Tracelight, a UK-based AI company enhancing the creation and validation of financial models, has raised $3.6 million in seed funding to boost product development, expand its team, and increase its global presence among finance and strategy professionals.
Financial models are crucial in the global finance sector, influencing mergers, investments, and strategic choices valued in the trillions. However, this vital area has largely missed the AI transformation, with financial modeling tools remaining mostly unchanged for decades. Microsoft Excel, the cornerstone of these workflows, celebrates its 40th anniversary this September.
Tracelight bridges financial models and large language models (LLMs) by converting spreadsheet logic into data that LLMs can utilize, enabling financial analysts and consultants to benefit from Generative AI in building complex financial models.
Integrated into the spreadsheet process, Tracelight enhances how LLMs interact with Excel, removing repetitive modeling tasks. It supports writing complex formulas, model validation, and autonomous analysis using natural language prompts, significantly aiding analysts by enhancing their skills with AI, allowing for faster and smarter modeling without altering their existing methods.
Peter Fuller, Tracelight’s co-founder and CEO, highlighted the significance of complex financial models in corporate decision-making, noting that LLMs have scarcely affected these workflows. Tracelight is designed to integrate smoothly within trusted tools, aiming to remove the tedious workload of financial modeling while positioning users as directors of AI, optimizing Excel analysis.
Since its inception, Tracelight has attracted early users from investment banks, private credit, private equity firms, and leading professional services providers. These early adopters report over 90 percent time savings on repetitive tasks like standard analysis creation, formatting, and error detection.
Tracelight ensures that humans remain at the helm of decision-making, not replacing analysts but empowering them to create superior financial models and concentrate on critical decisions where human insight is necessary.
Aleksander Misztal, Tracelight’s co-founder and CTO, explained that their technology unlocks the reasoning capabilities of advanced LLMs within financial models, enabling Excel financial modelers to access AI’s potential directly in their workflows for the first time.
The funding round was led by Chalfen Ventures, with contributions from Acequia Capital, Inovo, EF, and angel investors such as Charlie Songhurst (former Microsoft Corporate Strategy head) and Suhit Gupta (former CIO of General Atlantic and Carlyle).
Mike Chalfen of Chalfen Ventures remarked on the transformative power of AI tools like Tracelight, which simplify adoption while handling complex tasks effectively. Tracelight integrates AI into the world’s most popular modeling platform, and its swift uptake by analysts highlights its vast potential.
Hank Vigil, Founder of Acequia Capital, emphasized the enduring reliance on Excel for business logic as it approaches its 40th anniversary. He praised Tracelight for seamlessly integrating advanced AI into existing financial modeling workflows, extending Excel’s capabilities without requiring professionals to leave their familiar tools.
Tracelight is now available as an Excel add-in via the Microsoft Add-In Store, initially targeting individual analysts, consultants, and finance professionals.
The newly acquired funding will facilitate additional product development, team growth, and wider distribution to reach finance and strategy professionals globally.
Lead image: Tracelight co-founders | Photo: Uncredited