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199. Bull, Bear & Beyond – Pimberly: executive interview
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In this interview, we speak with Martin Balaam, CEO and founder of Pimberly, the privately held, UK-based software as a service provider of product information management and digital asset management (DAM) solutions. Pimberly helps brands consolidate and automate complex product data workflows, becoming a deeply embedded ‘single source of truth’ across ERP, product lifestyle management and e commerce channels – driving high stickiness and low churn.
Balaam outlines the company’s expansion into the US, now representing 25% of its customer base, and discusses how Pimberly is extending its DAM capabilities to replace standalone tools typically used by digital teams. He also highlights the role of AI in automating product enrichment and preparing data for LLM driven, agent-based purchasing – an increasingly important shift, particularly in B2B. Financially, Pimberly continues to deliver strong annual recurring revenue growth, supported by targeted sector focus and expansion within existing customers. Balaam sees future opportunities for raising growth capital on public markets once conditions align.
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About ‘Bull, Bear & Beyond’
Bull, Bear & Beyond': features candid conversations with senior executives and from our own team of experts from across industries, exploring strategy, innovation, and the opportunities shaping their markets and 60-second pieces are a compressed summary of content designed to convey our message in a single, easily shareable hit.
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Transcript
Introduction to Pimberley and Global SaaS Focus
00:00:07
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Edison TV. Today I'm joined by Martin Ballam, who is founder and chief exec at Pimberley. Pimberley is a UK SaaS business focused on product information management and digital asset management and management software, which it sells globally.
00:00:25
Speaker
Martin, many thanks for joining me today. Thanks for having me on. and Can you start by introducing Pimberley and in particular, what you actually do for your customers?
00:00:35
Speaker
Yeah, so as you say, we're a B2B SaaS business um based out of Manchester, founded in Manchester, but expanded into the US. and We manage product information for um pretty much any anybody that sells physical products, whether to businesses or to consumers. And essentially, the problem we're solving is that um To get um ah all the product information, whether that be structured or unstructured, so images, videos, manuals, etc.
00:01:06
Speaker
um usually takes a lot of effort. It's in a lot of different silos. There's potentially a lot of regulation around it as well. And also when you're selling to multi-geos with different languages, different sectors, etc. It's a huge sort of manual shift. And so what we do is become this single source of truth and automate a lot of that product ah data and management and pushing it out to where it needs to be. so fundamentally allowing customers to massively speed up the time to market and make it super efficient to expand into new geographies and new
Customer Base and Platform Integration Benefits
00:01:38
Speaker
sectors.
00:01:38
Speaker
So who are your typical customers and um you know why do they deploy Pimbley software? and And once they're on the platform, why why do they remain on the platform throughout a longer journey?
00:01:51
Speaker
Yeah, so our typical customers would fit into two key buckets. There'd be those B2B customers um that have highly complex products, usually with lots of um ah complex attribution and complex conditionality that link the two. So imagine sort of parts and so automotive parts and automotive. and You've all also got your standard sort B2B e-commerce customers that usually have you know thousands if not up to millions of ah products that they're selling. They've got high um ah volumes of churn each year from season to season. um
00:02:34
Speaker
In terms of how we sell to customers, um usually we're looking at those customers that are ah expanding rapidly um or have a digital transformation um as a core strategy. um and And usually what we find is that there if they will be struggling with product data and then it's to be able to talk to them about you know the the journey. and Ultimately, you know how are they wanting to ah access their end user and end customers?
00:03:07
Speaker
and And more often than not, everybody's talking about that's in some form of a digitized way. um And that then would cascade into an understanding as to how efficient and how well they could actually execute on their new strategy if they had a product like ah a PIM solution.
00:03:26
Speaker
And you've got a nice recurring revenue profile. What makes your customers, what makes the product sticky? you know Why do they stick with you on the platform? Yeah, so we tend to be very embedded in their existing processes and systems. So we'll be used by multiple departments um and usually we'll be interfacing with the core downstream systems like their ERP, like their product lifecycle management systems, and also interfacing with the upstream sales systems. Everybody thinks of websites, but it could be portals. It could be all sorts of different things. And um we're basically um connecting all those dots, creating this central source of truth and optimizing that product data for wherever that needs to be going and and making that journey super easy and super seamless for them.
00:04:19
Speaker
And um you've recently introduced i guess a standalone digital asset management product.
Expansion in Digital Asset Management and US Market
00:04:25
Speaker
Can you um can you explain firstly the difference between the the product information management and the digital asset management software and then discuss um the opportunity that the the new product opens up for you?
00:04:38
Speaker
Yeah, um so wait when you talk about product information, um you can't just talk about structured data, you know, like dimensions, weight, descriptions, etc. um it It has to include all the unstructured data like images, videos, documentation, etc. Certification. um And within Pimberley, we've always had a digital asset management capability from the outset. um However, we were never focused on the digital departments that ultimately had the ah requirement to create those digital assets. And so what we've found is that a lot of our customers, most of our customers already will have a a standalone digital asset management platform. um as well as adopting a PIM and and like Pimberley with a DAM. And so we've been working with our customers to expand the functionality of our DAM so that we can move into their digital department and allow them to basically and remove that additional sort of layer of complexity by having a standalone DAM.
00:05:44
Speaker
Right. And the U.S. is is is a significant opportunity for the business. You've invested into that opportunity. I mean, we often see this as a huge opportunity opportunity, but actually scaling scaling is the challenge, right? um Can you discuss how you are addressing your U.S. strategy and and also you know ah get what what would success look like for you in the U.S.?
00:06:05
Speaker
Yeah, so I mean the US is probably seven to ten times the TAM of the UK so I think i think it wouldn't be a surprise for at some point a software company who's got a product that's um you know globally ah applicable to want to go to the US. We're already at 25% customer base now in the US so over last ah three years we've gone from zero to 25% And the way that we've been working it is focusing on those really top level sort of brands, predominantly in B2B and knocking off some of those so that we can then access the the the sort of the network effect to to give us a more efficient way of expanding because, you know, putting feet on the ground in the U.S. is is not a cheap thing. But today, you know, we're we're pretty I'm pretty happy with the progress that we've made. I'm very excited about, you know, the fact that, you know, we've got a huge market to go out there as well as obviously the U.K.
00:07:03
Speaker
Right. And um we can't escape the the AI
AI Integration in Product Data and Future B2B Transactions
00:07:06
Speaker
theme. you know It's hugely pertinent to every software beennet business. um AI is obviously changing the way ah consumers buy goods and services. um Can you discuss how you are helping your clients with that process and also how you're implementing AI within your own product suite?
00:07:24
Speaker
Yeah, so, I mean, Pimberley has ah had AI embedded within it probably for the last sort of three years. and where I guess in a way we're fortunate in that um we are the single the source of truth for product data. So we have sort of first person data in in there for the product. um And there's multi-different facets for our customers in terms of how we're enabling them to accelerate their growth using AI. So one of the areas is obviously to removing human labor from the actual product enrichment and creation workflow, whether that be and product descriptions, whether it be images, etc., etc. but also making their product data LLM friendly because increasingly, you know as people know, agentic AI, you know that it's going to be less so humans, especially in B2B, that are actually placing orders.
00:08:20
Speaker
And the LLMs need the to have access to data in a structured way so that they know exactly this is the right product. Is it the right part? Have you got it? Where is it? And how can I easily order it?
00:08:34
Speaker
Interesting. So there's that the access to data, that vertical domain expertise and the ability to deploy that ah for your cost of customers in scale, I guess. Yeah, that's definitely how we see the future going, especially for Pimbley is having some deep vertical sector domain expertise for product data. um and and be seen, you know, like in the yeah UK, and we've really um sort of focused on building materials and becoming probably one of the um major sources of product data for entire building materials in the yeah UK. and And we think that that's going to
00:09:12
Speaker
ah ah create a fantastic opportunity for us, for Pimberley and for our wider customers um and to replicate that in in certain vertical sectors such as building materials, HVAC,
Financial Growth and Future Expansion Plans
00:09:25
Speaker
etc. Can we turn to your financial profile? um You've been generating robust growth, 25% I think yeah last year yeah in ARR growth. yeah What's driving that? Is it new customer acquisition? Is it um growing your footprint within existing customers, a combination of both?
00:09:42
Speaker
Yeah, well I think part part of the the fundamental bedrock is that we're sort of a line of business and embedded in the core and business processes. So the first thing is that you know it's it it it becomes a very sticky product. you know and So um one of the one of the things for us is being able to make sure that you know when we do grow our customer base, that customer base is not dissipating in terms of churn, etc. So we have very low churn. And then from an acquisition point of view, it's been laser focused on those sectors where we've got deep referenceability and expertise so that it sort of elevates you above and being a generic product and that you can truly add value to to that customer, not just at the solution the sort of software solution level, but also in terms of, you know, from where they can get strategic advantage as well.
00:10:38
Speaker
So you're a private business. From a financial and funding perspective, what are the next steps to the business? Yeah, so um you know obviously we're looking to continue to grow. um We see you know the the financial markets as you know a great place to to go looking for expansion capital. We know that you know we need to get our name out there, hence the you know conversations today. And and we're looking and and and... but also relatively early stage, you know, but we're looking and hoping that, you know, whenever the market conditions are right and we're we're a good fit for the markets, you know, that there will be an attractive proposition.
00:11:18
Speaker
would be great to see a good quality growth SaaS business join the market. Martin, many thanks for joining me today. Thank you very much.