Pigment, the French headquartered business platform, is opening a new office in Toronto, Canada. It signalled that it would expand further in North America, following the $65 million Series B+ funding round led by IVP and Meritech Capital in September 2022.
The area has a hub of software technology firms, including FP&A firms. This is Pigment’s fourth office after Paris, London, New York, and more may follow.
The new Canadian team is led by Toronto-based Andrew Cudmore as General Manager, Canada and Vanessa Brangwyn as Global Head of Customers. They worked together at Achievers and have deep experience in the software industry.
Cudmore was previously Sales Director, Canada, at Medallia, an enterprise experience platform. Brangwyn is an experienced executive and spent 12 years at Achievers. She rose to Chief Customer Officer and Chief Revenue Officer before her departure in December. She previously worked at Eloqua (Oracle) and Infor.
Pigment could also lure staff away from FP&A vendors such as Vena Solutions and Fluence Technologies, both headquartered in the city. It recently hired Aleksi Mattlar as Partner Account Manager and at least two others from Vena Solutions. Pigment already has at least ten employees in Canada. It is looking to expand further with three open positions in Toronto and thirty-six worldwide. It expects to recruit 20 management and commercial field roles in the country, indicating that this is a strategic move.
Andrew Cudmore, General Manager Canada, Pigment, commented, “Business leaders are navigating a melting pot of challenges right now, including economic uncertainty, inflation, workforce management and the fallout from global events. The ability to plan and forecast in a seamless, flexible and collaborative way has never been more critical.”
Pigment hits the ground running in Canada
The firm already has a strong team in the region, and several customers, including Prodigy Education which has leveraged Pigment to reduce data consolidation time in its finance team by 86%. Pigment replaced a manual consolidation process using Google Sheets with integrations to Bamboo HR, NetSuite, Stripe, and others. Minnie Luo, VP of Finance at Prodigy Education, commented, “Over the last two months… we’re already seeing some of the value in time and investment payoffs with Pigment.”
Brangwyn commented, “Expanding into Canada reflects our optimism for the North American market at large. In the midst of rapid change we’re seeing increased demand for modern enterprise planning software that empowers businesses to drive growth responsibly, navigate uncertainty and unlock their full potential.”
This is a clever move by Pigment. Canada has a wealth of technology talent to support its operations across North America. Pigment also offers far more than a finance-centric FP&A solution with a more holistic approach.
With its success in luring staff from rivals, it will be interesting to see how many more case studies it can publish about its Canadian customers, Prodigy appears to be the only case study to date from its customer base in Canada.
Eléonore Crespo, co-CEO, Pigment, commented, “Investing in Canada was a no-brainer for us. Given increased demand in Canada, and a fast-growing US customer footprint, opening the Toronto office ensures we can better support enterprises that want to plan confidently for the future and make better decisions.”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean?
This is a bold move by Pigment, with the Canadian market already teeming with FP&A providers. However, this is more than a tactical move to a new market. Canada offers a wealth of tech talent. Canada has four of North America’s top twenty tech talent markets, with Toronto at number four (Source Invest in Canada).
The Toronto-Waterloo corridor is the largest tech cluster in North America outside of Silicon Valley. Kevin Peesker, President of Microsoft Canada, stated, “Canada is increasingly recognized as a world leader in technology and the investments we make today and in the future will help ensure that Canada continues to be a pillar of innovation.”
With a team that could approach 40 people by the end of the year, Pigment is making a huge play. The question is whether it will self-fund from the Canadian market or look to bolster its expansion across the whole continent. It is also noteworthy that Brangwyn has joined as the Global Head of Customers. It shows the depth of talent and experience in the region. How Brangwyn evolves the Pigment customer success strategy and further sPigment’s community and education will be interesting.
