French AI company Pigment has raised $250 million, backed by investors including NVIDIA, to challenge Microsoft’s Excel and PowerPoint by offering AI-driven financial forecasting, slide creation, and operational planning tools. With a strong presence in the US and growing adoption in Europe, Pigment aims to revolutionize enterprise planning by automating 85% of content creation and expanding rapidly into new markets through strategic partnerships.
French AI company Pigment has successfully raised $250 million in its latest funding round, aiming to challenge established Microsoft products like Excel and PowerPoint. Pigment’s software focuses on helping businesses with financial forecasting, slide deck creation, and operational planning. The company is positioning itself as a modern alternative to traditional spreadsheet and presentation tools, leveraging AI to streamline and automate complex business processes.
A notable aspect of Pigment’s funding strategy was the inclusion of Asian investors, reflecting the company’s ambition to expand rapidly into new markets. Eleonore Crespo, Pigment’s co-founder and co-CEO, explained that these investors bring valuable local expertise and customer introductions, which will help Pigment accelerate its market entry and growth in the region. This strategic approach highlights Pigment’s global vision and its desire to scale quickly across diverse geographies.
NVIDIA’s recent investment in Pigment is seen as a significant endorsement of the company’s vision and technology. Crespo emphasized that the planning and consolidation landscape has remained largely unchanged for decades, dominated by manual spreadsheet and presentation workflows. Pigment aims to revolutionize this space by integrating AI-driven agents that automate 85% of the content creation within its platform, signaling a shift toward a more intelligent and efficient future for enterprise planning.
While Pigment currently has a strong presence in the US, with 60% of its customers based there, the company is also making strides in Europe. Crespo highlighted major European clients like L’Oreal, VINCI, and Unilever that are adopting Pigment for large-scale deployments. Although Europe has been slower to embrace AI compared to the US, Pigment is optimistic about the continent’s growing momentum and its potential to catch up in the AI-driven business transformation.
Pigment’s value proposition lies in its ability to empower users beyond traditional Excel and PowerPoint skills. Crespo noted that many finance and marketing professionals pride themselves on their spreadsheet expertise, but Pigment offers a new paradigm where AI agents handle data reconciliation, model preparation, and scenario building automatically. This not only saves time but also enhances productivity, allowing users to focus on higher-value tasks. The platform democratizes advanced planning capabilities, making them accessible to a broader range of business users across organizations.