The French AI startup gunning for Workday, Oracle, and SAP

Fortune has exclusively learned Pigment is approaching $100 million in ARR, having doubled ARR for a third consecutive year. The company has grown its customer base 74%, with leaders like Uber, Unilever, Anthropic, Siemens and more using Pigment, and 57% of new revenue coming from enterprise customers. More than half of Pigment’s new customers in 2025 migrated from SaaS giants, Crespo says, a 115% year-over-year increase in replacement. 

Crespo, a former Index Ventures investor, co-founded Pigment with Romain Niccoli in 2019 to replace the spreadsheets and legacy planning tools that still run the guts of large companies. The pitch: an AI-native enterprise performance management platform that sits across finance, sales, HR, and supply chain, unifying data and decision-making in one system.

“Every single CEO or CFO on this planet wants to make fast decisions to react to this macroeconomic environment,” Crespo told Fortune, pointing to wars, tariffs, inflation, and supply chain shocks. “They cannot wait months to make decisions.”

Pigment’s core product aggregates business data into a single platform and lets teams run scenario models—different oil price paths, shifting tariff regimes—without blowing up fragile Excel sheets or waiting weeks for a specialist to reconfigure a model. 

Crespo’s latest bet is what she calls Pigment’s biggest leap yet: a “Modeler Agent.” Users describe what they want in natural language, and the agent generates governed, production-ready applications on top of Pigment’s data engine. Early customers say build times have collapsed from weeks to minutes. Figma reported getting to “80% of what they wanted to build from a blank page in minutes,” according to Crespo.

Investors have bought in. Pigment has raised nearly $400 million to date and crossed a $1 billion valuation in 2024, with backers including ICONIQ Growth, Meritech, IVP, Greenoaks, Blossom, and Sheryl Sandberg’s fund. But Crespo insists she’s in no rush to add more capital—or to go public. “IPO for us would be way, way down the line,” she said.

Crespo advises French President Emmanuel Macron on AI, and speaks frequently about “AI sovereignty.” But she resists framing Pigment as a European champion in opposition to the U.S.

“I do not consider ourselves a French company. I consider ourselves a global company,” she said. Most of her executive team is U.S.-based, while engineering remains concentrated in France—a talent base she describes as a “secret weapon.” 

Crespo runs Pigment with the intensity of a founder who still feels behind. This energy extends to how she thinks about the so-called “SaaSpocalypse.” In her view, AI is a sorting event: some new players, like Pigment, will adopt the technology, while many legacy vendors will struggle to bolt AI onto old architectures. She’s betting she can outrun the incumbents.

“It’s a total revolution,” she said.

See you tomorrow,

Lily Mae Lazarus
X: @LilyMaeLazarus
Email: lily.lazarus@fortune.com
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VENTURE CAPITAL

– Ayar Labs, a San Jose, Calif.-based startup making AI chips more efficient, raised $500 million in Series E funding. NVIDIA, AMD, MediaTek, Alchip, and others led the round.

– Grow Therapy, a New York-based mental health platform for in-person and online therapy and psychiatric care, raised $150 million in Series D financing. TCV and Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives led the round and was joined by BCI, Menlo Ventures, Sequoia, SignalFire, and Transformation Capital.

– Flink, a Berlin, Germany-based speedy grocery startup, raised $100 million in funding. Prosus Ventures and Btomorrow Ventures led the round.

– Fig Security, a New York-based platform that finds and fixes broken security flows across SecOps infrastructure, raised $38 million in seed and Series A rounds. Team8 and Ten Eleven Ventures, led the round and were joined by Doug Merritt, Rene Bonvanie, and the founders of Demisto and Siemplify. 

– JetStream, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based AI governance company, raised $34 million in seed funding. Redpoint Ventures led the round and was joined by Falcon Fund, George Kurtz, Assaf Rappaport, and Frederic Kerrest.

– Guild.ai, a San Francisco-based AI-native community workspace for developers, raised $30 million in Series A funding. Google Ventures led the round and was joined by Khosla Ventures. 

– KeyCare, a Chicago, Ill.-based virtual care provider built on Epic, raised $27.4 million in financing. HealthX Ventures led the round and was joined by 8VC, LRVHealth, BOLD Capital Partners, Ikigai Venture Partners, WellSpan Health, Allina Health, University of Chicago Ventures, Edge Ventures, and Exact Sciences. 

– RenoFi, a Berwyn, Pa.-based AI-enabled renovation financing platform for homeowners, raised $22 million in Series B funding. Fifth Wall led the round and was joined by Progressive Insurance and others.

– Multitude Insights, a Boston, Mass.-based provider of AI-powered intelligence tools for law enforcement agencies, raised $10 million in Series A funding. Primary Venture Partners led the round and was joined by VSC, Commonweal, NEC, Counterview, and others.

– EGI Battery Inc., an Ann Arbor, Mich.-based advanced battery technology and manufacturing company, raised $10 million seed financing. TSV Capital led the round and was joined by several U.S. family offices.

– NextWork, an Austin, Texas-based platform helping people learn practical AI skills through projects and proof-of-work portfolios, raised $4.45 million in seed funding. Shakti VC led the round and was joined by Cake Ventures, GD1 VC, Blackbird Ventures, Icehouse Ventures, Phase One Ventures, and angel investors.

– Vento Games, an Istanbul, Turkey-based mobile games company, raised $4 million in seed funding. Makers Fund and Arcadia Gaming Partners led the round.

PRIVATE EQUITY

– The Rise Funds, an arm of TPG, invested approximately $250 million in Findhelp, an Austin, Texas-based social care technology platform. Financial terms were not disclosed. 

– Espirion, backed by Athyrium Capital Management and HealthCare Royalty, agreed to acquire Corstasis, a Henderson, Nev.-based biopharmaceutical company, in a $75 million deal. 

– Gryphon Investors made a majority investment in HRSoft, a Denver, Colo.-based provider of enterprise compensation management software. Existing investor Bow River Capital will retain a minority stake.

– LGPS and Vista Equity Partners invested in Joblogic, a Birmingham, U.K.-based field service management software provider. Financial terms were not disclosed. 

– Thoma Bravo entered into a definitive agreement to acquire WWEX Group, a Dallas, Texas-based third-party logistics provider of parcel and freight services with brands including Worldwide Express, GlobalTranz, Unishippers, JEAR Logistics and BLX Logistics.

– Accel-KKR made a majority investment into Whip Around, a Charlotte, North Carolina-based fleet maintenance and compliance software provider.

– Virtual Technologies Group, backed by Jacmel Partners, acquired Vector Tech Group, a Holland, Mich.-based provider of IT solutions to businesses and other organizations. Financial terms were not disclosed.

– US BioTek Laboratories, backed by Pike Street Capital, merged with NutriPATH, a Sydney, Australia-based pathology laboratory serving integrative and functional medicine practitioners. Financial terms were not disclosed. 

– British Columbia Investment Management, Norges Bank Investment Management, and Brookfield Asset Management launched Northview Energy, an acquirer and owner of a portfolio of U.S. and Canadian contracted and operating renewable assets. Northview will be equally funded and owned by the three investors.

EXITS

– BlackRock sold its remaining 11.4% stake in Naturgy, a Madrid, Spain-based energy company, for $3.25 billion.

– American Securities agreed to sell CPM Holdings and MW Components, U.S.-based industrial companies, to Rosebank Industries in a $3.25 billion sale, inclusive of a potential $200 million earnout.

OTHERS

– Ziff Davis, a New York-based digital media and internet company, agreed to sell its Connectivity division, which includes its Ookla’s Speedtest ?app and Downdetector outage tracker, to Accenture for $1.2 billion in cash.

– Allianz is acquiring a 50% stake in 11 battery storage projects from Total Energies, a Paris, France-based energy company, in a total investment of $580 million.

– Carta acquired ListAlpha, a London, U.K.-based AI-powered CRM and relationship intelligence platform. Financial terms were not disclosed. 

– Körber acquired Stellium, a Houston, Texas-based SAP supply chain management consulting firm. Financial terms were not disclosed. 

IPOS

– Billion Group Holdings, a Hong Kong-based distributor of high-end food products, re-filed to raise $17 million in an initial public offering of 3.8 million shares priced between $4 and $5. Billion Group originally filed for a U.S. IPO in August 2025, offering 1.6 million shares priced between $4 and $6, but withdrew the offering this past Friday. 

– PayPay, a Tokyo, Japan-based mobile payment app and digital wallet, plans to raise $1.0 billion by offering 55 million ADSs (44% secondary) priced between $17 and $20. Cornerstone investors Qatar Holding, Visa, and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority have indicated $220 million of the IPO (21.6% of the deal in total).

– Vale Base Metals, a London, U.K.-based global supplier of critical minerals, is preparing for a potential initial public offering by midyear, moving up its timeline from a previous 2027 target, according to Bloomberg.

FUNDS + FUNDS OF FUNDS

– Capital Group alongside KKR launched its Capital Group KKR U.S. Equity+ fund, which will invest in and alongside KKR strategies generally not available to everyday investors. Approximately 60% of assets will be invested in actively managed large-cap U.S. equities. 

PEOPLE

– ArcLight Capital Partners appointed Gary Lambert as a senior advisor focused on AI-related infrastructure opportunities. Previously, he was CEO of Competitive Power Ventures.

– Kian Capital Partners promoted Ulrich Erasmus to principal.

– Oakley Capital promoted Alessandro Celli, Konstantin Synetos, Lovis von Andrian, and Mike Mutsaers to partner. The firm also promoted Cristina Popescu, Peter Kisenyi, and Alessandro Costamagna to managing partner. 

Fortune 500: Titans & Disruptors of Industry

What if AI made your paycheck optional? Vinod Khosla, one of the world’s greatest venture capitalists and an early backer of AI, believes the technology will take over 80% of labor, freeing humans to live on passion instead. His track record backs up the boldness, as early bets on OpenAI, DoorDash, Instacart, and Square have made him one of the most consequential investors of our time.

In this new episode of Fortune 500: Titans & Disruptors of Industry, Khosla sits down with Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell to unpack his abundant vision for the AI future, what government policy should tackle for a more equitable 2040, and what the U.S. needs to do to win the global AI race.

Subscribe to Titans & Disruptors on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple.