DeepL Chief Financial Officer rotation signals IPO ambitions

Cologne-based AI unicorn swaps its CFO for a manager with Wall Street experience - IPO speculation intensifies as a result of the targeted personnel decision.

Strategic management change without official communication

The translation start-up DeepL is discreetly making a significant change to its financial management. Markus Harder already left his CFO position in mid-March, as evidenced by entries in the commercial register. The company deliberately refrained from publicly announcing this change and ignored corresponding media inquiries. Harder had been responsible for finance since June 2021 and had come from the scheduling tool "Catch App Scheduler", where he had risen to the position of Chief Financial Officer over a decade. Industry insiders speculate that his lack of IPO expertise was the decisive factor in his departure.

Wall Street-experienced interim manager takes over

British manager Peter McDougall is now acting CFO and has the precise qualifications that his predecessor lacked. McDougall has been working as Vice President Finance at DeepL since November 2024 and has extensive IPO experience from various tech companies. His career includes VP Finance positions at Onfido (identity verification), Spryker (commerce tech) and Sprinklr, which successfully debuted on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021. This expertise fuels speculation about DeepL's own IPO plans and even makes a US rather than German IPO seem possible.

Growth with continuing losses

The available financial data for 2022 shows an ambivalent business development: DeepL almost doubled its turnover from 29 to 55.1 million euros. This was driven by rising subscriptions, license revenue and expansion into new markets such as Singapore and Mexico. Nevertheless, the company posted an annual loss of 290,000 euros. These red figures resulted from a doubling of the workforce, expanded server capacities and product innovations such as the AI writing assistant DeepL Write. For 2023, the management forecast sales of between 85 and 95 million euros with continued "significant investments" and a correspondingly negative result.

IPO preparation as a logical step

DeepL achieved unicorn status in 2022 with a valuation of over one billion US dollars. The strategic engagement of a financial manager with IPO experience points to concrete IPO plans, even if the company has not confirmed them. For German tech start-ups, a potential DeepL IPO sets an important precedent. The choice between German and American capital markets will have a decisive signal effect for other AI companies.