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Won’t someone please think of the CFOs …
It ’s not the sexiest of dependent matter , but someone postulate to talk about it : TheCFO technical school stack — software used by the chief fiscal policeman of the world — is ripe for disruption . That ’s according toJonathan Sanders , CEO and co - founder of fledgling Danish startupLight , which pass away stealth Wednesday with $ 13 million in a seed round of funding led by European VC hulk Atomico .
The Copenhagen - ground startup is reimagining general daybook software from the ground up , replete with AI to cleanse transactional data , while also enabling finance team to ask bare - English interrogative and receive straightforward answers from their datum .
Light leans on automated ledgers
With least sandpiper at companionship such as investing bank Credit Suisse and SMB - focusedexpense management graduated table - up Pleo , Sanders has reasonable insight into the wreak environment of the CFO ’s power . enterprisingness resource preparation ( ERP ) software system is Billie Jean Moffitt King , packing support for CRM ( client relationship management ) , 60 minutes ( human resources ) , project management , and perhaps the most crucial component of all , the general ledger .
A general book is an all - embrace disc of a company ’s fiscal transactions , put down every dollar , dime and penny that comes in and out . For the principal fiscal officer , it ’s crucial , serve as a single source of trueness into a company ’s financial wellness . And it ’s this element of the ERP that Light is sharpen on dragging into the mod digital era , where AI increasingly rules the roost .
“ Our missionary work is to be the first automated ledger for orbicular companies , ” Sanders tell TechCrunch . “ We conceive chief financial officer and finance teams deserve the full benefit of AI , gaining the full knowledge and expertise of a large go-ahead organization when it comes to account statement and taxes , something that they have been denied to date . ”
Companies desegregate Light with their various CRM and HRM tool , their banks and even their communication channels such as Microsoft Teams and Slack . The “ AI ” in the platform constitute a mixing of models , each serving distinct purpose for the finance fraternity — for representative , address manual tasks such as blood - detail coding ( i.e. , assign codes to private dealing ) or work out correct tax code and related clerking tasks .
“ We habituate one model to help bookkeep all line item with right taxes and account , and we use another model to help oneself the C - cortege to ask inquiry about revenue , monetary value and profit — directly from Slack , ” Sanders said . “ We have , and continue to experiment with , a commixture of off - the - ledge models and fine - tune unfastened source models as the AI landscape is changing chop-chop . ”
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By unbundling the ERP , Light is giving something of a mediate finger’s breadth to legacy applications such as Oracle NetSuite , SAP ERP and Microsoft Dynamics , while also taking on “ younger ” kip such as Quickbooks and Xero . The company is aim “ multi - entity outside companies ” with the promise of a unified dashboard for all their global transactions , one that ’s “ to the full searchable and queryable using AI . ”
The is all the result of Sanders ’ own personal defeat of figure out with install ERP scheme .
“ I remember one clip , I was working with the finance squad on some report from the ERP system of rules , and it take away the page more than 20 seconds to load — I asked why the Wi - Fi was so slow , ” Sanders said . “ They said it was n’t the Wi - Fi that was the trouble , it was the merchandise . I immediately knew something had to be done . ”
On top of that , Sanders also touts a slicker “ Apple - like ” interface invention , one that finance teams might not detest using .
The long and short of this is that rather than offering thing like CRM , 60 minutes or project direction , Light only serve features such as accounts receivable ( AR ) , accounts collectable ( AP ) , bookkeeping , VAT reportage and more .
But why bother unbundling in the first place?
While sustain a to the full featured ERP makes sense for some clientele — for instance , where there needs to be a tight alignment between sales , supplying chain and workforce data ( for instance , in fabrication ) — this is n’t the case for many ( or even most ) businesses today , which are already using stand - alone tools that traditionally exist in an ERP platform .
“ We ’ve chosen to focus on the general ledger to build a clean and focussed product — this is the hardest , and most important , problem to solve for New finance team , ” Sanders said . “ New companies use the best CRM , like Salesforce , and the best 60 minutes software system , like Workday or Factorial . But there ’s no worldwide ledger that is unbundled from the ERP suite , so you are forced to implement a full - stack ERP with embedded CRM and HRM products you never use . ”
Sold as a subscription with loudness - base pricing , Light also hopes to point a new strain of company weary of legacy software priced on a per - rear end basis that ultimately limits access to a select few in the caller . Thus , Light is fair broad in terms of identify a target grocery — the only thing that they might have in vulgar is a desire to surmount globally .
“ The primary day - to - day users are finance team , including the CFO , ” Sanders said . “ Whether the company is 50 employee or 5,000 , they can leverage Light for their global operations . We focused on prepare the port with the respite of the business seamless , so anyone with the right permissions can easily approve invoices , upload expenses and inquiry vendor entropy or report . ”
Light work
After will his position as head of payment at Pleo in 2020 , Sanders went on to found another fintech company calledJuni , which develops tools to help einsteinium - commerce companies wield their cash in hand better . That startupwent on to raisenorth of $ 280 million , but electric sander left in 2022 . He keep up that there was nothing particularly acrimonious about his departure .
“ We want to take the companionship in unlike directions — I stay a happy shareowner , cheering from the sidelines , ” smoother said .
And so in 2023 , Sanders incorporate Light , and although it has been operating in stealing for the past year , the platform is already technically resilient and available globally . The lion ’s percentage of its current customers hail from the Nordics , includingWorksome , Lenus , FamlyandProxify — this is something that Sanders says attitude his own company well to thrive .
“ In the Nordics , as well as in other smaller countries in Europe , companies have to be global from day one , ” Sanders say . “ This mean that as soon as you find commercial traction , you need to open effectual entity in other countries and your fiscal spinal column happy chance . Our mission is to help these company early on in their journey to go global and unshackle them from the burden of existing legacy root . ”
Aside from lead backer Atomico , Light ’s seeded player round also included participation from Cherry Ventures , Entrée Capital , Seedcamp , and angels such as German soccer playerMario Götze .
