In the initial six months of this year, French startups secured $4.8 billion in venture funding, positioning France as the third-highest recipient in Europe and the sixth globally for VC investments during this period. The nation independently accounted for a quarter of the total funds raised in Europe. This trend persisted into the latter half of the year, marked by notable funding rounds in companies such as Mistral AI, ProvenRun, Tomorro, and Pimento.
Expanding the roster of noteworthy French startups is the emerging venture Pivot, founded by former C-level executives from prominent French unicorns including Qonto, Wave.ai, and Swile. The innovative procurement software has secured €20 million in a Series A funding round. The round was backed by Pivot’s existing investors such as Visionaries, Emblem, Anamcara known for its investments in Hologate and Noloco, and Oliver Samwer (co-founder of Rocket Internet).
This follows the €5 million pre-seed funding it raised a couple of months back. What’s more, the company has managed to secure two rounds of funding within six months of its debut.
The fresh round of financing will enable the company to accelerate its growth and roll out its innovative Procure-to-Pay (P2P) tool in several European countries. This innovative tool can be deployed within a few days, without the help of an integrator.
Next-gen Procure-to-Pay tool
Pivot was founded in 2023 by Marc-Antoine Lacroix, Romain Libeau, and Estelle Giuly in Paris. They came up with the idea after realising that there was no offer matching their expectations related to procurement. They created the first modern procurement tool that helps companies keep spending under control while enhancing their teams.
As per the company, its P2P tool is capable of responding to modern purchasing challenges. Pivot is claimed to simplify purchasing processes, thanks to intuitive interfaces and AI, making it easy for all employees to adopt the tool. Pivot can be deployed within an organisation in record time, without the need for a costly integrator.
Another notable aspect of this solution is its automation, which saves teams time-consuming manual tasks. As per the company, AI maximises productivity and gives employees the opportunity to focus on high value-added tasks.
This solution is interoperable with various applications in the professional environment: communication tools like Slack, ERP like Netsuite, solutions for SSO and provisioning like Okta, or even Personio and BambooHR for HR data.
“If we chose to reinvest in Pivot so quickly, it’s because we were impressed by the team’s speed of execution, both commercially and in terms of product development. We are convinced that this dynamic is a major asset for Pivot in its ambition to win the battle against the procurement giants. Pivot offers a unique response to a problem we witness in any of our LPs companies – no matter if a digital scaleup or an industrial world market leader – in a context of drastic cost-cutting. We’re looking forward to continuing this adventure alongside them,” said Robert Lacher, Founding Partner of Visionaries.
“The procurement market is still dominated by complex solutions created by the industry giants in the 90s. However, these tools are at odds with the expectations of today’s users, who are looking for intuitive interfaces and ready-to-use solutions. Our ambition is to provide companies with an innovative tool that will enable them to take full advantage of purchasing as a powerful driver of profitability. The trust placed in us by our customers and investors confirms that we are moving in the right direction”, concluded Romain Libeau, Co-founder and CEO of Pivot.
