Dost, an AI-powered financial automation platform, has launched in the UK following a £6 million Series A funding round led by Octopus Ventures. The investment supports the company’s expansion into the UK market after establishing a customer base of over 150 enterprise clients across Europe.
The platform addresses persistent inefficiencies in mid-market finance operations, where manual invoice processing continues to consume significant resources. Dost claims to reduce administrative costs by 80% while maintaining over 95% accuracy in processing.
Addressing entrenched manual processes
Many mid-market businesses in sectors such as manufacturing, logistics, and food and beverage still rely on manual financial workflows. Invoices arrive through various channels and require manual data entry, while approval processes are often managed through spreadsheets or informal systems. These inefficiencies create bottlenecks, increase error rates, and add significant overhead to financial operations.
Dost’s approach differs from competitors by using proprietary AI models rather than standard OCR tools. The system has been trained on millions of financial documents, enabling it to handle complex multipage invoices and purchase orders. This capability is particularly valuable for what the company refers to as the ‘real economy’ – established sectors with intricate supply chains and complex documentation.
The platform offers document capture, three-way matching, custom approval workflows, and integration with ERP systems including SAP, Netsuite, and Sage.
Building on European experience
Founded in Spain in 2021, Dost has focused on refining its technology with European enterprise customers across food, retail, and manufacturing sectors. The company has processed over 4 million accounting transactions, developing its expertise in financial automation and informing the development of AI models.
The Series A funding will support Dost’s UK expansion, with CEO Adam Barbera relocating to London and a local team of seven being established. The UK represents a larger market for enterprise fintech, with the company noting greater receptiveness to proven technology solutions.
“We spent the last three years solving these problems for European companies — refining our AI on millions of real-world transactions,” said Barbera. “UK businesses face identical challenges, but the market is significantly larger and more receptive to proven innovation. The endorsement from Octopus Ventures validates that our technology translates across borders – and that we’re ready to scale here.”
Investor backing for operational focus
Uthish Ranjan from Octopus Ventures highlighted the company’s combination of technical capability and operational understanding. “Dost is an AI-native platform tackling one of finance’s most entrenched inefficiencies — invoice processing,” said Ranjan. “Its product thrives in the messy, unstructured reality of mid-market and enterprise operations. The customer feedback we heard speaks for itself: they’re consistently impressed by Dost’s ability to process complex data at scale with remarkable accuracy.”
The Series A round also included participation from new investor TQ Ventures and continued support from existing backers such as Draper B1 and Born Capital. The capital will fuel Dost’s dual strategy of consolidating its leadership position in Spain while accelerating UK market entry.
“Our philosophy is to build technology that becomes indispensable by becoming invisible,” Barbera explained. “When your AP process just works — no chasing invoices, no reconciliation headaches, no payment errors — that’s when finance teams can become true strategic partners to the business.”
