Confido raises USD $55 million in Insight-led Series B

Confido has raised USD $55 million in a Series B round led by Insight Partners, bringing the software company's total funding to USD $77 million.

The round also included Trenches Capital, Watchfire and Barrel Ventures, alongside returning investors Footwork and Y Combinator. Footwork and Y Combinator have now backed Confido in three consecutive rounds.

Confido sells software for consumer packaged goods brands that combines finance, accounting, sales and operations data in one system. More than 250 brands, including Daisy, Dude Wipes, Kettle & Fire and Unilever, use the platform, with more than USD $30 billion in retail sales planning running through it.

The New York-based company was founded in 2022 by Justin Hunter and Kara Holinski. It targets a part of the consumer brand back office often managed across separate systems for deductions, trade spend, forecasting and operational planning.

Consumer brands are under pressure to protect margins while managing increasingly complex commercial operations. That has increased demand for tools that link planning, finance and operational workflows more closely across a business.

Its software automates parts of deduction resolution, planning and financial analysis, while leaving decisions that require human judgement to staff. Confido argues that fragmented legacy software in the sector has created inefficiencies that hurt profitability and growth.

The funding follows a period of rapid expansion. Since its Series A round, Confido said it has recorded fivefold year-on-year growth and a fivefold increase in valuation.

The new capital will go toward product development, expansion in food service and hiring across product, engineering and go-to-market roles. Demand from consumer brands has continued to rise, the company said.

One customer cited forecasting and operational visibility as reasons for adopting the software.

"Confido has been instrumental for us," said Gary Hilderbrand, Chief Financial Officer, MUSH.

"It's given us the visibility and insights we need to have confidence in our forecast, improve accuracy across finance and operations, and ultimately make better decisions," Hilderbrand said.

Investor view

Insight Partners said Confido's pitch rests on giving consumer brands cleaner data and closer alignment between commercial functions. The investor, which has built a large software portfolio, views margin management as a central issue for the sector.

"Leading consumer brands are laser-focused on each incremental point of margin. That requires data you can actually trust and every part of the commercial operation moving in sync," said Rebecca Liu-Doyle, Managing Director, Insight Partners.

"Confido makes this possible with an AI-powered system that brings finance, sales, and trade operations into a single platform. We are thrilled to partner with Justin, Kara, and the Confido team as they scale," Liu-Doyle said.

Other existing investors also pointed to execution and the size of the market opportunity. Consumer packaged goods remains one of the largest categories in retail, yet much of its back-office software is still fragmented across specialist tools.

"You don't back a team three times on a story. You back them on results," said Larry Fitzgerald Jr., Co-Founder, Trenches Capital and Confido investor.

"The teams that win are built so every part works as one system, and that is what protects a brand's margin. Margin is what gives growth room to run," Fitzgerald said.

Footwork framed its bet in terms of a large software market that has yet to produce a dominant provider.

"CPG is a $2.5 trillion category, and the software to run it is a $100 billion-plus market that no company had ever claimed," said Mike Smith, Co-Founder and General Partner, Footwork.

"We backed Confido during the Series A because they understood the back office better than anyone. We're back because they're now building the platform that the whole category can run on," Smith said.

Hunter set out the company's position more sharply as it seeks a larger share of spending by consumer brands.

"For decades, CPG software recorded the work but never did it. We built Confido to run it," said Justin Hunter, Co-Founder and CEO, Confido.

"CPG is a game of margins. You cannot run a sharp brand without software this powerful. The brands that matter already run on Confido - the rest will spend years explaining why they didn't," Hunter said.