One of the most challenging works for SMEs and entrepreneurs is revenue forecasting and strategic planning. Thanks to new technologies like advanced analytics platforms, and AI, many organisations are shifting to forecasting processes that involve people working symbiotically with data-fueled, predictive algorithms.
Based out of London, Pigment is one such startup that’s trying to overhaul the painful experience of using error-prone spreadsheets and inflexible software to forecast the future of your business.
Raised £19.3 million funding
Recently, the UK startup raised $25.9 million (approx £19.3 million) funding led by Blossom Capital, with other notable backers including FirstMark Capital and Frst. Angel investors including Paul Melchiorre, former CEO of business planning giant Anaplan, and David Clarke, the ex-CTO of Workday, also participated.
The company will use the proceeds to scale up its operations and first-class engineering team, which includes senior hires from leading tech companies such as Criteo, Datadog, Aircall, and Payfit.
“If you’re up to your elbows in the agony of annual budgets right now – we feel your pain,’ says Eléonore Crespo, co-founder and co-CEO of Pigment. ‘At the moment entrepreneurs have to spend so much time simply trying to build an accurate picture of their own business that they’re eating into bandwidth that they could use for strategic thinking and analysis.”
How was Pigment born?
Crespo and Niccoli identified three key roadblocks in planning and reporting — Lack of transparency and insight, the sheer quantity of data, and the way it was presented, which made it hard to change and manipulate.
As a result, planning and reporting waste a lot of time and money, and the inevitable mistakes hamper almost all organisations.
Take control of your business data
Founded by Eléonore Crespo, and Romain Niccoli in 2019, Pigment’s platform allows you to take control over your business data – presenting an intuitive, full-spectrum view of your company in real-time through charts, simulations, and continuous modeling. Pigment has secured initial clients for its beta product, including a large European bank and several leading high-growth scale-ups and business customers.
In the future, Pigment also plans to allow for reporting in areas including social and environmental accounting, as this is increasingly requested by users.
Crespo continues: ‘We’re a bit like Minecraft for business strategy – with that kind of creative, organic potential for the user. Standard planning solutions are mechanical, treating a business as a machine with levers that you just push and pull. But the times call for software that’s more responsive and evolutionary – where you can truly manage the destiny of your company, seizing control over how it evolves from the bottom up.’
Romain Niccoli says: ‘There’s been little innovation in business planning for over a decade. Pigment has set its sights on becoming more than just a system of record for business data – we allow everyone in the company to see how different metrics interact, to creatively explore the potential behind the numbers, and to imagine fresh possibilities for the future.’
Ophelia Brown, partner at Blossom Capital, says: ‘Existing planning software was built around 20th-century models of how to do business. Pigment is a 21-st century platform that reflects the way successful companies need to work today – socially and environmentally conscious, proactively scanning the horizon for risks and opportunities, and capable of unlocking new opportunities in an increasingly complex and uncertain world.’
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