How French Fintech Pennylane Reached Unicorn Status

Paris-based fintech Pennylane has closed its Series C funding round, raising US$43m courtesy of Sequoia Capital and DST Global.

In doing so, the startup has reached a valuation of US$1bn, becoming France’s latest unicorn. 

It comes following a period of particularly strong growth for Pennylane, which has multiplied by 40 the number of SMEs using its platform over the past two years, thanks in large part to more than 2,000 accounting firms bringing their clients on board. 

“We weren’t looking for funding, but we wanted to seize the opportunity again to go even faster,” says Arthur Waller, Co-Founder and CEO at Pennylane.

“It appears essential that accountants are equipped with a complete tool in order to be armed against neobanks and online accounting solutions which claim to purely and simply replace an entire profession.

“One year after the last round of funding, this fundraising will allow us to further support accounting firms in their transition to automation and the adoption of new technologies. This includes reorienting their missions towards consulting, updating the skills of their employees and attracting young talents. 

“We also plan to expand the capabilities of our platform by adopting an external growth strategy over the next five years.”

Pennylane becomes a key player

Since its creation in 2020, Pennylane has established itself as a key player in the evolution of the accountancy and fintech sector, promoting the role of accountants rather than advocating total automation.

The fintech stands out thanks to its business model, charging accounting firms for its accounting production tool, while generating additional revenue when they equip clients with the all-in-one management tool.

Pennylane has quickly won the support of accounting professionals thanks to three major advantages:

• Considerable time savings, from capturing flows and invoices to preparing financial statements, thus freeing up accountants from time-consuming tasks
• Significant increase in visibility of finances and the peace of mind resulting from the use of Pennylane by a firms' corporate clients
• Allows accountants to fully play their part as a trusted third-party to managers

Funding success continues

Pennylane has already enjoyed numerous significant funding rounds, beginning with a US$4.3m seed round in 2020 and including a huge US$57m Series B fundraiser in 2022.

Investors have been attracted to Pennylane due to its laser focus on replacing what it sees as outdated accounting solutions, modernising users’ operations in the process. 

The latest cash injection allows the organisation to accelerate development of its various modules, invest heavily in AI for accountants and adopt an external growth strategy alongside companies with the necessary know-how. 

Already, Pennylane helps accounting professionals generate significant productivity gains and ensure the reliability of data collected in real time. Firms thus make average time savings of 15% per file thanks to automation, from data recovery and tax declarations to automation of lettering.

The business is now looking to go even further by bringing innovations enabled by AI to accounting professionals, enabling them to focus more on the analysis and restitution of high value-added data.

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