Finance teams worldwide are burdened by manual, time-consuming tasks such as data entry, reconciliations, and error investigations. These inefficiencies incur significant costs to businesses through wasted time and expensive errors and contribute to poor employee morale. This is where Numra’s founders realised that AI would have a transformative impact on the role of the accountant.
In a recent development, the Irish AI startup Numra, previously known as Autonifai, has announced a €1.5 million funding round. The investment was led by Elkstone, a prominent Irish VC firm that has backed Laka, Luminate Medical, and Pi Labs, with contributions from notable angel investors.
Numra will use the funding to introduce its AI finance assistant ‘Mary’ to the market. It will also accelerate customer acquisition in the US and invest further in product development.
Team behind Numra
Numra was founded in 2023 by David Kearney and Conor Digan. Kearney, who qualified as a Chartered Accountant with PwC, previously co-founded Peblo, an invoice factoring fintech, which Wayflyer acquired in 2022. Digan, who originally studied actuarial science but converted to tech after completing a Masters in Data Science at Northwestern, has spent the last decade in startups in the US and Germany, building data and machine learning products for companies such as Wonder and GetYourGuide.
AI-powered accounts assistant
The company has developed an AI-powered accounts assistant named Mary, who behaves just like a real-life team member. Finance teams can train Mary on their processes, give her access to their systems, and interact with her over email, Microsoft Teams, Slack, or any other chat software. Mary excels at repetitive tasks such as processing invoices, performing reconciliations, and managing collections.
Numra targets companies with large in-house finance teams and who process high volumes of transactions, such as those in the manufacturing and professional services industries.
Mary improves the productivity of finance teams by 30-50%, streamlining finance operations by automating tasks such as invoice processing, 3-way matching, payments, and reconciliations. She can even manage more complex tasks, such as answering vendor queries over email and performing detailed cost allocations. Users manage Mary through the Numra platform, which allows them to carry out tasks like reviews and approvals. Mary’s performance improves over time as she learns from user feedback and past transactions.
David Kearney, co-founder and CEO at Numra, said: “With the advent of LLMs, what was once unimaginable is now possible. AI’s capability to ingest and process vast amounts of unstructured data enables us to redefine the boundaries of productivity in the finance department. By taking on tasks that were previously too complex to automate, Mary elevates the role of finance teams and empowers them to engage in higher-value activities that require strategic thinking and creativity.”
“Numra is the perfect example of how Irish innovators are leveraging artificial intelligence to address the current and future challenges in sectors such as finance. At Elkstone, we are proud to be a part of Numra’s journey from such an early stage, and to support them with the launch of their AI power accounts assistant,” said Niall McEvoy, Venture Partner at Elkstone.
