, and the US, and had collected over 20 million survey responses from 150 countries since launching in 2016. Peakon was later acquired by Workday in 2021 for DKK 4.2bn (USD 700M), with EQT exiting alongside other investors including those from the 2019 round. |
| Feb 2018 | Series B | Balderton Capital (lead); Heartcore Capital; Idinvest Partners; EQT Ventures | $22M | Peakon is a people analytics company providing an employee engagement and retention platform that collects and analyzes employee feedback through web and mobile applications. The platform uses machine learning to understand employee motivations, identify problems, and recommend solutions. Co-founded by Phil Chambers, Kasper Hulthin, Dan Rogers, and Christian Holm—all with impressive track records including Podio, Gumtree, Qype, and Songkick—Peakon launched in early 2016 and quickly established itself as a leader in the growing people analytics space. In February 2018, the company raised $22 million in a Series B funding round led by Balderton Capital, with participation from existing investors EQT Ventures, IDInvest Partners, and Sunstone Capital. The round brought total funding to $33 million and was accompanied by Bernard Liautaud, founder of Business Objects and Balderton partner, joining Peakon's board. As of the funding announcement, Peakon operated from offices in London, Copenhagen, the US, Germany, and New Zealand, serving enterprise clients including BMW, Capgemini, and Maersk across financial services, government, technology, retail, and manufacturing sectors. The company was recognized as one of the fastest-growing SaaS startups in Europe in 2017 and planned to double its headcount to over 180 people within the following 12 months. |
| Mar 2017 | Series B | EQT Ventures (lead); Heartcore Capital; Idinvest Partners; Tommy Ahlers | $7M | Peakon is a Copenhagen and London-based SaaS platform focused on people analytics and employee engagement. The company's platform automates employee feedback and applies machine learning to identify workplace problems and solutions, enabling organizations to make data-driven people decisions. In March 2017, Peakon raised €6.1 million ($6.6 million) in a Series A-II round led by EQT Ventures, with participation from existing investors IDInvest Partners, Sunstone Capital, and business angel Tommy Ahlers. The company was founded in 2014 by Phil Chambers, Christian Holm, Dan Rogers, and Kasper Hulthin, and had previously raised €4 million in a Series A round in January 2016. At the time of this funding, CEO Phil Chambers stated the company was in a solid financial position due to revenue growth and planned to triple its staff to 100 employees while investing in machine learning, data science, and engineering capabilities. Peakon had offices in London, Copenhagen, and North Carolina, and subsequently opened a New York office as part of its US expansion strategy. |
| Jan 2016 | Series A | Heartcore Capital (lead); Idinvest Partners (lead); Sandstone Capital; Niklas Ostberg | $4M | Peakon raised $4.67 million in a Series A round in January 2016. Investors included Heartcore Capital (formerly Sunstone Capital) and Idinvest Partners. This round brought total funding to $5.69 million following a $1.01 million seed round in March 2015. Peakon later raised additional rounds, including $6.5 million in March 2017 led by EQT Ventures with participation from IDInvest and Sunstone. Before its acquisition by Workday on January 28, 2021, Peakon had raised approximately $68-69 million across six rounds from investors such as Atomico, EQT Ventures, IDInvest Partners, Balderton Capital, and Sunstone/Heartcore. |
Who has invested in Peakon?
8 investors have backed Peakon across its funding rounds, including Idinvest Partners, Heartcore Capital, EQT Ventures, Balderton Capital, Atomico and Niklas Ostberg.
Lead investors include Atomico, Balderton Capital, EQT Ventures, Heartcore Capital and Idinvest Partners.
Peakon Investors
| Investor | HQ | Rounds | Role | First check |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Copenhagen | 4 | Lead | Jan 2016 | |
 Paris | 4 | Lead | Jan 2016 | |
 Stockholm | 3 | Lead | Mar 2017 | |
 London | 2 | Lead | Feb 2018 | |
 Boston, MA | 1 | Participant | Jan 2016 | |
![](data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20"><rect fill="%23e5e7eb" width="20" height="20" rx="4"/></svg>){kind=small} Niklas Ostberg |  Switzerland | 1 | Participant | Jan 2016 |
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Start Free TrialPeakon Competitors
Peakon competitors include listed companies like Teamshares and Freee, and private ones like Wrapbook, Connecteam, Buk and Juicebox.
| Company | HQ | Status | Revenue | EBITDA | Valuation | Revenue Multiple |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York City, NY | Private | - | - | $750M | - | |
| New York City, NY | Private | - | - | $800M | - | |
 Santiago | Private | - | - | $850M | - | |
| San Francisco, CA | Private | - | - | $850M | - | |
| United States | Publicly listed | $472M | ($23M) | $545M | 1.4x | |
 Japan | Publicly listed | $214M | $6M | $1.5B | 4.8x |
Peakon Public Comps
Peakon is no longer listed, but its public comps include Teamshares, Nordtech Group, AdvancedAdvT, Beisen Holding, Zaggle Prepaid Ocean, Asure Software, DHI Group, TON Strategy, Freee and ATOSS Software.
| Last FY | EV/Revenue | EV/EBITDA | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | EBITDA | Last FY | LTM | 2027E | Last FY | LTM | 2027E | |
| $472M | ($23M) | 1.7x | 1.4x | (35.0x) | 33.2x | |||
| $72M | $15M | 5.1x | - | 25.2x | - | |||
| $72M | $13M | 2.5x | 2.4x | 14.1x | 8.9x | |||
| $165M | $2M | 0.3x | 0.3x | 22.3x | 5.2x | |||
| $199M | $20M | 1.0x | 1.0x | 10.4x | 10.7x | |||
| $141M | $20M | 2.1x | 1.9x | 15.2x | 8.0x | |||
| $128M | $2M | 2.0x | 2.0x | 108.0x | 7.8x | |||
| $13M | ($148M) | 11.0x | 11.0x | (1.0x) | - | |||
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Common questions about Peakon
| When was Peakon founded? | Peakon was founded in 2014. |
| Where is Peakon headquartered? | Peakon is headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark. |
| Is Peakon publicly listed? | No, Peakon was acquired by Workday in January 2021. |
| Who acquired Peakon? | Peakon was acquired by Workday in January 2021. |
| How much was Peakon acquired for? | Peakon was acquired for $702M in January 2021, a 22.9x revenue multiple. |
| How much funding has Peakon raised? | Peakon has raised $68M across 4 funding rounds. |
| What was Peakon's last funding round? | Peakon's last funding round was a $35M Series B in March 2019, led by Atomico. |
| Who are Peakon's investors? | Peakon's investors include Heartcore Capital, Idinvest Partners, EQT Ventures, Balderton Capital, Sandstone Capital, Niklas Ostberg, Tommy Ahlers and Atomico. |
| Which companies are comparable to Peakon? | Companies comparable to Peakon include Wrapbook, Connecteam, Buk, Juicebox, Teamshares and Freee. |
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