The French AI startup gunning for Workday, Oracle, and SAP

Fortune

by Lily Mae Lazarus

March 4, 2026

AI-Generated Deep Dive Summary

Eléonore Crespo, co-founder and CEO of Pigment, has built a fast-growing AI startup that is challenging established giants like Workday, Oracle, and SAP in the enterprise software market. With annual recurring revenue (ARR) approaching $100 million and having doubled its ARR for three consecutive years, Pigment is emerging as one of Europe’s most dynamic AI companies. Backed by major investors and valued at over $1 billion, the company has gained traction with top-tier customers, including Uber, Unilever, Siemens, and Anthropic. Crespo, a former Index Ventures investor, founded Pigment in 2019 to replace outdated spreadsheet-based tools with an AI-native platform designed to unify data across finance, sales, HR, and supply chain management. Pigment’s core offering allows businesses to run scenario models quickly without relying on slow, manual processes. The company’s latest innovation, the “Modeler Agent,” enables users to describe their needs in natural language, generating production-ready applications in minutes—a significant leap from traditional weeks-long build times. This technology is particularly appealing to companies like Figma, which reported achieving 80% of its desired functionality within minutes using Pigment. Crespo’s vision for AI-driven decision-making aligns with the growing demand for faster and more agile business operations in a volatile economic environment. She believes that AI represents a transformative shift in enterprise software, where legacy systems struggle to integrate new technologies. By focusing on AI-native solutions, Pigment is betting

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Originally published on Fortune on 3/4/2026