Concourse Develops Solutions to Streamline Financial Operations

Finance is crucial in most organizations, yet repetitive manual tasks often burden teams. A survey by Paylocity revealed that 38% of finance teams spend more than a quarter of their time on manual processes like reviewing invoices.

Matthieu Hafemeister, a former fintech investor at Andreessen Horowitz, noticed how many finance teams need help scaling due to these time-consuming tasks. “The current state of finance relies on fragmented point solutions, often stitched together within departments,” Hafemeister shared with TechCrunch. Excel remains the default, limiting the true potential of automation.”

Indeed, spreadsheets dominate finance operations, with 82% of departments still relying on Excel for core functions like budgeting and forecasting. After experiencing these frustrations firsthand as the head of growth at fintech firm Jeeves, Hafemeister joined forces with Ted Michaels, Jeeves’ former head of finance, to create a solution. They launched Concourse, a platform designed to automate financial tasks.

Together, they launched Concourse—a revolutionary platform designed to automate financial https://www.concourse.co/tasks by seamlessly integrating with business financial systems. Concourse empowers finance teams to retrieve and analyze data, create visual reports, and answer complex questions like “What’s our non-GAAP revenue?” Proactively delivering insights, Concourse helps finance teams stay ahead of trends and shifts the focus from manual work to strategic decision-making. Unlike traditional tools that simply accelerate workflows, Concourse completes entire tasks autonomously.

While finance automation has been around, what sets Concourse apart is its ability to execute sophisticated, multi-step financial processes. For example, Concourse can retrieve data from NetSuite, download CSV files, and transfer that information into Excel—all without human intervention. “We harness the power of large language models and pair them with tried-and-true data analysis methods,” explained Hafemeister.

The appetite for AI in finance is rapidly growing. One survey found that 58% of finance teams now use AI, up 21% from 2023. According to Grand View Research, the AI in fintech market—valued at $9.45 billion three years ago—is expanding at 16.5% annually.

However, for Concourse to make a real impact in the competitive finance automation space, it will need to demonstrate its return on investment (ROI) clearly. This is no easy task, as Gartner reports that nearly half of companies need help to measure the value of AI. Additionally, concerns about the accuracy of AI and data privacy persist. A U.K. survey revealed that 40% of executives were worried about AI-related errors, while many also expressed concerns about data confidentiality.

Hafemeister reassures customers that Concourse employs rigorous fact-checking and validation processes to ensure accurate performance. He emphasizes that Concourse doesn’t use customer data to train its AI models without explicit permission and is committed to the highest data security standards. “Accuracy is vital in finance, where there’s no margin for error,” Hafemeister said. “At Concourse, we’ve invested significantly in delivering AI that performs reliably. We’re also laser-focused on data privacy and security, ensuring Concourse adheres to industry-leading best practices.”

Hafemeister’s confidence in Concourse resonates with its early customers. Even in its beta stage, Concourse has secured clients like Instabase and Shef and has raised $4.7 million in capital from prominent investors, including a16z, Y Combinator, CRV, and BoxGroup.

Right now, Concourse’s priority is product development and team expansion. “We’re scaling up to hire more engineers, build out more workflows for our AI, and increase data integration coverage,” Hafemeister explained. “Our strong focus on engineering recruitment—especially in backend, machine learning, and AI—is all part of our vision to redefine finance automation and deliver unmatched value to our clients.”