New York-based fintech startup Lunos AI has officially launched its AI-driven platform to tackle one of the most persistent inefficiencies in business finance: accounts receivable (AR). The company announced a $5 million pre-seed funding round led by General Catalyst and Cherry Ventures, with participation from angel investors including former CFOs and executives from Eli Lilly, Trustly, Deliveroo, Typeform, and GoCardless.
Lunos AI was founded by Duncan Barrigan, who brings deep fintech expertise as the former Chief Product Officer of GoCardless, a European payments unicorn. Barrigan started Lunos with a clear mission: to replace labour-intensive, manual AR workflows with scalable AI agents that handle communication, negotiation, and reconciliation with customers.
Barrigan added, “Our vision is to provide AI workers that power agent-to-agent B2B commerce. This creates a network of AI agents that communicate with each other on behalf of businesses to ensure faster and more efficient payments. Cash flow is often the primary reason businesses fail, and by having trained AI agents to handle this for them and ensure they get paid faster, this traditional barrier becomes easier to overcome.”
While consumers enjoy frictionless, upfront payments, the global B2B market still relies heavily on post-service payments, representing roughly $100 trillion in transactions annually settled through slow email threads, PDF invoices, and spreadsheets. Despite advancements in payment technology, accounts receivable remain bogged down by processes that haven’t evolved for scale and autonomy.
Barrigan said, “This isn’t a payments problem… It’s a communication and negotiation problem. Finance teams still spend countless hours chasing people over email, answering questions, updating spreadsheets, finding new contacts, and reconciling payments with incomplete information. This human approach is required because every customer and invoice is different – but it isn’t scalable, and it can’t be optimised the way a consumer checkout flow can.”
Lunos AI’s technology stands out by replicating the nuanced approach finance professionals take when chasing payments. Its AI agents integrate seamlessly with everyday business tools, such as QuickBooks and NetSuite, for real-time financial data. Users interact via Slack, email, or a dedicated web app. These agents analyse every interaction with customers, adjust communication strategies dynamically, and conduct two-way conversations to handle inquiries and negotiate payment terms autonomously.
Competitors in the AR space include companies like YayPay (a HighRadius company), Tesorio, and Stampli, which also aim to improve AR efficiency through automation and AI. However, Lunos AI differentiates itself by focusing heavily on conversational AI workers and agent-to-agent communication, envisioning a future where AI agents directly interact across businesses, creating a connected ecosystem that enhances payment velocity and reliability.
The $5 million round will enable Lunos AI to scale its team and accelerate product development. Upcoming roadmap plans include adding AI-powered payment reconciliation, sophisticated payment orchestration, and end-to-end cash flow optimisation tools.
The company is also developing an embed-ready AI agent that accounting, invoicing, and CRM platforms can integrate into their products, enabling these providers to offer AI-driven receivables automation directly within their own software suites.
