Sébastien, we’ve been hearing a lot about Pigment. For you, who use it every day with your clients, what was the first thing that struck you about it?

Speed. Seriously. The first time we built a complete application with Pigment, we looked at each other, us consultants, with a sense of disbelief.

What would have taken us three weeks to do with other tools, we accomplished in two days, with a polished interface, compelling visuals, and robust calculation logic. Pigment is now the first fully intelligent EPM solution, combining cutting-edge AI innovation with core financial capabilities to transform the way companies plan, forecast, and make strategic decisions. But what’s most impressive is just how easily we achieved this result.

Pigment became a French unicorn in 2024. Does that change your perception of the tool in any way?

This confirms what we’ve been seeing on the ground. In April 2024, Pigment closed a $145 million Series D funding round, with the participation of Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners, a fund founded by Sheryl Sandberg, among others, propelling it to unicorn status.

In total, since its founding by Éléonore Crespo, a former Google employee, and Romain Niccoli, a former Criteo employee, Pigment has raised nearly $400 million across five funding rounds. This isn’t just another gimmick, it’s a company that attracts serious investors because it solves a real market problem.

And what’s remarkable is the trajectory. Pigment has seen its ARR grow twofold year-over-year, with a 50% increase in its customer base, and counts companies such as Unilever, Snowflake, Siemens, and DPD among its users. These are global leaders that have made a deliberate choice to use a French platform.

Do you have an analogy to explain the difference in speed compared to traditional platforms ?

Yes, I like the one comparing smartphones to Minitel. In the 2000s and 2010s, major vendors like SAP and Oracle built their EPM offerings through a series of acquisitions: a consolidation tool here, a planning module there, and a reporting layer underneath. The result is a sophisticated Minitel: powerful in its own right, but rigid, slow to configure, and requiring technical intervention for every update. SAP, for example, has spread its EPM capabilities across SAP Analytics Cloud for planning, SAP BFC for consolidation, and third-party tools for account reconciliation or narrative reporting. These are all building blocks that communicate with each other more or less effectively.

Pigment is like a smartphone. Everything is native, everything is connected, and everything is designed with the end user in mind from the start. And just like a smartphone, updates arrive continuously, not just once a year after a deployment project.

Speaking of which, how does Pigment incorporate artificial intelligence ?

Natively, not as an add-on. In September 2025, Pigment launched its Analyst Agent, the platform’s first native AI agent capable of automating variance analysis, detecting anomalies, and explaining the “why” behind the results, ushering in a new era of business planning where humans and agents collaborate to improve execution speed and agility.

Customers report model iterations that are 5 to 10 times faster and planning cycles compressed from several days to just a few hours. This is no longer marginal optimization, it’s a paradigm shift. With Pigment’s AI agents, decision-makers no longer wait weeks for an analysis; they move from data to decision at lightning speed.

You often discuss digital sovereignty with your clients. How does Pigment offer an advantage in this area?

This has become a key issue, particularly for our clients in the public sector, cooperatives, NGOs, and major European companies.

On June 12, 2025, France’s digital sovereignty strategy was formally adopted by the Council of Ministers, centered on four pillars: mapping dependencies, protecting data via SecNumCloud, investing in the French and European ecosystem, and prioritizing open-source software ChapsVision. In this context, choosing Pigment means choosing a solution whose teams are based in Paris, whose roadmap is shaped by feedback from European customers, and whose governance is not subject to extraterritorial laws such as the U.S. Cloud Act. This is an argument our customers are hearing more and more often, and one that can make all the difference in a purchasing decision.

And what about the product's development timeline ?

This is where Pigment most surprises clients accustomed to traditional software vendors. Pigment has been included in the French Tech Next40 for three consecutive years (2023, 2024, and 2025) and has been recognized by Bloomberg as one of the 24 most promising AI startups, alongside Mistral, Glean, and Cursor. Such recognition isn’t achieved by a company that rests on its laurels.

Feedback from the field is incorporated week after week. Our consultants see this firsthand: a feature requested by a customer can be available on the platform within a few weeks. This is unimaginable with a traditional software vendor that operates on semi-annual or annual release cycles. Pigment’s sales cycles typically last 2 to 3 months, much shorter than those of Anaplan or OneStream, and proofs of concept are encouraged and supported by the Pigment team to validate the solution’s suitability before any commitment is made.

A final word for organizations that are torn between Pigment and a more established solution ?

Ask yourself this simple question: Do you need a tool that’s been doing everything for the past twenty years, or a tool that does exactly what you need today, and will be even better tomorrow?

For organizations focused on agility, rapid implementation, and digital sovereignty, Pigment is currently the smartest choice on the market. And as a certified partner, we’re here to help you get the most out of it from day one.

Sources : Usine Digitale, Pigment lève 145 millions de dollars et devient licorne française, avril 2024 — Pigment Newsroom, Analyst Agent Launch, septembre 2025 — Pigment, AI Info Page, 2025 — CFO Shortlist, Pigment Review 2026 — Chapsvision, Souveraineté des données en France et en Europe, juin 2025 — Fortune Business Insights, EPM Market Forecast 2026-2034.