Palm, a Sweden and Netherlands-based financial technology company, has emerged as a game-changer in the field of enterprise treasury management. With its recent €5.5 million seed funding, led by Speedinvest and Target Global, Palm is poised to redefine how large enterprises manage and optimize their cash flow. The company’s innovative platform leverages advanced AI tools to streamline cash management for treasury teams, offering an all-in-one view of cash flows, automating forecasts, and enabling more informed decision-making.
In this article, we will delve deep into how Palm’s platform is transforming the treasury landscape, the challenges it addresses, the unique approach of its founders, and what the future holds for this promising fintech startup.
1. The Genesis of Palm: Solving Real-World Treasury Challenges
Palm was founded with a mission to revolutionize how enterprises handle their treasury operations. The company’s co-founders, Gurjit Pannu and Christian Sobkowski, bring a wealth of experience from their previous roles at Uber, Levi’s, Remote, and PayPal. They recognized a significant gap in the market for an efficient, scalable, and intelligent solution for cash management.
A Painful Problem for Treasury Teams
Traditional treasury management is often fragmented, relying on multiple legacy systems that are cumbersome to implement and difficult to operate. Treasury teams in large enterprises face daily challenges in juggling numerous accounts across different countries and currencies. The existing tools often fall short in providing a unified view of cash flows, leading to inefficiencies, missed opportunities, and increased operating costs.
Co-Founder and Co-CEO Gurjit Pannu, who previously managed billion-dollar treasuries at Uber and other companies, explains the urgency of the problem:
“Imagine your electricity getting cut off because you didn’t move money to the right account in time. Now imagine that across hundreds of accounts and dozens of countries. That’s the daily challenge for treasury teams.”
Pannu’s frustration with incumbent solutions that failed to deliver meaningful improvements led him and his co-founder, Sobkowski, to build Palm. Their goal was to create a next-generation platform that could provide real-time visibility, automate routine tasks, and enhance decision-making for enterprise treasury teams.
2. Palm’s Innovative Solution: A New Approach to Cash Management
Palm’s platform offers a fresh approach to enterprise treasury management by integrating advanced AI-powered tools to optimize cash flow and reduce operational inefficiencies.
An All-in-One Cash Flow Control Panel
Palm provides a comprehensive control panel that gives treasury teams a holistic view of past and future cash flows across hundreds of bank accounts and local subsidiaries. By aggregating data from disparate systems and providing real-time insights, Palm allows treasurers to make informed decisions about moving money, thereby reducing operating cash balances by over 30%.
One of the platform’s key differentiators is its ability to outperform traditional, human-generated forecasts in 3 out of 4 accounts, thanks to its proprietary AI toolkit. This tool continuously learns and improves its predictions based on historical and current data, ensuring treasury teams always have the most accurate information at their fingertips.
Automated Forecasting with AI Toolkits
The platform’s automated forecasting capabilities are powered by a bespoke AI toolkit tailored to each business account. This toolkit uses machine learning algorithms to analyze patterns in cash flow data and make predictions with increasing accuracy over time. As a result, treasury teams can rely on automated forecasts that improve continuously, reducing the need for manual intervention and minimizing errors.
The AI-powered solution also provides a quicker implementation time compared to legacy systems. According to Palm, the platform can be up and running in weeks rather than months, which significantly reduces the cost and complexity of deployment for large enterprises.
Addressing the Market’s Top Priority: Cash Forecasting
Palm’s focus on cash forecasting addresses a critical need in the market. According to the European Association of Corporate Treasurers’ annual survey, cash forecasting has been the top priority for European treasurers for the past five years. Palm’s solution meets this demand by providing an automated, AI-driven approach that continuously learns and adapts to each enterprise’s unique cash flow patterns.
3. Strategic Vision and Market Opportunity
Palm’s founders, Gurjit Pannu and Christian Sobkowski, are on a mission to guide the world’s money by optimizing how the largest enterprises utilize their resources. Their combined experience in managing treasury functions for major corporations like Uber and Remote has given them a deep understanding of the challenges faced by treasury teams worldwide.
Experienced Founders with a Vision
Gurjit Pannu, responsible for moving $3 billion a month while at Uber, saw firsthand how traditional treasury solutions often fell short. After implementing various incumbent solutions three times without seeing meaningful change, Pannu recognized the need for a more effective platform. His co-founder, Christian Sobkowski, has a track record of launching innovative financial products, such as building Juni’s credit card program from scratch to a $106 million debt raise and expanding PayPal’s lending business across Europe.
Together, they bring a unique combination of hands-on treasury management experience and product development expertise, positioning Palm to effectively address the challenges faced by enterprise treasury teams.
The Growing Demand for AI-Enabled Treasury Tools
As legacy software reaches its end-of-life, there is a growing demand among CFOs for AI-enabled solutions that can keep pace with evolving needs. Olga Shikhantsova, Partner at Speedinvest, emphasizes this point:
“Palm represents the next generation of financial tools disrupting the enterprise CFO stack. As legacy software reaches end-of-life, CFOs are seeking AI-enabled solutions that can keep pace with their evolving needs.”
Palm’s platform is designed to meet this demand by providing a streamlined, automated approach to cash management that can scale with enterprise needs.
4. The Recent Seed Funding Round and Future Plans
Palm recently announced a €5.5 million seed funding round led by Speedinvest and Target Global, with participation from Upfin, Liquid2, Greens, and notable angel investors, including Job van der Voort (Founder & CEO, Remote) and Philippe Teixeira da Mota (former Hedosophia partner). This funding will enable Palm to accelerate its growth, expand its team, and strengthen its market presence.
Expanding the Team and Building the Financial Tissue Layer
Palm plans to use the new funding to expand its team, particularly in product, engineering, and go-to-market functions. This growth is designed to help Palm build the “financial tissue layer” for global enterprises — a term that reflects the company’s vision of seamlessly connecting and optimizing the flow of money across large organizations.
By growing its team, Palm aims to forge more partnerships with large consultancies and continue its expansion across Europe, the UK, and the US. This strategic focus will enable Palm to establish itself as a leader in the rapidly evolving field of enterprise treasury management.
Leveraging Strategic Partnerships
Partnerships will play a crucial role in Palm’s growth strategy. By collaborating with large consultancies and financial institutions, Palm can leverage their networks and expertise to reach more clients and enhance its platform’s capabilities. These partnerships will help Palm expand its footprint across Europe and North America, positioning it for further growth in other regions.
5. Why Palm is Poised for Success: Market Insights and Competitive Advantage
Several factors set Palm apart from traditional treasury management solutions and position it for success in the market:
Addressing a Critical Market Need
Palm’s platform directly addresses the most pressing challenge faced by treasury teams — accurate cash forecasting. The company’s AI-driven approach to cash management is well-aligned with market demands, particularly in Europe, where cash forecasting has been a top priority for treasurers for several years.
Speed and Ease of Implementation
One of Palm’s key advantages over legacy systems is its speed of implementation. Traditional solutions often require months of setup and customization, while Palm’s platform can be operational within weeks. This reduces costs and minimizes disruption for enterprise clients, making it an attractive option for CFOs looking to modernize their treasury operations quickly.
AI-Driven Innovation and Continuous Improvement
Palm’s use of AI and machine learning to automate forecasting and optimize cash flow sets it apart from traditional treasury management solutions. The platform’s ability to continuously learn and improve its accuracy means that it gets better over time, delivering more value to its users. This AI-driven innovation positions Palm at the forefront of the shift towards smarter, more efficient treasury tools.
6. Challenges and the Path Forward
While Palm is well-positioned for growth, it also faces challenges that it must navigate to achieve its full potential.
Scaling Operations Across Multiple Markets
Expanding into new markets, particularly in regions like the US, comes with its own set of challenges, including regulatory compliance, local market dynamics, and competitive pressures. Palm will need to adapt its platform to meet the specific needs of different markets while maintaining its core value proposition.
Maintaining Competitive Edge
As more fintech companies enter the treasury management space, Palm will need to continually innovate to maintain its competitive edge. This will require ongoing investment in research and development, as well as a focus on customer feedback to ensure that the platform evolves in line with user needs.
Building a Strong Brand and Market Presence
To succeed in a crowded market, Palm must establish a strong brand and market presence. This will involve targeted marketing efforts, thought leadership, and leveraging the networks of its investors and partners to build credibility and trust with potential clients.
Palm’s Vision for the Future
Palm is on a mission to transform enterprise treasury management by providing an intelligent, AI-driven platform that simplifies cash flow management and enhances decision-making. With its recent funding round, the company is well-positioned to expand its team, forge strategic partnerships, and accelerate its growth across Europe, the UK, and the US.
By addressing a critical market need and leveraging cutting-edge technology, Palm has the potential to become a leader in the enterprise treasury space. However, its success will depend on its ability to navigate challenges, maintain its competitive edge, and build a strong brand in a rapidly evolving market.
As Palm continues to innovate and expand, it offers a compelling vision of the future of treasury management — one where AI-powered tools enable enterprises to optimize their resources, reduce costs, and operate more efficiently in an increasingly complex financial landscape.