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    French fintech Pennylane doubles valuation to $2.2 billion as Alphabet’s venture capital arm takes stake

    Accounting software startup Pennylane has raised 75 million euros in a new funding round led by Sequoia Capital.
    The round, which was also backed by Alphabet’s CapitalG, values the five-year-old startup at 2 billion euros — doubling from last year.
    Pennylane plans to use the fresh cash to expand its services across Europe, starting with Germany in the summer.

    Seksan Mongkhonkhamsao | Moment | Getty Images

    French accounting software firm Pennylane has doubled its valuation to 2 billion euros ($2.16 billion) in a new 75 million euro funding round.
    Pennylane told CNBC that it raised the fresh funds from a host of venture funds, with Sequoia Capital leading the round and Alphabet’s CapitalG, Meritech and DST Global also participating.

    Founded in 2020, Pennylane sells what it calls an “all-in-one” accounting platform that’s used by accountants and other financial professionals.
    The platform is primarily targeted toward small to medium-sized firms, offering tools for functions spanning expensing, invoicing, cash flow management and financial forecasting.

    “We came in tailoring a product that looks a bit like [Intuit’s] QuickBooks or Xero but adapting it to the needs of continental accountants, starting with France,” Pennylane’s CEO and co-founder Arthur Waller told CNBC.
    Pennylane currently serves around 4,500 accounting firms and more than 350,000 small and medium-sized enterprises. The startup was previously valued at 1 billion euros in a 2024 investment round.

    European expansion

    For now, Pennylane only operates in France. However, after the new fundraise, the startup now plans to expand its services across Europe — starting with Germany in the summer.

    “It’s going to be a lot of work. It took us approximately five years to have a product mature in France,” Waller said, adding that he hopes to reach product maturity in Germany in a shorter time period of two years.
    Pennylane plans to end the year on about 100 million euros of annual recurring revenue — a measure of annual revenue generated from subscriptions that renew each year.

    “We are going to get breakeven by end of the year,” Waller said, adding that Pennylane runs on lower customer acquisition costs than other fintechs. “75% of our costs are R&D [research and development],” he added.
    Pennylane also plans to boost hiring after the new funding round. It is looking to grow to 800 employees by the end of 2025, up from 550 currently.

    ‘Co-pilot’ for accountants

    Like many other fintechs, Pennylane is embracing artificial intelligence. Waller said the startup is using the technology to help clients automate bookkeeping and free up time for other things like advisory services.
    “Because we have a modern tech stack, we’re able to embed all kinds of AI, but also GenAI, into the product,” Waller told CNBC. “We’re really trying to build a ‘co-pilot’ for the accountant.”

    He added that new electronic invoicing regulations coming into force across Europe are pushing more and more firms to consider new digital products to serve their accounting needs.
    “Every business in France within a year from now will have to chose a product operator to issue and receive invoices,” Waller said, calling e-invoicing a “huge market.”
    Luciana Lixandru, a partner at Sequoia who sits on the board of Pennylane, said the reforms represent a “massive market opportunity” as the accounting industry is still catching up in terms of digitization.
    “The reality is the market is very fragmented,” Lixandru told CNBC via email. “In each country there are one or two decades-old incumbents, and few options that serve both SMBs and their accountants.” More

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    Will Trump’s trade war cause a global recession?

    IN ITS SCOPE and severity, the trade war took markets by surprise. On April 3rd, the day after President Donald Trump laid out an unprecedented array of tariffs, the Russell 3000, one of the broadest measures of the American stockmarket, fell by 5%. It then fell by 6% on April 4th, when China announced that it would strike back with a duty of 34% on all American goods. Market pricing in a range of asset classes tells a worrying story: investors are expecting a severe economic slowdown. More

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    Trump’s trade war threatens a global recession

    IN ITS SCOPE and severity, the trade war took markets by surprise. On April 3rd, the day after President Donald Trump laid out an unprecedented array of tariffs, the Russell 3000, one of the broadest measures of the American stockmarket, fell by 5%. It then fell by 6% on April 4th, when China announced that it would strike back with a duty of 34% on all American goods. Market pricing in a range of asset classes tells a worrying story: investors are expecting a severe economic slowdown. More

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    Trump has exposed America’s world-leading firms to retaliation

    IN DONALD TRUMP’S view of global trade, America has been “looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far”. Ironically enough, customers near and far who avail themselves of the services of America’s banking, consulting and tech giants sometimes talk in similar terms. For foreign officials thinking about how to retaliate against Mr Trump’s tariffs, this points to an obvious target: imports of expensive American services. More

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    Five crazy Trump tariffs you wouldn’t believe 

    DONALD TRUMP’S tariff announcement on April 2nd has drawn mockery for its spurious maths. Any bilateral trade deficit is treated as gross unfairness; the tariffs are set by taking the measure as a share of goods imported from each country, and halving it. But there are other oddities too, from the fact that the tariff rates appear to be calculated for places with an internet domain name to the fact that they are based on a single year of data. The starkest demonstration of the absurdity of the tariffs is to look at the bizarre outcomes they produce. Here is our list of the five craziest duties. More

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    Here’s why ‘dead’ investors outperform the living

    The average investor would have better investment results by doing nothing.
    Investors often have bad habits that cause them to buy high and sell low.
    Buying and holding investments like all-in-one funds that automate tasks like rebalancing is a good bet for investors, experts said.

    Andrew Fox | The Image Bank | Getty Images

    “Dead” investors often beat the living — at least, when it comes to investment returns.
    A “dead” investor refers to an inactive trader who adopts a “buy and hold” investment strategy. This often leads to better returns than active trading, which generally incurs higher costs and taxes and stems from impulsive, emotional decision-making, experts said.

    Doing nothing, it turns out, generally yields better results for the average investor than taking a more active role in one’s portfolio, according to investment experts.
    The “biggest threat” to investor returns is human behavior, not government policy or company actions, said Brad Klontz, a certified financial planner and financial psychologist.
    “It’s them selling [investments] when they’re in a panic state, and conversely, buying when they’re all excited,” said Klontz, the managing principal of YMW Advisors in Boulder, Colorado, and a member of CNBC’s Advisor Council.
    “We are our own worst enemy, and it’s why dead investors outperform the living,” he said.

    Why returns fall short

    Dead investors continue to “own” their stocks through ups and downs.

    Historically, stocks have always recovered after a downturn — and have gone on to reach new heights every single time, Klontz said.
    Data shows how detrimental bad habits can be relative to the buy-and-hold investor.
    The average stock investor’s return lagged the S&P 500 stock index by 5.5 percentage points in 2023, according to DALBAR, which conducts an annual investor behavior study. (The average investor earned about 21% while the S&P 500 returned 26%, DALBAR said.)
    The theme plays out over longer time horizons, too.

    The average U.S. mutual fund and exchange-traded fund investor earned 6.3% per year during the decade from 2014 to 2023, according to Morningstar. However, the average fund had a 7.3% total return over that period, it found.
    That gap is “significant,” wrote Jeffrey Ptak, managing director for Morningstar Research Services.
    It means investors lost out on about 15% of the returns their funds generated over 10 years, he wrote. That gap is consistent with returns from earlier periods, he said.
    “If you buy high and sell low, your return will lag the buy-and-hold return,” Ptak wrote. “That’s why your return fell short.”

    Wired to run with the herd

    Emotional impulses to sell during downturns or buy into certain categories when they’re peaking (think meme stocks, crypto or gold) make sense when considering human evolution, experts said.
    “We’re wired to actually run with the herd,” Klontz said. “Our approach to investing is actually psychologically the absolute wrong way to invest, but we’re wired to do it that way.”
    Market moves can also trigger a fight-or-flight response, said Barry Ritholtz, the chairman and chief investment officer of Ritholtz Wealth Management.
    More from Personal Finance:Investors will be ‘miles ahead’ if they avoid these 3 thingsStock volatility poses an ‘opportunity’How investors can ready their portfolios for a recession
    “We evolved to survive and adapt on the savanna, and our intuition … wants us to make an immediate emotional response,” Ritholtz said. “That immediate response never has a good outcome in the financial markets.”
    These behavioral mistakes can add up to major losses, experts say.
    Consider a $10,000 investment in the S&P 500 from 2005 through 2024.
    A buy-and-hold investor would have had almost $72,000 at the end of those 20 years, for a 10.4% average annual return, according to J.P. Morgan Asset Management. Meanwhile, missing the 10 best days in the market during that period would have more than halved the total, to $33,000, it found. So, by missing the best 20 days, an investor would have just $20,000.

    Buy-and-hold doesn’t mean ‘do nothing’

    Of course, investors shouldn’t actually do nothing.
    Financial advisors often recommend basic steps like reviewing one’s asset allocation (ensuring it aligns with investment horizon and goals) and periodically rebalancing to maintain that mix of stocks and bonds.
    There are funds that can automate these tasks for investors, like balanced funds and target-date funds.

    These “all-in-one” funds are widely diversified and take care of “mundane” tasks like rebalancing, Ptak wrote. They require less transacting on investors’ part — and limiting transactions is a general key to success, he said.
    “Less is more,” Ptak wrote.
    (Experts do offer some caution: Be careful about holding such funds in non-retirement accounts for tax reasons.)
    Routine also helps, according to Ptak. That means automating saving and investing to the extent possible, he wrote. Contributing to a 401(k) plan is a good example, he said, since workers make contributions each payroll period without thinking about it. More

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    Automakers seek ‘opportunity in the chaos’ of Trump’s tariffs

    Some automakers are trying to capitalize on the moment amid the tariffs, industry analysts told CNBC.
    Ford and Stellantis are offering employee-pricing programs, while Hyundai Motor said it would not raise prices for at least two months to ease consumer concerns.
    Automakers view the actions as a way to get vehicles off their lots and maintain or increase sales amid uncertain market conditions due to the tariffs.

    Trucks are shown from a drone view after clearing U.S. Customs and entering the United States from Tijuana along the U.S. Mexico border at Otay Mesa port in San Diego, California, U.S. April 2, 2025. 
    Mike Blake | Reuters

    DETROIT — As President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on imported vehicles were set to take effect, executives at Ford Motor scrambled to figure out how to respond to the new levies.
    While they and their industry counterparts are still trying to navigate the impacts, Ford decided to move quickly in one area by offering an employee pricing program — called “From America, For America” — for U.S. consumers.

    Such programs have historically been controversial, as they sell vehicles close to or lower than invoice prices for dealers and eat away at already tight profit margins for the retailers. But Ford decided the time was right to launch the program to promote its U.S. operations — the largest among automakers — and assist sales amid consumer concerns and economic uncertainty due to Trump’s tariffs.
    “We understand that these are uncertain times for many Americans. Whether it’s navigating the complexities of a changing economy or simply needing a reliable vehicle for your family, we want to help,” Ford said in a statement Thursday morning announcing the program. “We have the retail inventory to do this and a lot of choice for customers that need a vehicle.”
    It’s an example of how some automakers are attempting to find “opportunity in the chaos” or trying to “capitalize on the moment” amid the tariffs, as several industry analysts told CNBC.

    Read more CNBC auto news

    “I absolutely love it. I think it’s going to drive sales,” said Ford dealer Marc McEver, owner of Olathe Ford Lincoln near Kansas City, Kansas. “It’s really exciting to see Ford step up and take the lead on this program. I think it’s a great play. … It’s truly a real deal for the customer.”
    Ford, which is helping retailers financially with the program, told dealers about it a day ahead of the tariffs taking effect Thursday. It publicly announced the new program — which runs through June 30 — hours after the levies began.

    Heading into the tariffs, Ford also was largely viewed by Wall Street analysts as being one of the best-positioned automakers because of its large U.S. production footprint, specifically for trucks.
    Ford’s stock fared better than its rivals this week, closing the week down by 1.4%. That compares with Chrysler parent Stellantis losing 14.2% and General Motors dropping 5.4% for the week.

    Stock chart icon

    Auto stocks

    Others are following Ford’s strategy, which also is assisted by vehicle prices and profits being higher since the Covid pandemic. Crosstown rival Stellantis on Friday announced a similar employee-pricing program, while Hyundai Motor said it would not raise prices for at least two months to ease consumer concerns.
    “It makes sense that they would try to capitalize on the moment,” said Erin Keating, executive analyst at Cox Automotive.
    Keating points out that with Ford and Stellantis — the latter of which is based in Europe but has major operations and brands in the U.S. — it’s a reminder to consumers that they’re “domestic” companies. The automakers also have inventory, including older models, that they need to sell to make way for newer vehicles.
    “Making room for those new vehicles to come into the showroom and trying to maintain that market share makes a lot of sense,” Keating said. “Anyone who’s able to beat the price out there right now, with the level of demand, is going to be able to hold on to their market share longer than others, and perhaps capture something from those that aren’t willing to meet the customer where they are right now.”
    Ford and Stellantis brands such as Ram Trucks and Jeep have among the highest days’ supply of vehicle inventories in the automotive industry, according to Cox Automotive.
    The two companies also were among the only major automakers this week to report notable drops in first-quarter vehicle sales. Stellantis was off roughly 12%, while Ford was down 1.3% from a year earlier.
    Cox reports the national days’ supply vehicle average was 89 days, while those brands were between 110 days and 130 days. The auto industry has historically considered a healthy days’ supply to be between 60 days to 80 days.
    In light of the tariffs and fears for potential price increases, demand for vehicles has been high. Consumers flocked to dealer showrooms at the end of last month as Trump confirmed the tariffs would be coming, leading to significant sales gains for many automakers.

    A Ford Raptor pickup truck is displayed for sale at a Ford dealership on August 21, 2024 in Glendale, California. 
    Mario Tama | Getty Images

    Cox Automotive estimated new-vehicle sales in March hit 1.59 million units sold, significantly exceeding its forecast and marking the best month for sales volume in four years.
    “The last week, and including this past weekend, was by far the best weekend that I’ve seen in a very long time,” Hyundai Motor North America CEO Randy Parker said Tuesday during a media call. “I’ve been doing this now for a very, very long time. So, lots of people, I think, rushed in this weekend, especially, to try and beat the tariffs.”
    Selling now because future sales aren’t guaranteed also could assist if there’s a U.S. recession. J.P. Morgan on Friday raised its odds for a U.S. and global recession from a 40% chance to 60% chance by the end of the year.
    “Because the demand is there right now, it makes sense [to offer consumer incentives] because everyone’s saying, ‘Gotta go get it now,’ might as well go ahead and reap the benefits now in case we do go into a recession,” Keating said. More

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    Tariffs will drive up the cost of airplanes, the United States’ star export

    Tariffs would drive up costs of key aerospace parts, making it more expensive for Boeing and even foreign companies with U.S. factories to produce planes.
    The tariffs are set to hit an aerospace supply chain still in recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
    The duties would also upend nearly half a century of mostly duty-free aerospace trade.

    The production line for the Boeing P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft is pictured at Boeing’s 737 factory in Renton, Washington, November 18, 2021.
    Jason Redmond | Reuters

    President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs are set to drive up the cost of Boeing and Airbus planes, GE Aerospace engines, and hundreds of other aerospace and defense products, threatening an industry that helps soften the U.S. trade deficit by more than $100 billion a year.
    “It certainly makes things more expensive for the industry,” Dak Hardwick, vice president of international affairs at the Aerospace Industries Association, which represents Boeing, GE Aerospace, Airbus and dozens of other aerospace and defense companies, said of the tariffs.

    The industry group said it is asking the Trump administration to uphold provisions in a nearly half-century old trade agreement that allows for duty-free trade of civilian aircraft and imports tied to defense and national security.
    “The line is certainly long” for requests to the White House, Hardwick said.

    Read more CNBC airline news

    Trump’s executive order announcing the tariffs said trade and economic policies around the world have exacerbated a decline in overall U.S. manufacturing.
    Regarding innovation in the defense sector, the order stated, “If the United States wishes to maintain an effective security umbrella to defend its citizens and homeland, as well as for its allies and partners, it needs to have a large upstream manufacturing and goods-producing ecosystem to manufacture these products without undue reliance on imports for key inputs.”
    The aerospace industry has long been a top exporter for the United States. At Boeing alone, more than two-thirds of its airplane orders over the past decade came from customers outside of the United States, according to company data.

    “Free trade is very important to us,” Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said at a Senate hearing Wednesday. “We really are the ideal kind of an export company where we’re outselling internationally. It’s creating U.S. jobs, long-term high value U.S. jobs. So it’s important that we continue to have access to that market and that we don’t get in a situation where certain markets become closed to us.”

    President and CEO of Boeing Kelly Ortberg testifies before the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on April 02, 2025 in Washington, DC. 
    Win Mcnamee | Getty Images News | Getty Images

    The industry has mostly bought and sold planes and parts without having to pay tariffs under a 45-year-old trade agreement, which would be derailed by Trump’s new tariffs. The president this week introduced levies of 10% on countries around the world, with higher duties on certain countries and regions, some of which like Europe, are key to the aerospace industry.
    Imported steel and aluminum, other key materials in airplanes, are subject to separate sector-level duties that Trump announced earlier this year.
    “President Trump has been clear: if you make your product in America, you won’t have to worry about tariffs,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in an email.
    Tariffs are paid by the importer, and the increased prices due to the levies would either have to be absorbed by the airplane or engine maker, by the still-fragile supply chain or by the end consumer, said Hardwick.
    Jefferies analyst Sheila Kahyaoglu said in a note Thursday that a price jump on “any product within 12 months is eaten by the [original equipment manufacturer], assuming new inventory buy. Outside that time period, ultimately the buyer and hence consumer.”

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    Boeing and the S&P 500

    Prices for planes are negotiated in advance, and airlines have to often wait years for aircraft, so material costs can shift dramatically over that period.
    “This is not where you put money down for an automobile and it ends up in your driveway” in three months, Hardwick said.
    Shares of Boeing, engine maker GE and airlines tumbled again Friday, adding to the market rout after Trump announced the tariffs Wednesday.
    “This is the one manufacturing sector where America has, has enjoyed a tremendous trade surplus,” said Richard Aboulafia, managing director at AeroDynamic Advisory. “So the idea of fighting a trade war for this industry, it’s living in a crystal palace hurling giant boulders.”

    Global supply chain

    The tariffs are also a new strain on the aerospace industry, which still has a fragile supply chain in the wake of Covid, with some parts in short supply. Major supplies have tried to quickly hire workers and ramp up production during a post-pandemic travel boom.
    But airplane makers still haven’t kept up with demand.

    An Airbus SE A321 plane fuselage is lifted with a crane at the company’s final assembly line facility in Mobile, Alabama
    Luke Sharrett | Bloomberg | Getty Images

    Even a “Made in the USA” label for an airplane is a misnomer.
    For example, the supply chain for a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which is assembled in South Carolina, spans from Japan to Italy.
    Its European rival, Airbus, has a Mobile, Alabama, factory but is still on the hook for tariffs for imported parts, from wings to fuselages.
    “It doesn’t matter who owns the company. If an item crosses the border, it will have to be paid by importer of record,” Hardwick said.
    Airbus has expanded the factory since the first Alabama-assembled Airbus A321, an aircraft for JetBlue Airways named “BluesMobile,” rolled out nine years ago. Its bet on increasing U.S. output of its jets, which are still largely made in Europe, also includes assembly of smaller A220s in Alabama, for customers that include JetBlue and Delta Air Lines.

    American Airlines workers perform maintenance on CFM-56 engine in Tulsa, Oklahoma
    Erin Black | CNBC

    Meanwhile, continuing along the supply chain, General Electric and France’s Safran have a joint venture in which they make top-selling CFM engines, which power both Boeing and Airbus narrow-body jets. Each company manufactures certain portions of engines, which are sent to factories in Ohio, Indiana and North Carolina for GE and outside of Paris for Safran.
    Thousands of imported replacement parts for engines and other aircraft parts, many of which come from abroad, could also become more expensive.
    “There’s no such thing as a national jet,” Aboulafia said.

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