[Edaily Marketin YunJi Kim Reporter] A French startup that replaces tasks traditionally reliant on Excel—such as corporate budget management and sales forecasting—with artificial intelligence (AI) has secured a large round of funding. As the company rapidly increased its revenue by securing a string of global conglomerates as clients, investors took notice of its growth potential. Amid a recent surge of funding in Europe for AI startups that automate specific corporate tasks, companies that have established a solid customer base and revenue stream are garnering significant attention in the investment market.

According to industry sources on the 23rd, the French AI startup Pigment recently secured a $250 million (approximately 331.4 billion won) Series E investment from European private equity firm EQT and others. The company’s valuation recognized in this round stands at $2.3 billion (approximately 3.05 trillion won).

Founded in 2019, Pigment develops software that uses AI to handle corporate budgeting, revenue forecasting, and workforce planning. Whereas companies previously had to collect data from various departments, enter it into Excel, and perform calculations manually, Pigment helps by consolidating relevant data in one place to analyze it and develop necessary plans.

For example, the AI analyzes how many additional employees a company would need to hire to increase next year’s revenue by 10%, or how much profitability would decline if raw material prices rise. Users simply enter a query, and the AI presents analysis results based on relevant data. A key feature is that it eliminates the need to manually edit multiple Excel files and recreate formulas whenever the business environment changes.

Global conglomerates are also adopting Pigment’s technology one after another. Pigment counts L’Oréal, the world’s largest cosmetics company, as well as global consumer goods giant Unilever, German industrial technology firm Siemens, and U.S. ride-sharing platform Uber among its major clients. Among these, L’Oréal, in particular, has decided to replace its payroll planning system—which serves more than 95,000 employees worldwide—with Pigment. In addition, companies across various industries—including the French food company Danone and the U.S. AI firm Anthropic—are utilizing Pigment’s software.

As its client base expands, the company’s revenue is also growing rapidly. Pigment’s annual recurring revenue (ARR—a metric that converts revenue from subscription-based services to an annualized basis) surpassed $100 million this year. This means its revenue has doubled in just one year.

Investors are reported to have taken note of Pigment’s growth trajectory and injected capital accordingly. In particular, it is said that they judged the growth potential of related software to be significant, as companies seek to use AI to reduce the time and costs associated with budget planning and performance forecasting. EQT, which led this investment round, also highly praised Pigment for significantly reducing the time required for corporate decision-making by enabling companies to manage financial, sales, and workforce planning on a single platform.

Meanwhile, Pigment’s latest funding round aligns with the recent trend in Europe of investment capital flowing toward AI startups specializing in specific business functions. Foreign media outlets such as Bloomberg reported, “Companies are adopting AI not only for document drafting and data organization but also for specialized tasks such as financial management and legal review,” adding, “Investors are concentrating their funds on AI startups that have secured actual corporate demand.”