What do professional basketball and financial reconciliation have in common? Absolutely nothing, unless you’re Kyle Rowley.
Born in Trinidad and Tobago, Kyle spent 15 years as a pro athlete, playing across the U.S. and Spain. But his second act might be even more surprising and more impactful! Today, he’s the founder of Ankor AI, a startup out of Sweden that just raised $1.3 million to eliminate one of the most soul-sucking tasks in e-commerce: manual financial reconciliation.
“We’re not here to give you another dashboard,” Kyle says. “We’re here to give you your time and sanity back.”
That’s not just branding, that’s product truth. Ankor’s early users report cutting 30+ hours a month in reconciliation work.
Spreadsheets to specialised AI
Ankor is more than another SaaS tool in a bloated tech stack. It’s a layer between your financial systems – QuickBooks, Xero, Shopify, Centra – designed to sync disconnected data and automate core workflows.
At its core are AI Accelerators: smart agents with focused jobs like flagging payout mismatches, matching purchase orders to invoices, and reconciling transactions in minutes, not weeks.
“Excel’s not going anywhere,” Kyle tells TFN. “But let’s stop using it for everything it was never built to do.”
A diverse founder built for the grind
Kyle’s inspiration didn’t come from a whiteboard – it came from lived experience. After retiring from basketball, he joined Contract Book (legal tech) and later worked at fast-growing fintech Juni, where he saw firsthand how painful financial data access could be – especially for e-commerce brands needing credit or clear cash flow.
“I spoke with over 75 operators. They knew exactly what needed fixing, but they were buried in spreadsheets and siloed systems.”
He launched Ankor in late 2023, while living in Sweden with his Swedish partner and while expecting his second daughter. The company now has a remote team of five people across borders, building AI systems designed not to replace people, but to accelerate human potential.
Backed by the best in Nordic tech
Ankor’s $1.3M pre-seed is more than capital, it’s a signal. The round was led by Upfin, a Copenhagen-based fintech VC. It also attracted:
- Jonathan Sanders (Founder of Juni and Light)
- Bust Capital
- Oscar Hallen (former VP at Klarna)
- Layla Qassim (Chief of Staff at Moss)
- Neil Murray and Nicolai Hojer, seasoned business angels
“The best platforms solve real pain, not pitch grand visions,” said Oliver from Upfin. “Kyle earned the trust of operators by being one of them.”
The Ankor difference
While most startups sell dashboards and analytics, Ankor is all about execution. Here’s what makes it stand out:
- Integrates with, not replaces, existing systems (QuickBooks, NetSuite, Shopify)
- Zero engineering required for implementation
- Flat-rate pricing based on transaction volume and integration type
- Ideal for businesses under $50M looking to avoid complex ERP migrations
And it’s not vapourware: Ankor’s Payment Reconciliation Accelerator is live in private beta and its coming soon is the 3-Way Match Accelerator — automating the holy trinity of purchase orders, invoices, and goods-received notes.
Diversity in European tech: Still a climb
As one of the very few Caribbean-born, Black founders in European AI and fintech, Kyle’s success isn’t just a product win, it’s a statement. He’s building in a space where access to funding, networks, and visibility remains largely homogeneous.
“The access to information isn’t very democratised,” he says. “I have a mission to be candid and transparent, not just about our product, but about how this ecosystem works.”
So, what’s next for Ankor?
With its fresh funding secured, Ankor is gearing up for a major phase of growth. The team is finalising its upcoming 3-Way Match product, designed to automate purchase order and invoice workflows, while also preparing for expansion into the UK market. As demand grows, Ankor is scaling its integrations across platforms like Shopify, Centra, and Stripe, all in anticipation of a broader public launch in Q4 2025.
And yes! Kyle still plays ball. But now, the scoreboard tracks workflows automated, sanity saved, and hours given back to real people doing real work. “We see finance as the backbone of every business,” Kyle says. “Our job is to make sure it’s strong, efficient, and future-ready.”
This one is a rare story of Black founder-led AI innovation in Europe, and a sign of what’s possible when inclusion meets execution, for more stories like this subscribe to our daily newsletter and stay tuned to TFN!
