While Zapier Gets all the Press, Celigo Just Doubled Revenue to $95m, CEO Jan Arendtsz

Summary

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Podcast Summary

Podcast: SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

Host: Nathan Latka
Episode: While Zapier Gets All the Press, Celigo Just Doubled Revenue to $95m, CEO Jan Arendtsz
Date: January 21, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Nathan Latka sits down with Jan Arendtsz, founder and CEO of Celigo, a leading Integration Platform as a Service (IPaaS) provider. While market competitors like Zapier and Mulesoft often get headlines, Celigo has quietly built an incredibly capital-efficient business, recently doubling its revenue to approximately $95 million ARR. Nathan explores how Jan built Celigo from a consulting pivot, the company’s disciplined approach to fundraising and valuation, focusing on strategic growth, prudent capital management, and long-term sustainability—benefitting both investors and employees.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Celigo’s Origins and Early Days

• Pivot from Consulting to SaaS (02:21 – 03:47)
  • Celigo started as a consulting firm, bootstrapped from 2011 to 2015.
  • In 2015, Jan and his CTO decided their product was outdated and set out to build a new one, “still continuing business to go build a new product.”
  • Arrived at $4M ARR by early 2015, then raised Series A in late 2015, launching the new SaaS product in March 2016.
  • Quote: “We were bootstrapped from 2011 to end of 2015… We got to 2015, early 2015. At that time I think we were about 4 million in ARR… The product that we had was archaic.” — Jan Arendtsz (02:21)

2. Product Positioning and Expansion

• Functionality and Growth of Platform (04:10 – 05:17, 10:24 – 11:11)
  • Celigo initially targeted smaller enterprise integration opportunities and iteratively improved product functionality.
  • By 2021, Celigo transformed into a “true horizontal platform”—connecting any API, database, or flat file, regardless of enterprise vertical.
  • Quote: “It took us a while to be able to build out the product to get there. So that was a big transformation from our Series B round to our Series C round.” — Jan Arendtsz (10:24)

3. Capital Efficiency and Fundraising Philosophy

• Conservative, Disciplined Capital Raises (01:27 – 09:20)
  • Celigo has raised only $72M in primary capital to approach $95M+ ARR—a ~1.6x ratio.
  • Series A at nearly a 5x multiple, compared to market counterparts raising at much higher valuations (e.g., Mulesoft at 21x).
  • Every round was highly disciplined, focusing on strategic board composition and partnership over maximizing valuation.
  • Quote: “We’ve raised a total of 72 million in primary capital to get to roughly about 92 million in IRR right now. So that’s the ratio that I look [at].” — Jan Arendtsz (01:33)
  • Quote: “It really came down to the firm and the person who is going to sit on the board. Board dynamics are super important for me.” — Jan Arendtsz (08:26)
  • Quote: “A good partner and a good board seat is way more valuable.” — Nathan Latka (09:20)

4. Approach to Secondary Liquidity & Employee Value

• Minimal Secondary and Focus on Fairness (11:11 – 12:23; 14:31 – 15:28)
  • Despite opportunities, only limited secondary was made available for key employees and early debt providers.
  • Jan’s intent was to maximize employee option value: “I’m proud to say, right, that if you look at our employee stock options, it’s not underwater, and it means something above water.” (15:19)
  • Preference structures were minimized in funding rounds to treat all shareholders fairly and maintain future flexibility.
  • Quote: “On that Series C round we had the option of raising at a much higher multiple… we decided to take out all preferences and structure… Without being greedy.” — Jan Arendtsz (14:31)
  • Quote: “That was one of the smartest things that we did… We knew things were going to come down.” — Jan Arendtsz (14:50)

5. Competitive Context & Market Comparison

• Stance in the iPaaS and Automation Space (03:47 – 04:31; 05:59 – 06:16)
  • Direct competitors (Workato: high capital raise, Zapier: bootstrapped, Mulesoft: acquired at high multiples).
  • Jan attributes Celigo’s sustainability to a focus on capital efficiency and value generation versus chasing high-prestige valuations.
  • Quote: “You can go raise a billion dollars… fastest way to make 100 million bucks is to raise a billion and then, you know, burn 900 million on fire, right? And you’re left with 100 million.” — Nathan Latka (05:59)

6. 2024 Position and Product Innovation

• Continued Expansion into New Areas (12:41 – 14:11)
  • Celigo is expanding “beyond being a core iPaaS,” moving into:
    • Full API management with security and compliance features.
    • Modernized EDI integrations for supply chain and trading partners.
    • Simplified data warehouse ingestion (soon, e.g., integrations with Snowflake, Redshift).
  • Quote: “Just imagine any of your operational SaaS systems, you want to be able to easily ingest it into your data warehouse of choice… you can do that in a few clicks.” — Jan Arendtsz (13:23)

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On capital efficiency:
  “Way more capital efficient…We’ve raised a total of 72 million in primary capital to get to roughly about 92 million in IRR right now. So that’s the ratio that I look [at].” — Jan Arendtsz (01:33)
• On fundraising discipline:
  “I think maybe the most capital efficient…in the enterprise, you know, plumbing for the Internet space, and you see the data to back that up here on the screen.” — Nathan Latka (05:59)
• On partnership in funding:
  “Board dynamics are super important for me. And we went with the investor that we thought, you know, looking beyond the multiple, like who’s going to partner with you over the next five, seven, ten years to build a sustainable business?” — Jan Arendtsz (08:26)
• On employee equity and sustainable value:
  “I’m proud to say, right, that if you look at our employees stock options, it’s not underwater and it means something above water.” — Jan Arendtsz (15:19)
• Host Celebration:
  “When I find stories like this… I want to celebrate them. I want to get on stage.” — Nathan Latka (15:28)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Introduction and context (00:38 – 01:27)
• Origins & pivotal product rebuild (02:21 – 03:47)
• IPaaS positioning and product scope (03:47 – 04:31)
• Capital raise discipline and series breakdowns (04:53 – 09:20)
• Philosophy on partnerships and board seats (08:16 – 09:20)
• Product evolution to horizontal, cross-industry platform (10:24 – 11:11)
• Employee equity and minimal secondary for fairness (11:11 – 12:23; 14:31 – 15:19)
• 2024 growth and product innovations (12:41 – 14:11)
• Host conclusion and celebratory kudos (15:28 – 15:48)

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Tone & Takeaways

The conversation is pragmatic, candid, and celebratory. Jan Arendtsz’s style is methodical, prioritizing sustainable growth over flashy headlines—a sharp contrast to common Silicon Valley narratives. Nathan Latka’s tone is enthusiastic, probing, and congratulatory, spotlighting Celigo as a “dark horse” and a beacon of founder discipline.

Summary takeaway:
Celigo’s story is one of strategic pivots, product vision, and remarkable capital discipline—serving as a case study in building a high-growth SaaS business without succumbing to fundraising hype, ensuring both company and employee value are intrinsically aligned.

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Transcript

[A]

You are listening to Conversations with Nathan Latka where I sit down and interview the top SaaS founders like Eric Wan from Zoom. If you'd like to subscribe, go to gitlatka.com We've published thousands of these interviews.

[B]

And if you want to sort through.

[A]

Them quickly by revenue or churn CAC valuation or other metrics, the easiest way to do that is to go to getlatka.com and use our filtering tool. It's like a big Excel sheet for all these podcast interviews. Check it out right [e-mail].

[B]

Then, like, there's this dark horse out there, and I love dark horses. When I find one, I want to get them on stage. Right. And so there's this other company that maybe you've heard of called Soligo, and it's run by a gentleman named Jan Aren. And what he's done is he's built a company that's well over 100 million bucks of revenue, but hasn't had to go out and raise 400 million bucks of revenue and directly competes with the likes of Mulesoft. We're going to dive into it all today. Please give Mr. Yan a warm round of applause. Welcome to the stage. We didn't go through that intro together, but that's pretty close. Right?

[C]

You got something wrong, but we'll talk about. Okay.

[B]

Do you know work Auto's revenue.

[C]

But I'm not here to talk about that. Okay, but we're not quite at 100 million yet.

[B]

Okay, you're a small question. It's a fair statement to say, though, are way more capital efficient than.

[C]

Oh, for sure. Right. I think we've raised a total of 72 million in primary capital to get to roughly about 92 million in IRR right now. So that's the ratio that I Look, that's about 1.6. Right. For every dollar of air, how much have you invested in terms of raised capital?

[B]

When I study your story, and not just what you say on interviews, but what you've actually done in form D filings and multiples and how you've done it, you have way, way more discipline around valuation than everyone else I've seen in the space, even Wade. I mean, everyone else I've interviewed in this space. So I'm really excited to dive into that. So here's the visual in terms of revenue growth. So you guys all have it again, four or five years to get to that first five million bucks of revenue. Right? Early slog.

[C]

Yeah. And that's an interesting story in of itself. Because we were bootstrapped from 2011 to end of 2015. By the way, we converted from a consulting company. Prior to that, I didn't know that, so hence why we were able to fund the company and we got to 2015, early 2015. At that time I think we were about 4 million in ARR. And my CTO and I had a conversation and we knew the product that we had didn't really meet muster because everything was changing. We connect these various apps together the way companies acquired SaaS apps, the way they wanted to connect them together. All of that was changing rapidly and the product that we had was archaic. It was not the right user experience. So unfunded. We decided we're going to go build a new product. So in 2015 took a few engineers while still continuing business to go build a new product. Hence why we only show the revenue starting in 2016 and. And that coincided with raising our Series A round last day of 2015. And we entered 2016 still without a product. We came out with it I think in March, but. But that's for practical purposes. The company was really founded in 2015.

[B]

And that is what that shot looks like in 2016, right at series A time. So you can see the product drop down to the top. Smart connectors, productivity apps, integrators. For those of you trying to get your bearings in terms. Oh my gosh, think of where this is. The IPASS space. Right. Integration platform as a service, one of the leading players in the IPASS space. We named some of the other people in the space earlier, but very hot space. It's effectively. It's effectively the tunneling of the Internet, basically.

[C]

Yeah, sometimes I use the term, it's the plumbing. Right. In any given company, you've got all these applications, you've got data sources, you've got a data warehouse with the plumbing that connects these together. Ingest data into a data warehouse. API management, connecting with your trading partners. We do all of that. It's an automation platform.

[B]

So what I want you guys to focus on here is that last number in the headline on this screenshot. Because that multiple is one that is way lower than what others were raising in the space at the same time. And again, you have a discipline around here. I want you to elaborate on a second on that, but I want to establish the pattern more here first. So this was. It was about 8.3 on about a 30 post. Right? Right around that.

[C]

That's correct, Yep, that's correct, yeah.

[B]

So pushing that forward in 2016, you then did like an extension or something. Right, in 2017.

[C]

Yeah, in 2017, we just did an extension of the series. A round, another 4 million. Correct.

[B]

Also disciplined, held before X again. I want to. I'm going to ask deeper about that here in a second, but pushing forward, we're now in 2017, 2018. I assume this new growth from 10 million to 16 million is the new product starting to get some traction.

[C]

Correct. And look, when we came out with the product in 2016, it was pretty nascent. It was missing a fair bit of functionality for us to go compete with some of the other bigger players. We didn't have the biggest R and D team. We were still kind of in silent stealth mode, building the various features we needed. Because, look, in the end, doing integration, connecting these apps, automating business processes, it's just a lot of work. Right. There's so much functionality for us to go build. So we took small steps. We found little segments of the market that we could monetize at that time while we continue to build the platform.

[B]

So the next slide talks about this idea that anyone can, I mean, look, you can go raise a billion dollars, and if you, you know, the fastest way to make 100 million bucks is to raise a billion and then, you know, burn 900 million on fire, right? And you're left with 100 million. And there are people that are really good at that. So I know you don't want to talk about these, and I built this deck, but I talk about it anyway because I want to give you credit, I think maybe the most capital, efficient and sort of the enterprise, you know, plumbing for the Internet space, and you see the data to back that up here on the screen. When you look at the deal that Salesforce did to buy Mulesoft at the time, one of the Highest multiples paid, 21x multiple. And so when I'm studying this data, you know, pulling from my records, from podcast interviews and get lack of.com preparing for this, I've been going, this is so wild because Jan's raising at a 4x and no joke, like a couple years later. And then you actually did a round right after this. We'll talk about in a second the 21x multiple mulesoft. But you did it at 4x. Question is why? You had a good growth story. You know, Workado seems to just be, you know, like light, just raising as much as they can. You see these headlines of a 5.7 billion valuation, but they only have got, you know, 150, 170 million bucks of ARR so the multiple there also just feels like how do they go into that valuation? Obviously zapier, bootstrap, different story. Do you have a backstory where you have founder in the past that got burned on too high evaluation? Why do you have so much discipline here?

[C]

Short answer is no. I'm a first time founder. And look, you look at what's in front of you, right where you are, where you're trying to head, why you're raising money, how much you want to raise at that particular time and what is the right multiple at that time. I think the by the way, it was not a fox, it was almost a 5x in our series A round at that time we were unproven because we were building a new product, didn't have it in market yet, and it was a risk for our series investor to come in and invest in a company that still didn't have the future product of the company. So that's why in the end we ended up at that multiple. But in our series B round, series C round, there were other extenuating factors. I think every round was different.

[B]

In this round, what was the extenuating factor? I imagine you had term sheets on the table for much higher than a 6.3x multiple. But you took this deal for a particular reason related to terms.

[C]

Yeah. So this one's pretty simple. Look, we had multiple term sheets. I'd been speaking to maybe 25, 30 investors at the time. Like we got term sheets from about 5 to 10. It really came down to the firm and the person who is going to sit on the board. Board dynamics are super important for me. And we went with the investor that we thought, you know, looking beyond the multiple, like who's going to partner with you over the next five, seven, ten years to build a sustainable business? Do they have the same philosophy in terms of where you can take this business? Are they looking for a quick exit, so on and so forth. Right. So when you take all of that and look, multiples count as well, you. I think the series B really came down to who we thought was the best firm to take us forward.

[B]

I mean, I don't know if you guys see these and think the same exact thing, but you see the subtext in this header, right. These aren't like different years. This is the exact. You were doing this thinking and saying a good partner and a good board seat is way more valuable. And we can actually quantify that because Mulesoft had just exited for 21x. Right. So like you had that in your quiver to use in your negotiations. If you wanted to anchor that, you didn't. You chose to take a much lower valuation. It really was just a better person on the board and a better partnership. There were no economic secondary.

[C]

Well, it's building a company. We. We always believe that this is a big space, massive tam, and this company as a standalone entity could be worth a lot someday. And. And so you really try to find the right partner to be able to take you there. I mean, it's. It's really that simple.

[B]

Yeah. Valuation goes up, obviously, a little bit. You keep growing. Series C48, 540 and 2021 product has exp. This point. Right. You can see that first column. A lot of business processes, you call out a couple of different verticals at this point, software and SaaS. You want to elaborate on those quickly?

[C]

Yeah, so. So at this point in 2021, we went from being more of a niche player maybe five years back, gradually building out the platform where we could say we are a true horizontal platform. You have any set of apps in the enterprise that has an API, flat files database, what have you, we can go and connect any of that, irrespective of the vertical, irrespective of the apps that you have, irrespective of company size. And it took us a while to be able to build out the product to get there. So that was a big transformation from our Series B round to our Series C round, I would say, in terms of the product and the scope of what we could do.

[B]

And at this point, 2021, I mean, you're 10 years into the business, I imagine you had some early employees that maybe had some options that were around maybe some early angels. Had you created any sort of secondary liquidity options up to this point, you in this round?

[C]

Very little. And even though we had the opportunity for some key employees to really maybe get some secondary, everyone was pretty excited in terms of what we were doing, and we didn't really end up doing that.

[B]

So there wasn't secondary as part of this?

[C]

There was a little bit of secondary, but I think in the grand scheme of things, I would say fairly minute.

[B]

The Form D filing shows about 7.9 million was allocated as sort of use of proceeds for like, internal purposes. Did that whole chunk end up going towards early employees?

[C]

Secondary, a combination. There was some other early debt providers and so on and so forth. So.

[B]

Okay, tell me more about that. You had to pay off debt providers.

[C]

It was a very small. I think we raised about a million and a half in debt. I think in what year? 2015, maybe.

[B]

Oh, wow. So that I was wrong. Your first outside capital was not that equity raise, it was debt.

[C]

Yeah. And yeah. So there was a warrant there.

[B]

Okay, okay.

[C]

But that was. That was it.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. Okay. So the business keeps growing. You're doing these great deals, you're creating some liquidity for the debt providers, maybe some other folks. Revenue continues to grow. This is where you're at today in 2024. Where do you guys think you'll finish at end of this year?

[C]

So the goal is to be roughly around 100 million by the end of.

[B]

And this is how you're positioning yourself today.

[C]

Correct. A lot has changed. Right. So we've really gone beyond being a core. I pass. I think most people think of an IPASS as connecting various apps in the enterprise together, but we are a lot more than that. We moved into adjacent spaces. We have full API management capabilities. If you want to build APIs and govern them with all the security and compliance, we do that. If you want to connect with your trading partners using some archaic technology called edi, in case some of you are familiar with that, we've built an awesome new product on top of our platform to allow companies to be able to connect with their supply chain, with big box retailers and be able to do business. And then we fairly soon coming out with a new product for ingesting data into a data warehouse. So just imagine any of your operational SaaS systems, you want to be able to easily ingest it into your data warehouse of choice, such as a snowflake, redshift, so on and so forth. You can do that in a few clicks. So these are some of the innovations that we really invested post Series C round. We used a fabric of the money to funnel that into R and D so that we can really take it to the next level and go from being just a POI pass to the automation platform of the enterprise.

[B]

Guys, I love that. Start off as a consulting company. Really got going in 2011, little pivot, you know, 2014, 2015, new product starts to take off. Remains conservative in valuations, which I love because it means he has full optionality. Today he could take a $400 million dollar $500 million offer and everyone makes money because he hasn't driven the value through the roof. He's not going to do that because he's very excited about what he's building.

[C]

Yeah. Just one thing. On that Series C round we had the option of raising at a much higher multiple with some structure high, like without getting any numbers right. We decided to take out all preferences and structure out in that series C round.

[B]

No liquidity.

[C]

So there's one preference. But in the end, ultimately it boils down to a common share is pretty much the same as a preferred share. And that was one of the smartest things that we did without being greedy and try to get into like, look, ma, we raised that this multiple. It sounds great, right? But then we knew things were going to come down.

[B]

And.

[C]

I'm proud to say, right, that if you look at our employees stock options, it's not underwater and it means something above water. Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. Guys, when I find stories like this through little clues, I want to celebrate them. I want to get on stage. I can't get everything out of them in 10 minutes. So please, please find them. I mean, the fact that you're able to seriously at that level and have them basically be treated the same way as common shares is incredible and a huge testament to what you're doing for your employees. Just managing the company for long term sustainability. So, guys, give it up for Jan from Soligo.

[C]

Thank you.

[B]

You enjoy that. You have fun. Yes. All right. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.