French AI planning software maker Pigment raises $250M at $2.3B valuation

Pigment sells planning and forecasting software that Bloomberg describes as a rival to Microsoft's Excel and PowerPoint. The $250 million round values the Paris company at $2.3 billion and was set for public announcement on Tuesday. The Scaleup Europe Fund led the financing. Nvidia and World Innovation Lab, a fund Bloomberg describes as based in the United States and Japan, joined, along with existing investors Iconiq, IVP and Meritech Capital. Bloomberg reported that the company also plans to bring in a few Asian investors. Nvidia was already a backer before this round. Bloomberg places the financing within a broader European push against a large American software maker. For founders building AI products, the round is a signal that a focused application layer on top of a legacy workflow can still raise large sums when it pairs a clear buyer with a credible plan to take share from incumbents.