Nominal Launches with Generative AI to Disrupt the $44B ERP Market
Emerges from stealth with $9.2M in seed funding
NEW YORK, March 27, 2024--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nominal is harnessing generative AI to bridge the gap between outdated, costly ERP systems and the financial management needs of modern mid-market, multi-entity businesses. The company launched today with $9.2 million in seed funding from Bling Capital and Hyperwise Ventures, with participation from Vela Partners, Incubate Fund and executives from Bill.com, Salesforce, Justworks, ServiceNow and Intel.
The $44 billion ERP market (Gartner 2023), originally revolutionized by the cloud, now grapples with outdated systems requiring costly engineering to meet modern companies’ needs. Nominal believes that generative AI is a pivotal technology, especially in light of the decline in CPA candidates and the surge of financial and accounting point solutions. Compared to existing retrieval-based assistants such as SAP Joule and Sage Copilot, Nominal takes a proactive approach, transforming business logic into automated accounting workflows.
The company plans to use the funds to accelerate its product offering, expand its market reach and increase sales and support resources in the U.S. The company primarily focuses on mid-market, multi-entity companies such as holding companies, real estate, energy and multinational technology companies in its initial go-to-market plans.
Nominal Co-founders Guy Leibovitz, CEO, and Golan Kopichinsky, VP of R&D, are seasoned entrepreneurs with a proven track record in AI and data security. They previously founded Cognigo, which was acquired by NetApp in 2019. The company also benefits from a rich core of senior technology leaders, some of whom are alumni of Israel’s top intelligence units and veterans of growth fintech companies like Riskified, Datarails and PayEm.
"The decision to back Nominal couldn’t have been easier given the confidence we have in the team led by second-time founders Guy and Golan, as well as the early customer success achieved while in stealth. Nominal is poised for rapid mid-market growth by using AI and cloud technology to disrupt the ERP market," said Nathan Shuchami, managing partner with Hyperwise Ventures.
The current ERP landscape is dominated by outdated technologies, costly system integrators and lengthy customization projects. Nominal surveyed over 120 financial professionals and found that for every dollar spent on software licenses, an additional $3 is spent on system integrators. The problem is further exacerbated in multi-entity companies. The complexity of managing multiple ledgers, currencies and regulations has amplified the need for expensive customizations and convoluted spreadsheets.
Nominal is bridging this gap with an entirely new, generative AI-powered and cloud-based platform. Nominal’s shadow ledger seamlessly extends existing ERPs and general ledgers, requiring no migration and carrying no risk to current operations. Nominal’s key innovation is its generative subledgers that transform free text, documents and spreadsheets into automated workflows. The generative subledgers include an intercompany ledger for streamlined multi-entity consolidation and efficient management of cross-company transactions, a lease subledger to simplify ASC 842/IFRS 16 compliance, as well as accruals and revenue recognition subledgers. The platform also offers custom workflows, enabling businesses to tailor their financial operations to their specific needs. The generative workflows can operate in auto-pilot mode or under human supervision to ensure financial accuracy.
Moreover, through Nominal’s period-end collaboration tool and advanced reporting, businesses can free valuable resources to focus on strategic growth. Nominal incorporates generative subledgers, collaboration and real-time visibility to accelerate the period-end closing process. Nominal's Financial Data Lake aggregates data from diverse sources, enabling advanced reporting for strategic decision-making and operational efficiency.
"The ERP market is broken. Solutions today are complex, siloed and require costly engineering," said Leibovitz. "Following a miserable experience at our startup and then at a Fortune 500 company, Golan and I decided to use our AI and data engineering experience to fix it. We are set to build a company that can make a real difference and deliver a solution that automates manual work and lets finance teams focus on strategy over spreadsheets."
Nominal is deployed across hundreds of entities, managing over $1 billion in book value. The platform has proven its significant impact and efficiency in the financial management landscape. A mid-sized energy company saves more than 20 hours per week by replacing manual work with automation. Moreover, Nominal future-proofs its clients' growth with a platform that adapts to increased business demands without the necessity to expand financial teams.
"Today's dominant ERP software companies were started around 50 years ago and built for large enterprises. These solutions are expensive and difficult to implement, particularly for smaller companies with limited time and resources," said Kyle Lui, general partner at Bling Capital. "Nominal leverages AI to deliver a next generation ERP solution purpose-built for mid-market enterprises that includes out-of-the-box integrations and a modern user experience."
Learn more about Nominal’s AI-driven ERP platform for financial accounting and management online or book a demo to see it in action.
About Nominal
Nominal is harnessing the power of generative AI and cloud technology to bridge the gap between today’s outdated, costly ERP systems and standard spreadsheets for accounting and financial management in mid-market businesses. Implemented in days, not months, with no migration or risk, Nominal modernizes and automates accounting and financial management, providing robust reporting, multi-entity consolidation, workflow automation, period-end close collaboration and much more. Learn more at Nominal | The AI Automation Platform for Finance.
About Bling Capital
Bling Capital is a venture capital firm investing in early stage consumer technology, internet and mobile, data, fintech, software as a service (SaaS) and automation companies. Bling Capital serves customers in the United States.
About Hyperwise Ventures
Hyperwise Ventures is a venture capital firm, leading seed investments in the cybersecurity and enterprise software domains. It invests in brilliant entrepreneurs with ground-breaking technologies and materially assists in accelerating the business execution of its portfolio companies. Existing investors in Hyperwise Ventures include financial institutions from the U.S., E.U. and Israel, together with an impressive list of global leaders in the cybersecurity and high-tech sectors.
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