Numeric is automating accounting, finally

FIRST PASS

Numeric raises $28M Series A to revolutionize accounting with AI (TechCrunch)

Numeric, an AI-powered accounting software startup, has secured a $28M Series A round led by Menlo Ventures, with participation from IVP, Socii, and existing investors. This comes just five months after their $10 million seed round.

Key points:

1. Founded in 2020 by Parker Gilbert to automate the tedious book-closing process

2. Helps accounting teams shave days off their monthly book-closing process

3. Revenue has grown four-fold in the last year to single-digit millions

4. Clients include Brex, OpenAI, Plaid, and Wealthfront

5. Uses AI to aggregate data from various systems and perform flux analysis

Merlin’s Notes: The march of vertical-specific AI continues, with Numeric working on a boring and underserved niche in dire need of innovation. We’ve long been believers in the value of vertical AI and think the trend has a lot of room left to grow.

With the recent pickup in interest surrounding Office of the CFO platforms, we can see how tools like these might expand operational capacity and contribute to revenue/margin growth.

We think vertical AI represents one of the greatest value creation levers PE firms can employ to drive meaningful organic growth and deserves significant strategic consideration.

HIGHLIGHT

Exploring AI in the Workplace (Gallup)

A recent Gallup study revealed a significant disconnect between corporate AI initiatives and employee awareness & usage. Here are the key takeaways:

1. Corporate Investment vs. Employee Awareness

   • 93% of Fortune 500 CHROs say their organizations have begun using AI

   • However, only 33% of U.S. employees are aware of AI integration in their workplace

2. Limited AI Usage Among Employees

   • Nearly 70% of employees never use AI in their roles

   • Only 10% use AI at least weekly

   • White-collar workers are more likely to use AI (46% vs. 19% in production/frontline industries)

3. How AI is Being Used

   • Top uses: idea generation (41%), data consolidation (39%), task automation (39%)

   • Leaders use AI more for data consolidation and task automation compared to individual contributors

4. Barriers to AI Adoption

   • Only 6% of employees feel very comfortable using AI in their roles

   • 32% feel very uncomfortable with AI use

5. Strategies for Improving AI Adoption

   1. Clear communication of AI integration plans

   2. Established guidelines for AI use

   3. Role-aligned AI training

6. Impact of Effective AI Strategy

   1. Employees with clear AI plans are 4.7 times more likely to feel comfortable using AI

   2. Those who receive formal training are 89% more likely to see AI positively impacting their productivity

The study highlights that while organizations are investing heavily in AI, most employees remain unprepared and uncomfortable with its use.

To realize the full potential of AI investments, companies need to focus on clear communication, guidelines, and training tailored to employees' roles and needs.

JARGON BUSTER

USE CASE SPOTLIGHT

Louisa AI: systemizing serendipity in deal-making

Louisa AI is a relationship intelligence startup and a fantastic use case for AI within finance (this is not sponsored btw, we just genuinely think it's a great approach).

Louisa AI was born within Goldman Sachs and founded by Rohan Doctor, an MD who spent 17 years at Goldman. The company recently spun out of Goldman to become an independent company and raised $5M in seed funding.

Key features:

• AI-Powered Deal Prompts: Suggests potential deals based on employees' connections and expertise.

• Data Integration: Plugs into CRMs, email providers, and communication tools like Slack or Symphony.

• News Processing: Ingests about a million news articles weekly from 250 global sources.

• Finance-Specific: Tailored for the financial industry, understanding industry-specific terminology.

How it works:

1. Data Ingestion: Absorbs internal company data and external news.

2. Connection Mapping: Identifies relevant connections between people, companies, and industries.

3. Deal Suggestion: Proactively prompts deals based on identified connections and current events.

Real-world Impact:

• Facilitated a $6B financing deal on a $10B semiconductor project at Goldman

• Suggested $800M in deal values per quarter across a handful of clients

TOOL OF THE WEEK

Godmode

We’ve all received AI-generated pitches at this point and they’ve become pretty easy to spot. I understand the appeal of being able to ‘mass-personalize’ but I don’t believe that approach works for any serious BD professional targeting high-stakes deals.

Enter Godmode, a cool take on using AI agents more intelligently to do research, enrich, and reach out to leads from one platform. It’s similar to Clay but seems more intuitive.

Here's what makes them stand out:

1. AI-Powered Lead Sourcing: Uses natural language queries to find ideal customers across multiple data sources.

2. Automated Account Research: Gathers contextual information about leads, including recent news, hiring data, and published content.

3. Personalized Outreach Generation: Creates tailored messages for email and LinkedIn based on prospect data and activity.

4. The Associate: An AI agent trained on your company information to handle various sales tasks autonomously.

5. Campaign Builder: Allows creation of multi-step campaigns across LinkedIn and Gmail.

6. Integration Capabilities: Connects with CRMs like Hubspot and Salesforce, as well as communication tools like LinkedIn, Gmail, and Slack.

Although the solution is aimed at B2B SaaS account executives and SDRs, I can see how it might be useful for a BD Associate at a PE firm looking to source proprietary deals with more custom outreach.