Pigment, the French business planning platform, has secured $88 million in a Series C funding round led by ICONIQ Growth, the private investment fund managing the money of tech billionaires – Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey. The investor also backed Spotnana and Builder.ai. Felix Capital, along with previous investors Meritech, IVP, and FirstMark, have also participated in this funding round.
With this investment, Pigment has raised a total of $248 million in less than three years. Pigment will use the funds to drive sustainable growth at the company, with headcount expected to increase by 25% by the end 2023, across enterprise sales, partnerships and product teams. Also, the company will focus on expanding its reach in the U.S. and artificial intelligence.
The company will also invest in product innovation for decision-makers across disciplines, including Pigment AI, a chat-like interface to automate tasks such as ChatGPT; new automations to enable collaborative planning across teams and new HR and sales planning features.
The capital follows a remarkable growth trajectory for Pigment in 2022, with a 600% increase in revenue and a tenfold rise in users.
“In today’s economic climate, far too many companies are being held back because they don’t have the right tools in place to get a full view of their business, manage changes, and grow. They’re forced to plan and make decisions with inaccurate, incomplete and siloed information,” said Eléonore Crespo, co-CEO and co-founder, Pigment.
“Our vision from the beginning has been to help people and organizations of all sizes make better business decisions. With this infusion of funding, we are on a clear path to drive innovation and change the status quo in an industry desperately in need of it. Pigment has never been more critical and relevant than it is today,” added Romain Niccoli, co-CEO and co-founder, Pigment.
“We’ve had a great partnership with Pigment since the beginning and product innovation is a key reason our relationship continues to deepen,” said Sebastian Siemiatkowski, co-founder and CEO, Klarna. “With Pigment’s AI and workforce planning investments, I am confident that Klarna is and will continue to be better equipped to make the right decisions about our business in the best interests of our customers.”
“At Figma, our finance team wears many hats – we’re responsible for circulating business information, quickly diagnosing issues, and presenting leadership with solutions. Pigment allows us to understand our levers and make timely decisions for the business while remaining lean,” said Praveer Melwani, CFO, Figma.
“We are delighted to support Pigment with our global platform as they continue to expand their footprint in the US and beyond,” said Matt Jacobson, General Partner at ICONIQ Growth. “We’ve been incredibly impressed by Eléonore and Romain’s intense focus on product velocity and remarkable customer care, which has translated into exceptional growth and affinity,” added Seth Pierrepont, General Partner, ICONIQ Growth.
User-friendly business planning software
Co-founded dual CEOs Eleonore Crespo and Romain Niccoli, Pigment is known for its business planning and forecasting platform. It is designed to be more user-friendly than Microsoft’s Excel, the spreadsheet software.
Prominent companies like Klarna, Miro, PVH (including renowned brands such as Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein), Airtable, Figma, Webhelp, and Poshmark have chosen Pigment as their preferred platform for planning, decision-making, and driving growth. The company also views enterprise software tools from giants like Google, SAP and Oracle as rivals.
