Light uses artificial quality to automate companies' concern and accounting functions.
Light
Danish startup Light is the latest successful a bid of European tech firms raising currency arsenic task capitalists hunt for the adjacent large happening successful artificial intelligence.
Founded successful 2022, Light develops bundle that uses AI to automate assorted functions that beryllium wrong businesses' concern teams, including accounting, bookkeeping and fiscal reporting.
The Copenhagen-headquartered institution told CNBC that it had raised $30 cardinal successful a Series A backing circular led by Balderton Capital, an aboriginal capitalist successful fintech unicorns Revolut and GoCardless.
Atomico, Cherry Ventures, Seedcamp and Entrée Capital besides invested successful the round, on with angel investors including Hugging Face co-founder Thomas Wolf and Meta committee subordinate Charlie Songhurst.
Light plans to usage the currency to "double down connected the commercialized side" of the business, Jonathan Sanders, Light's CEO and co-founder, told CNBC. The startup precocious opened an bureau successful London and says it is readying to unfastened 1 successful New York to conscionable U.S. demand.
Light isn't the lone startup retired determination utilizing AI to streamline companies' concern and accounting processes.
Pigment, a concern readying and forecasting level designed to beryllium much user-friendly than Microsoft Excel, past twelvemonth raised $145 million astatine a valuation northbound of $1 billion. More recently, accounting bundle startup Pennylane raised 75 cardinal euros ($88.4 million), doubling its valuation to 2 cardinal euros.
Currently, the marketplace for bundle that helps companies negociate their finances is dominated by manufacture behemoths similar Microsoft, Oracle and SAP. However, these systems tin often beryllium cumbersome, requiring specialists to "tinker astir the edges for a twelvemonth oregon 2 conscionable to marque it work," according to Sanders.
"We work fast-growing, fast-scaling companies who request a strategy wherever they tin grow truly fast," Sanders told CNBC. Light's customers see Lovable, the buzzy Swedish AI firm precocious valued astatine $2 billion, and Sana Labs, which is being acquired by Workday for $1.1 billion.
Sanders said AI tin rapidly alteration however companies grip their finances. "The aboriginal of numbers is text," helium says. For example, alternatively than sifting done institution policies to find a team's repast allowance, this tin beryllium automated by an AI cause that has entree to the applicable documents.
Moving forward, Light wants to absorption connected large, enterprise-level customers that conflict with "broken processes and workflows," according to Sanders. "No quality squad tin continuously analyze, reconcile and update thousands of pages of policies for coherence," helium told CNBC.
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