💸 Weekly Funding Recap: October 23

📇 Company: Pigment
🏷️ Sectors: Artificial Intelligence, SaaS
🔍 Description: Develops an AI-powered business planning and performance management platform that enables companies to forecast revenue, model financial scenarios, manage budgets, and coordinate operational planning. Its Graphite engine supports autonomous AI agents that can analyze business data and execute planning workflows.
💻 Website: https://www.pigment.com
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Series E
💰 Amount Raised: €223 million
🏦 Investors: Scaleup Europe Fund, World Innovation Lab, Greenoaks, ICONIQ, IVP, Meritech, NVIDIA
👨‍💼👩‍💼 Founders: Eléonore Crespo, Romain Niccoli
🗞️ News: October 21, 2026. Pigment announced a $250M Series E led by EQT's Scaleup Europe Fund to accelerate development of its autonomous business planning platform and expand internationally. The financing follows a year in which Pigment says it surpassed $100M in annual recurring revenue, doubling year over year. The company reports that AI agents now create 85% of new metrics in its platform. Its customers include Danone, Siemens, Snowflake, Unilever, Anthropic, ElevenLabs and Uber. Pigment plans to expand its Graphite engine's capabilities, enabling AI agents to handle increasingly complex planning and forecasting workflows. NVIDIA's participation remains described as planned in the official release, despite last week's announcement of a proposed minority investment in Pigment. | Pigment

Read our exclusive analysis of Pigment's funding, finance, and business strategy:

Pigment’s $2.3B Bet: Can AI Reinvent Enterprise Planning?

The French software company has raised $250 million after crossing $100 million in annual recurring revenue. Its growth is impressive, and its enterprise customers are real. But the valuation rests on a bigger question: Can Pigment become the platform that runs corporate planning in the age of AI?

The French Tech JournalChris O'Brien

📇 Company: Elax Énergie
🏷️ Sectors: ClimateTech, Energy
🔍 Description: Develops connected thermostats and software that optimize the energy consumption of electric water heaters. Its technology adjusts heating schedules based on household needs and electricity availability, turning existing water heaters into distributed thermal energy storage assets that can provide flexibility to the electrical grid.
💻 Website: https://www.elaxenergie.com
📍 HQ City: Paris
🧗 Round: Growth Equity
💰 Amount Raised: €30 million
🏦 Investors: Noria, Fonds Révolution Environnementale et Solidaire, Crédit Mutuel Impact
👨‍💼👩‍💼 Founders: Jean-François Eggericx, Thomas Tirtiaux, Samuel Beaussier
🗞️ News: October 20, 2026. Elax Énergie announced €30M in financing from Noria and Crédit Mutuel Impact to expand deployment of its connected water-heater technology and enter new markets. The company says it has equipped approximately 100,000 homes and works with more than 100 social housing providers in France. Its technology is designed to reduce electricity consumption for domestic hot-water production by about 20% to 25%, according to the company. The financing will support continued expansion among social housing providers, the launch of Elax Pro, a distribution network for plumbers and electricians, and technology to electrify collective boiler systems. Elax also plans to hire 30 additional people by the end of 2027. Its longer-term strategy is to coordinate large numbers of electric water heaters to absorb surplus renewable electricity and reduce pressure on the electrical grid. | Tecsol Quotidien, FrenchWeb