Pivot, a French startup, has an impressive story as it continues to expand rapidly despite the recent downturn in European startup investments. In April, the company raised a staggering $5.3 million (€5 million) in its pre-seed round, and spent the summer working on its procurement tool’s first version.
In September, Pivot began selling its software solution to its initial clients and has received remarkable feedback, leading to the current announcement of raising another $21.6 million (€20 million) in a new Series A funding round from current investors such as Visionaries, Emblem, Anamcara, and Oliver Samwer.
In a previous article, I have provided a detailed description of Pivot and its operations, which I strongly advise you to read. In summary, Pivot offers a cutting-edge spend management solution that boasts superior functionality compared to the procurement aspect of Oracle NetSuite or Coupa.
Instead of relying on lengthy integration procedures, Pivot seamlessly integrates with your existing financial stack and ERP. This allows administrators to customize the tool to their specific needs, ensuring ease of use. Thus, purchase order forms become more comprehensible for employees.
Pivot boasts a no-code interface to establish internal workflows for purchase orders. For example, if the price exceeds a specific threshold, it will trigger validation rules. Moreover, Pivot utilizes the company’s org chart to notify other team members via Slack or Microsoft Teams.
Once all data is integrated into Pivot, finance teams can easily approve or reject purchases while monitoring overall expenses. This feature enables other departments to track their budgets and, consequently, prevent overspending. Additionally, all data in Pivot is synchronized with the ERP, thus ensuring the accuracy of vendor and invoice information.
“The reasoning behind Pivot’s relevance in the current market is that businesses are actively searching for ways to reduce costs,” states Robert Lacher, founding partner at Visionaries. “Pivot provides a novel solution to a common challenge faced by our LPs companies, whether they are digital scaleups or world-leading industrial entities, in the face of significant cost-cutting measures.”
Change of Plan
The CEO and co-founder of Pivot, Romain Libeau, revealed that they had not anticipated raising funds at such a pace. However, with the initial round of €20 million in hand, the company can alter its strategy and be more ambitious in terms of recruitment to expedite product development and gain more visibility. In an email, Libeau said, “Our swift execution was the deciding factor that convinced investors to opt for another funding round so soon.”
The co-founders of Pivot have previously worked for prominent tech companies and know precisely how to utilize these new funds. Libeau, who also serves as the CEO, was among the first members of the team at Swile and, more recently, worked as the chief product officer for a French unicorn. Furthermore, Marc-Antoine Lacroix, the startup’s CTO, has prior experience at Qonto, where he served as both Chief Technology Officer and Chief Product Officer. As for Estelle Giuly, she worked as an engineer for various enterprise companies and Wave.ai.
Pivot intends to expand its current team of 50 members by the end of the year and, subsequently, double its size every year for the following two years. Libeau declared, “We have set a goal to achieve €1 million in annual recurring revenue by 2024 – as soon as possible.” At the moment, the company has ten clients, which may not seem like a large number, but it’s worth considering that Pivot is establishing itself as an enterprise SaaS product. Therefore, investors are undoubtedly banking on the company’s future potential, as well as the founders’ remarkable track record.
