Consumer packaged goods brands operate on razor-thin margins, yet the finance, accounting, trade spend, and operations work that protects those margins is still split across disconnected systems that were built to record problems rather than solve them. That gap shows up at the worst possible moment: most deduction and trade spend issues surface only at month-end close, after the window to act on them has already passed. Confido addresses this by unifying finance, accounting, sales, and operations on a single AI-powered platform that automates deduction resolution, trade spend tracking, and forecasting, surfacing only the decisions that actually require a person. More than 250 CPG brands, including Daisy, Dude Wipes, Kettle & Fire, and Unilever, now route over $30B in retail sales planning through the platform, and the company has grown 5x year-over-year since its last round. That traction positions Confido to claim a larger share of the software market underlying the CPG industry, a sector worth roughly $2.5T that still spends over $100B a year patching together tools that were never built to talk to each other.
AlleyWatch sat down with Confido Cofounder and CEO Justin Hunter to learn more about the business, its future plans, recent funding round, and much, much more..
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
We recently raised a $55M Series B led by Insight Partners, with participation from Trenches Capital, Watchfire, Barrel Ventures, and returning investors Footwork and Y Combinator. This brings our total funding to $77M.
Tell us about the product or service that Confido offers.
Confido is the AI infrastructure for consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands. We unify finance, accounting, sales, and operations on one shared system, helping brands automate critical workflows, improve planning accuracy, protect margin, and make faster decisions.
What inspired the start of Confido?
My connection to the industry started long before Confido. My mother spent years managing retail stores for Target, while my father sold software to consumer brands. Later, I worked with consumer businesses firsthand and was struck by how much of the back office still relied on manual processes, spreadsheets, and disconnected systems. As advances in AI began accelerating, it felt obvious that consumer brands would eventually be transformed by technology. We founded Confido to build the AI infrastructure that helps brands run their businesses more efficiently, make better decisions, and protect margin.
How is Confido different?
Most software in the industry was built to record work, not do it. Historically, brands relied on disconnected tools, custom consulting projects, outsourced business-process providers, and brittle automation systems that often broke as conditions changed. Confido was built from the ground up using AI and agentic workflows to actually execute work across finance, accounting, sales planning, forecasting, and supply chain operations.
We also take a purpose-built approach to CPG. Rather than offering a generic back-office tool, we’ve built workflows and integrations specifically for the way consumer brands operate, including the retailer, forecasting, and operational complexities unique to the industry.
What market does Confido target and how big is it?
We serve the consumer packaged goods industry, from emerging high-growth brands to some of the largest companies in the world. Today, more than 250 brands use Confido, including companies like Daisy, Dude Wipes, Kettle & Fire, Unilever, Mars, and others. Collectively, more than $30 billion in retail sales planning flows through the platform. The broader CPG industry represents a roughly $2.5 trillion market, while the software opportunity supporting it exceeds $100 billion.
What’s your business model?
Confido operates on a yearly subscription model. We sell a la carte, but most users end up buying the whole product, for two reasons: (1) each product is best-in-class, even solo, and (2) our products work unfairly well together – each one reinforces the others when running on a combined dataset.
How are you preparing for a potential economic slowdown?
Periods of economic uncertainty make operational efficiency even more important. Our focus has always been helping brands protect margin, improve forecasting accuracy, and operate more effectively. The businesses that perform best during challenging environments are often the ones with the clearest visibility into their operations, and that’s exactly what we’re helping customers achieve.
What was the funding process like?
We were fortunate to have strong interest from investors who understood both the scale of the consumer industry and the opportunity to modernize how brands operate. The conversations focused less on a single feature or workflow and more on the broader enterprise transformation we are enabling. Our growth, customer adoption, and retention helped demonstrate that we are building a platform that can become central to how consumer brands run their businesses.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
One challenge is helping investors appreciate the sheer complexity of the CPG back office and how much value exists in solving those problems. It’s an industry everyone interacts with every day, but the operational infrastructure behind it is often overlooked.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
I think investors saw three things. First, a massive market opportunity in an industry that has historically been underserved by modern software. Second, strong execution and momentum, including 5x year-over-year growth since our Series A and adoption across more than 250 brands. Third, the breadth of our vision. We’re not solving a single departmental problem; we’re helping brands transform how finance, accounting, sales, operations, forecasting, and supply chain teams work together. Also, the fact that existing investors chose to increase their commitment alongside new investors was also a strong endorsement of the progress we’ve made and the opportunity ahead.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
Our primary focus is continuing to expand the platform’s AI capabilities and launch new agent-driven workflows that automate more of the work happening across the consumer brand back office. We are also investing heavily in product development and growing our team to meet demand. Ultimately, our goal is to help customers drive measurable improvements across every line item on their P&L by giving them better visibility, automation, and decision-making tools.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
Prioritize profitability and customer growth.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
We’re still in the early stages of what we believe is a much larger opportunity. Over the near term, our goal is to continue expanding across the entire commercial cycle, helping brands automate more workflows while improving forecasting, operational planning, and financial performance. Long term, Confido will be the operating system that powers the back office of every consumer brand in the world.
What’s your favorite fall destination in and around the city?
COTE is a classic for a great dinner, and 787 on 14th street for coffee.
