AI-Powered Closing Automation Firm Numeric Raises $28 Million in Funding

The Frustration of Manual Book Closings

Month-end and quarter-end closings are often a dreaded time for accountants, involving manual, time-consuming processes that are prone to errors. This frustration is what drove Parker Gilbert, co-founder of Numeric, to develop a solution—a software platform designed to automate parts of the book-closing process.

The Emergence of AI-Powered Book Closings

The introduction of generative AI has since transformed the platform, making it a go-to tool for companies like Brex, OpenAI, Plaid, and Wealthfront. By leveraging the power of AI, Numeric’s software platform helps accounting teams shave days off their book-closing process by aggregating and reconciling data from different accounting systems and Excel sheets.

How AI-Driven Book Closings Work

An AI agent overlays this data, analyzing line-item changes month-to-month. If the agent identifies outliers or unexpected variations, it explains why certain accounts increased or decreased, saving accountants significant time on documenting account fluctuations (flux analysis).

For example, if the AI detects higher legal expenses in October compared to September, it might explain:

• "Your legal expenses increased this month due to a $X payment to Wilson Sonsini for your funding."

Accuracy and Future Capabilities

While the AI agent doesn’t currently handle final calculations, Gilbert, Numeric’s CEO, is optimistic that it soon will. He emphasized that the possibility of AI hallucinations—incorrect information generated by the AI—hasn’t been a major issue, as Numeric provides links to verify the AI’s analysis.

Gilbert expects Numeric’s AI model to further improve, especially in synthesizing large amounts of data, which is already a strength of large language models (LLMs).

Investor Confidence in Numeric

Menlo Ventures partner Croom Beatty, who has long sought a disruptor in the accounting software space, said Numeric’s approach intrigued him. "Numeric’s moat is a lot deeper than a lot of areas we were looking at," Beatty noted, adding that Numeric’s combination of complex workflows and data in a largely underserved market makes it stand out.

Beatty also sees potential for Numeric to expand beyond accounting, predicting the addition of financial planning and analysis tools—a market currently dominated by Anaplan.

Competing in a Complex Market

Numeric faces competition from established players like BlackLine, a publicly traded company, and FloQast, an 11-year-old startup valued at $1.6 billion. However, Beatty emphasized that what Numeric is doing is highly complex and difficult to replicate, which sets it apart from other AI-powered entrants in the accounting software space.

Growth and Series A Funding

Over the past year, Numeric’s revenue has grown fourfold, catching the attention of investors. Just five months after raising a $10 million seed round, Numeric has now secured a $28 million Series A round led by Menlo Ventures, with participation from new investors IVP and Socii.

Previous backers, including Founders Fund, Long Journey, 8VC, Friends & Family Capital, and Fifth Down, also contributed to the round.