TCV, Blackstone back startup Pennylane at $4.25B value

Pennylane, a French startup that sells accounting software, has raised €175 million ($204 million) in a funding round led by growth equity investor TCV. 

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Blackstone Inc. is also participating in the round, alongside existing investors Sequoia Capital, DST Global, CapitalG and Meritech, Pennylane said in a statement on Tuesday.

The funding round will value the company at about $4.25 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter, confirming a Bloomberg report last year. With the new capital, the company will invest in additional research and development, including building AI assistants that help accounts analyze data and adapting the product to meet rules and regulations in Germany, a market the company recently entered.

“We had no immediate need for funding, but the opportunity to partner with investors like TCV and Blackstone with low dilution was a strategic advantage,” Arthur Waller, co-founder and chief executive officer, said in the statement. 

The round will make Pennylane one of the most valuable startups in France, alongside standouts such as Mistral AI and Doctolib. Founded in 2020, the accounting startup offers a range of bookkeeping tools for businesses in a single online dashboard, competing with Intuit Inc., Xero Ltd. and a number of newcomers. Pennylane is part of an emerging class of European startups that is growing as officials and corporate leaders on the continent become increasingly wary of relying on American tech.