Pennylane has reportedly raised €40M from Sequoia Capital and other investors, reflecting steady growth over the past two years.
The company is also reporting a significant increase in the number of VSE-SMEs on its platform in 24 months thanks to the adoption of the tool “by more than 2,000 accounting firms who have brought their clients on board.”
Pennylane claims that it “stands out for its business model: the fintech charges accounting firms for its accounting production tool, while generating additional revenue when firms equip their clients with the all-in-one management tool including an account. pro.”
These funds raised will allow Pennylane to accelerate “the development of its various modules, to invest massively in artificial intelligence for accountants and to adopt an external growth strategy with companies with complementary know-how.”
Since its creation in 2020, Pennylane has established itself “as a key player in the evolution of the sector, committed to promoting the role of accountants rather than advocating total automation of accounting.”
Convinced that business leaders are looking for sound advice and a trusted partner, Pennylane has quickly won “the support of accounting professionals” thanks to three major advantages:
First of all, the considerable time savings it offers, from “capturing flows and invoices to preparing financial statements, thus freeing accountants from time-consuming tasks.” Then, the significant increase in visibility of its finances and “the peace of mind resulting from the use of Pennylane by the firms’ corporate clients.”
Finally, Pennylane allows the accountant “to fully play his role as a trusted third party to managers.” Technology, a key factor in the recognition and growth of “the chartered accountant profession.” Pennylane already allows accounting professionals “to generate significant productivity gains, but also to ensure the reliability of data collected in real time.”
Accounting firms thus save on average 15% of time per file “thanks to automation, from data recovery to tax declarations through automation of lettering.”
The company now wants to go even further “by bringing all the innovations enabled by AI to accounting professionals, to enable them to focus more on the analysis and restitution of high value-added data.”
A chatbot specific to the accounting field will “be set up, allowing rapid and efficient restitution of customer management data.”
At the same time, an opportunity center is “envisaged to proactively detect the specific advice needs of each client, thus promoting more targeted and relevant accounting action.”
In addition, Pennylane wants to help employees accustomed to data entry move toward support and reporting missions, by “augmenting” them using artificial intelligence.
Arthur Waller, CEO and co-founder of Pennylane, said:
“This fundraising comes at a time when Pennylane is experiencing exceptional growth, multiplying the number of its customers 40-fold in two years. We were not looking for funding, but we wanted to seize the opportunity again to go even faster. It indeed appears essential that accountants be 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.”
