Chalkie AI reaches £5M ARR after 18 months launch

ProHance, led by Rajesh Sharma, a former mechanical engineer and PSU employee, has grown to $20M annual recurring revenue (ARR) without external venture capital. The company's success is driven by customer-focused innovation, sustainable scaling, strong leadership, and a commitment to creating long-term value. ProHance has become a global SaaS player solely through resilience and experimentation.

Visma's H1 2026 results highlighted impressive growth, having crossed €3 billion in ARR with a 13% organic growth rate. The company added almost 300,000 net new customers, bringing its total customer base to 2.7 million, a 30% year-on-year increase in customer count. AI was noted as a cornerstone in their value-building strategy, enhancing automation and tailored services on their platforms. In addition, Visma continued its expansion through six M&A deals, including MaisMei and Dootax in Brazil, and FullL in France, strengthening its global operations.

Paymend achieved a 4x growth in ARR, increasing from $5M to $20M in just 12 months. This growth was driven by their focus on recovering failed payments for merchants, addressing an often-overlooked issue where $150B+ is lost annually due to failed payments in the US. The company emphasizes relentless execution and solving a significant problem to convince clients of its value.

Applied Compute has seen rapid growth in its annualized revenue, now reaching approximately $50 million, a 4x increase since November 2025. This growth is attributed to heightened demand for open-source-based compute solutions. The company is in talks to raise a new funding round led by notable investor Elad Gil, potentially raising hundreds of millions of dollars and valuing the company at $3 billion—double its valuation just a few months ago.

Sanas has achieved $77M ARR after adding $17M in new ARR this quarter, exceeding forecasts by over 40%. The company ended the previous year at $50M ARR, highlighting substantial year-over-year growth. Sanas is expanding its reach within enterprise markets, particularly telco, leveraging its Speech AI platform and increasing customer purchases across various product offerings. The team is now aiming for $100M ARR as a milestone.