taking on the business scenario-planning giants, pigment raises a $25.9m series a led by blossom capital

Acknowledging the limitations of traditional spreadsheet programs for managing the intricacies of contemporary businesses, the creators of Pigment sought a more effective approach. Their business forecasting platform has successfully secured $25.9 million in Series A funding, with Blossom Capital leading the investment round. Additional participation came from FirstMark Capital and Frst, both located in New York, alongside contributions from individual investors such as Paul Melchiorre, previously the CEO of Anaplan, a prominent business planning company, and David Clarke, formerly the CTO of Workday, another key player in business planning.

The involvement of these latter two investors is noteworthy as Pigment directly challenges Anaplan and Workday in the marketplace. It is also relevant to recall the acquisition of Adaptive Insights by Workday for a substantial $1.6 billion.

To date, Pigment has attracted significant enterprise-level clients and companies preparing for initial public offerings for its beta version, including a large financial institution in Europe—though the company has chosen not to disclose the names of its customers at this time.

Pigment’s stated goal is to transform the often-difficult process of business forecasting, moving away from unreliable spreadsheets and rigid software. Instead, it offers a real-time, dashboard-style interface featuring charts, simulations, and ongoing modeling capabilities.

According to Eléonore Crespo, co-founder and co-CEO of Pigment, “We function somewhat like Minecraft for business strategy – offering a similar level of user-driven creativity and organic development. Traditional planning tools tend to be overly mechanical, viewing a business as a simple machine with controllable inputs.”

Ophelia Brown, a partner at Blossom Capital, commented: “Current planning software is based on outdated 20th-century business practices. Pigment represents a modern platform designed for how thriving companies operate today – with a focus on social and environmental responsibility, proactive risk and opportunity assessment, and the ability to capitalize on new possibilities in an increasingly complex and unpredictable environment.”

Pigment was established in 2019 by Crespo, who brings experience as a former data analyst at Google and investor at Index Ventures, and Romain Niccoli, the previous CTO and co-founder of Criteo—the advertising technology firm that went public on Nasdaq in 2013.