# Pack

Aiolum story: https://aiolum.com/story/pack/ · added 2026-11-07 · updated 2026-11-07

**In short.** Pack (Skills mapping and people-development platform for companies, Italy): €3.6M ARR (about US$4.3M a year), February 2026. Evidence grade D: reported, not verified. Team: 2 co-founders in Bologna in 2022; more than 30 people in September 2025 and 30 in two countries in December 2025, with 50 planned. Launched 2022; still running, revenue growing.

Skills mapping and people-development platform for companies · Italy · AI-native · started small, grew after funding · still running, revenue growing · group: Operations, logistics and trades

- Outcome: €3.6M ARR (about US$4.3M a year), February 2026 (evidence grade of the headline number: D; headline in US dollars: 4283280)
- Launch: 2022; months from launch to the outcome: 38
- Team: 2 co-founders in Bologna in 2022; more than 30 people in September 2025 and 30 in two countries in December 2025, with 50 planned
- Outside funding: €5.8M Series A in two tranches, September and December 2025 (about US$6.7M at the 2 December 2025 rate)
- Main factor: Large companies as first customers
- Meters, 1 to 4: evidence strength 1, copyable pattern 1, capital needed 2
- Tags: AI-native, Small team, Funded, Running, B2B, HR tech

Links:

- Visit the-pack.ai: https://www.the-pack.ai/

**The product.** A platform that companies use to map the skills of their employees, run digital assessments, and give each person a development path of coaching, mentoring and training. An AI system follows each person's progress so that HR can measure it. The home page says that certified experts deliver the development. Pack sells it to large companies and publishes no prices.

**Why it worked.** It sold to large companies from the first months, together with a network of human mentors, and an investor reported that it made €30,000 a month within a few months of launch. The founders then turned the mentoring business into a platform built on skills data, raised a €5.8M Series A in 2025, and the managing director of Techstars Torino reported €3.6M in annual recurring revenue in February 2026.

Evidence grades: A = disclosed by a public company, a filing or a payment processor, or verified by one; B = two or more independent reports agree, or a journalist confirmed it; C = a founder claim that no one else verified; D = reported, not verified: one founder claim or a third-party estimate with no second source; E = no revenue figure found, so the headline is a non-money fact and the other facts carry their own grades; calc = computed on this page from graded facts.

## Summary

Pack is an HR software company from Bologna, Italy. Its platform does skill mapping, which means recording which skills each employee has and at what level, and digital assessment, which means tests and questionnaires that measure those skills. From the results it builds a personal development path for each employee, with coaching, mentoring and training. The home page says that certified experts deliver this part, and an AI system follows each person's progress so that the company can measure it. On 7 November 2026 the home page was a teaser for a new version of the platform that launches on 1 December 2026.

Pietro Maria Picogna and Giacomo Gentili founded Pack in Bologna in 2022, with no outside money. In late 2022 it was still "a bunch of slides", in the words of Martin Olczyk, managing director of Techstars Transformative World Torino, whose accelerator made the first institutional investment. He wrote that within a few months of launch Pack reached €30,000 in MRR (monthly recurring revenue, the subscription revenue of one month) with more than 250 mentoring and coaching sessions and more than 15 customers. The team grew to more than 30 people by September 2025, when Pack raised €3.5 million; in December 2025 the round grew to a €5.8 million Series A, the first large venture round of a startup. Olczyk wrote on 9 February 2026 that Pack "stands at €3.6M ARR". ARR is annual recurring revenue: the subscription revenue of one year at the current rate.

The €3.6 million figure rests on one statement by an investor and is grade D. At the Federal Reserve rate of 9 February 2026 it is about US$4.28 million a year. Pack also sells AI that assesses employees, a use that the EU AI Act lists as high-risk, and part of its service is coaching by people. This page shows both points next to the revenue story, and four earlier companies that sold skills, people data, perks or expert help and failed.

## Pricing

Pack prices in November 2026: not published (grade C, from the company's home page)

| Plan | Per month, billed yearly (US$) | Per month, billed monthly (US$) | Limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Company contract | not published | not published | sold to companies; no public price list on 7 November 2026 |

Pack sells contracts to companies (more than 80 multinationals by September 2025, according to EconomyUp) and shows no price list. On 7 November 2026 the home page is a teaser for a new platform that launches on 1 December 2026, with a contact email instead of plans. The Terms of Use page on Notion loads by script and could not be read.

## How much revenue does Pack make? The numbers, graded

A two-founder start in 2022, more than 30 people and a €5.8 million Series A by 2025, and €3.6 million ARR reported by an investor in February 2026

| Fact | Value | Grade | Note | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Annual recurring revenue, February 2026 | €3.6 million | D | Techstars blog post by Martin Olczyk, managing director of Techstars Transformative World Torino, 9 February 2026: "Today, Pack stands at €3.6M ARR". One statement, by an investor whose accelerator made Pack's first institutional investment. No filing or second source with an amount. | [1] |
| The same figure in US dollars | about US$4,283,280 a year | calc | Calculated: €3,600,000 times 1.1898 US dollars per euro, the Federal Reserve H.10 rate for 9 February 2026, the date of the statement. | [1, 6] |
| The same figure per month | €300,000, about US$356,940 | calc | Calculated: the annual figure divided by 12. | [1, 6] |
| Monthly recurring revenue, first months | €30,000 | D | Same Techstars post: "Within just a few months, Pack reached €30,000 in monthly recurring revenue, delivered more than 250 mentoring and coaching sessions, onboarded 15+ customers, and built a network of 100+ mentors." The post gives no calendar date. | [1] |
| Monthly recurring revenue, 12 and 15 months later | €40,000, then €65,000 | D | Same Techstars post: "€40K MRR within 12 months" and "€65K MRR within 15 months". No calendar dates. | [1] |
| Founded | Bologna, 2022, by 2 founders | C | EconomyUp, 16 September 2025: "Pack è stata fondata a Bologna nel 2022 da Pietro Maria Picogna (CEO) e Giacomo Gentili (CPO)" (translation: Pack was founded in Bologna in 2022 by Pietro Maria Picogna, CEO, and Giacomo Gentili, CPO). The Techstars post says that in late 2022 Pack was still "a bunch of slides" and that it started with no funding. | [2, 1] |
| Team, September 2025 | more than 30 people | C | EconomyUp, 16 September 2025: "la crescita del team, oggi composto da oltre 30 professionisti" (translation: the growth of the team, which today has more than 30 professionals). | [2] |
| Team, December 2025 | 30 people in two countries, 50 planned within six months | C | EconomyUp, 2 December 2025: "Oggi Pack conta un team di 30 persone distribuite in due Paesi, e punta a raggiungere 50 professionisti nei prossimi sei mesi" (translation: today Pack has a team of 30 people in two countries, and aims to reach 50 professionals in the next six months). | [3] |
| Customers, September 2025 | more than 80 multinational companies | C | EconomyUp, 16 September 2025, from the company: "oltre 80 multinazionali servite e un tasso di soddisfazione del 94%" (translation: more than 80 multinationals served and a satisfaction rate of 94%). Named customers: Allianz Trade, Amadori, Leroy Merlin and Edenred. | [2] |
| What the platform does | skill mapping, digital assessment, coaching, mentoring and training paths, AI monitoring | C | EconomyUp, 16 September 2025: "una piattaforma AI-native che integra strumenti di skill mapping, assessment digitale e percorsi personalizzati di coaching, mentoring e formazione mirata" and an AI monitoring system "che consente alle aziende di misurare i progressi delle persone" (translation: an AI-native platform that combines skill mapping, digital assessment and personalised paths of coaching, mentoring and targeted training; the monitoring lets companies measure people's progress). | [2] |
| Who delivers the coaching, November 2026 | certified human experts | C | Pack home page, 7 November 2026: "AI does the slow work, certified experts deliver the growth, and HR makes every decision." | [5] |
| First round of the Series A, 16 September 2025 | €3.5 million, about US$4,146,800 | C | EconomyUp: led by Rialto VC, with Alessandro Profumo. Calculated in dollars at 1.1848, the H.10 rate for 16 September 2025. | [2, 6] |
| Series A total, 2 December 2025 | €5.8 million, about US$6,725,680 | C | EconomyUp: the second tranche came from Acadian Ventures, a US fund for HR technology. Calculated in dollars at 1.1596, the H.10 rate for 2 December 2025. | [3, 6] |
| Offers turned down, 2024 | term sheets worth more than €5 million | D | Techstars post: "In 2024 alone, Pack received term sheets worth more than €5M. Pietro and his team rejected all of them." The reason given is fit with the investors. | [1] |
| Sifted 250 ranking, September 2026 | number 70 | C | Techstars blog, 5 October 2026, on the Sifted 250 list of 29 September 2026, which ranks European startups by revenue growth over three financial years and asks for signed documents behind figures that are not public. The leaderboard page itself answered 403 and was not read, so Pack's growth figure is not known here. Sifted describes Pack as software for product teams, which differs from every other source. | [4] |
| Time from late 2022 to the February 2026 figure | 38 months | calc | Calculated from December 2022, the latest month of the founding year and the time when the product was still slides, to February 2026. The sources give no launch month. | [1, 2] |

How to read this table: a grade D value is one statement with one date and no second source; here it is an investor's blog post. A grade C value is a company statement reported by the Italian business press, or a ranking reported by an investor. A grade A value comes from an official source (the US Federal Reserve, the European Commission). An "X" value was computed on this page. Quotations in Italian are followed by an English translation marked "(translation)".

## When did Pack launch, and how did it grow? Timeline

From slides in late 2022 to a reported €3.6 million in annual recurring revenue in February 2026, 38 months later, with a team that grew from two founders to about 30 people. Each entry carries its grade.

- **2022** (grade C [2, 1]): Pietro Maria Picogna and Giacomo Gentili found Pack in Bologna. There is no outside funding.
- **Late 2022** (grade C [1]): Picogna applies to Primi Investori, a programme run by the managing director of Techstars Torino. Pack is still "a bunch of slides". Techstars makes the first institutional investment.
- **2023** (grade C [1, 4]): Pack goes through the Techstars accelerator in Turin. At Demo Day, Picogna opens with "Working for enterprises sucks."
- **First months after launch (no date given)** (grade D [1]): The Techstars post reports €30,000 a month in recurring revenue, more than 250 mentoring and coaching sessions, more than 15 customers and a network of more than 100 mentors.
- **12 and 15 months after launch** (grade D [1]): The same post reports €40,000 a month in recurring revenue within 12 months and €65,000 within 15 months. It also lists expansion across 3 countries, without a date.
- **2024** (grade D [1]): According to the Techstars post, Pack turns down term sheets worth more than €5 million because the investors were not the right fit.
- **16 September 2025** (grade C [2]): €3.5 million round led by Rialto VC. More than 30 people and more than 80 multinational customers.
- **2 December 2025** (grade C [3]): The Series A reaches €5.8 million with Acadian Ventures. 30 people in two countries, 50 planned within six months, and expansion to France, Germany and the United Kingdom.
- **9 February 2026** (grade D [1]): The managing director of Techstars Torino writes that Pack "stands at €3.6M ARR".
- **29 September 2026** (grade C [4]): Pack is number 70 in the Sifted 250, a ranking of Europe's fastest-growing startups by revenue.
- **7 November 2026** (grade C [5]): The home page is a teaser: "Coming soon", a new platform "Launching 1 December".

## Why did Pack work?

### Large companies as first customers

Pack sold to large employers from the start: Leroy Merlin, Edenred, Amadori and Allianz Trade are named customers, and EconomyUp reported more than 80 multinationals by September 2025. Picogna's Demo Day pitch in 2023 opened with what is wrong with working for enterprises.

### People first, then software

The early revenue that the Techstars post reports came together with more than 250 mentoring and coaching sessions and a network of more than 100 mentors. The two co-founders also published a book together; the Techstars post links it under a title about mentoring and coaching in companies. The platform added skill mapping and assessments on top, and today the home page says that certified experts still deliver the development.

### Skills data as the base

The platform first records each employee's skills, then builds a development path from the gaps, then measures progress with an AI monitoring system. EconomyUp reports that the aim is to show the direct effect on the business, which is what an HR department needs to justify the spending.

### Choosing investors slowly

According to the Techstars post, Pack turned down more than €5 million in term sheets in 2024 because of fit. It then took a Series A from Rialto VC and from Acadian Ventures, a US fund specialised in the future of work and HR technology, whose partner David Clarke is to join Pack's board.

## How it was built

No source describes Pack's code, its AI models or its model provider. These are the product facts that the sources give.

- Skill mapping and digital assessments of employees are the first step of the platform.
- Each employee gets a personal path of coaching, mentoring and targeted training.
- An AI monitoring system follows each person's progress and lets the company measure it.
- The home page says the platform is "connected to the HR systems you already use" and that certified experts deliver the growth while HR makes the decisions.
- The public site is a static page served from Amazon S3 through Amazon CloudFront, as the server's response headers on 7 November 2026 show. The terms and privacy pages are on Notion.

Sources: [2, 3, 5]

## Who tried this before Pack, and why did they fail?

Four companies in our database of failed startups tried to sell people analytics, skills or development to employers, or to sell expert help through a marketplace. The values below are from that database and are not independently verified.

The failed startups come from our database of dead startups, retold here in our own words; Its entries are AI-assisted summaries of public sources, so they carry no evidence grade.

### Anthropos Digital (2017 to 2025; funding US$10M; cause: Ran Out of Cash)

- Promise: AI analytics for large employers: predict who will leave, plan teams and change the culture with people data.
- Why it died: Long enterprise sales cycles, high implementation costs and no proof of return for the customer, so the money ran out first.
- Record: 

### Pluralsight (2004 to 2024; funding US$4B; cause: Unit Economics)

- Promise: Video courses, skill assessments and learning paths to keep a company's engineers up to date.
- Why it died: Expensive enterprise sales and low use of the courses, while free video and AI tutors made the content cheap.
- Record: 

### Fringe (2018 to 2024; funding US$21M; cause: Unit Economics)

- Promise: A benefits marketplace where employees spend points on perks such as gyms and meals.
- Why it died: High sales cost per customer and high churn in a crowded HR market during a downturn.
- Record: 

### AirPair (2014 to 2017; funding US$250K; cause: Competition)

- Promise: Paid help from expert developers on demand, a marketplace of mentors.
- Why it died: It could not reach enough experts and buyers at once, and free help on Stack Overflow won.
- Record: 

## What changed

Anthropos Digital and Pluralsight sold measurement or content to large employers and could not show the customer a return before the sales cost ate the money. Fringe sold perks, the kind of benefit that Picogna's Demo Day message called superficial, according to the Techstars post. AirPair sold human experts through a marketplace and could not grow both sides at once.

Pack's sources describe a different order. The human part came first: the Techstars post reports recurring revenue together with more than 250 mentoring and coaching sessions in the first months. The software then measures each person's progress and, according to EconomyUp, the effect on the business, the kind of proof of return that the Anthropos Digital record says was missing. Whether the AI part or the human part brings most of the revenue today is not published.

## Can one person copy Pack now?

**Verdict: Not as a solo business. A narrow version, perhaps.**

Pack started with two founders, a network of more than 100 mentors and enterprise customers, and by 2025 it had about 30 staff and €5.8 million of venture money. One person cannot copy that. One person could copy the order of steps for a narrow market: sell paid coaching first, then build the software that maps skills and measures the result. In the EU, AI that assesses workers falls in the AI Act's high-risk list, so a copy must plan for those rules.

1. Pick one job family in one industry, for example store managers in retail, and define the skills that matter for it.
2. Sell a paid package of assessment plus coaching by a small group of certified coaches, before writing software.
3. Build the skill map and the progress report that the HR buyer needs to justify the spending.
4. Keep a human in every decision about a person, as Pack's home page says HR does, and document how the AI is used.

**What is still open.** Skills assessment and coaching for small and medium companies, which large HR platforms do not serve, in one language market at a time.

## What could go wrong for Pack?

- **What is not verified.** The €3.6 million ARR rests on one statement: a Techstars blog post of 9 February 2026 by Martin Olczyk, managing director of Techstars Transformative World Torino, whose accelerator invested in Pack. No Pack filing, payment processor or journalist gives the amount. The early figures of €30,000, €40,000 and €65,000 a month come from the same post and have no calendar dates. Pack is number 70 in the Sifted 250 of September 2026, which Techstars says asks for signed documents behind revenue figures, but the leaderboard page answered 403 and its numbers were not read. The share of revenue from software and from coaching delivered by people is not published. A reader could look for Pack SRL's annual accounts (bilancio) for 2023 to 2025 at the Italian business register, or for Sifted's own page on Pack.
- **AI that assesses employees (EU AI Act).** Pack maps and assesses employees' skills, and an AI system measures each person's progress; the home page calls Pack a platform "for people decisions". The European Commission lists "AI tools for employment, management of workers and access to self-employment" among high-risk uses under the AI Act, and its page says the rules for these uses apply from 2 December 2027. Pack's home page says "HR makes every decision". No source says how Pack classifies its own product under the Act.
- **People deliver part of the service.** The Techstars post ties the first revenue to more than 250 mentoring and coaching sessions and a network of more than 100 mentors, and the home page says "certified experts deliver the growth". Pack is therefore partly a coaching service delivered by people. EconomyUp calls the platform AI-native, and Techstars says the Sifted 250 requires proprietary technology to drive most of a company's revenue.
- **The site is a teaser.** On 7 November 2026 the-pack.ai shows "Coming soon" and a new platform "Launching 1 December", with no product page, no price list and a contact email. The existing customers are not shown on the site.
- **Not a small team any more.** Pack started with two founders in 2022. It had more than 30 people in September 2025 and 30 in two countries in December 2025, with a plan for 50 within six months, after a €5.8 million Series A.
- **Competition and model providers.** EconomyUp reported in September 2025 that platforms for skill mapping, predictive analytics and digital coaching are a growing part of a crowded HR technology market, and four predecessors on this page sold to the same buyers and failed. No source names the AI models Pack uses or the company that provides them, so its dependence on a model provider cannot be judged.

## Sources

1. Techstars blog, 9 February 2026: The Sunday Email That Turned Into €3.6M ARR (Martin Olczyk) — https://www.techstars.com/blog/startup-spotlight/the-sunday-email-that-turned-into-eur3-6m-arr (grade D). Read in full (pipeline download of 7 November 2026). Written by the managing director of Techstars Transformative World Torino, an investor in Pack. Source for the €3.6M ARR, the early monthly figures, the mentoring sessions, the 2024 term sheets and the founding story.
2. EconomyUp, 16 September 2025: Pack, startup HR tech che usa l'AI: cosa fa e perché ha raccolto 3,5 milioni da Quintarelli e Profumo — https://www.economyup.it/startup/pack-startup-hr-tech-che-usa-lai-cosa-fa-e-perche-ha-raccolto-35-milioni-da-quintarelli-e-profumo/ (grade C). Read in full through the site's WordPress API, 7 November 2026. Italian. Source for the founding in Bologna in 2022, the two founders, the team of more than 30, the 80 multinationals, the platform description and the €3.5M round.
3. EconomyUp, 2 December 2025: Pack: 5,8 milioni per la crescita internazionale della startup HR tech AI-native — https://www.economyup.it/startup/pack-58-milioni-per-la-crescita-internazionale-della-startup-hr-tech-ai-native/ (grade C). Read in full through the site's WordPress API, 7 November 2026. Italian. Source for the €5.8M Series A, Acadian Ventures, the team of 30 in two countries and the hiring plan.
4. Techstars blog, 5 October 2026: Five Techstars Portfolio Companies Make the 2026 Sifted 250 — https://www.techstars.com/blog/startup-spotlight/five-techstars-portfolio-companies-make-the-2026-sifted-250 (grade C). Read in full (pipeline download of 7 November 2026). Source for Pack's rank 70 and Sifted's criteria. The Sifted leaderboard itself answered 403 and was not read.
5. Pack home page, read 7 November 2026 — https://www.the-pack.ai/ (grade C). Read in full. A launch teaser for 1 December 2026; source for the product description, the role of certified experts and the response headers. Its robots.txt answered 403 with no rules.
6. Federal Reserve statistical release H.10: Foreign exchange rates, EU euro historical series — https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h10/hist/dat00_eu.htm (grade A). Read the rows for 16 September 2025 (1.1848), 2 December 2025 (1.1596) and 9 February 2026 (1.1898 US dollars per euro) in the pipeline's copy downloaded 4 November 2026.
7. European Commission, Shaping Europe's digital future: AI Act — https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/regulatory-framework-ai (grade A). Read the sections on high-risk uses and the timeline in the pipeline's copy downloaded 4 November 2026. Source for the high-risk listing of AI tools for the management of workers and the 2 December 2027 date.
8. Database of failed startups, local export — /method/#dead (grade C). Local export. AI-written summaries, not independently verified. Source for the failed predecessors.

Contact: aiolum@livyden.com. Run Pack? Send corrections or a verified figure to aiolum@livyden.com (subject: Correction: Pack).