Irish AI startup Numra, previously known as Autonifai, has announced a €1.5m funding round to introduce its AI finance assistant, Mary, to the market.
The investment was led by Elkstone, a prominent Irish VC firm, with contributions from notable angel investors.
Founded in August 2023 by David Kearney and Conor Digan, Numra aims to revolutionise finance operations with its AI-powered accounts assistant. Kearney, a Chartered Accountant with PwC, previously co-founded Peblo, an invoice factoring FinTech acquired by Wayflyer for €10m in March 2022. Digan, originally an actuarial science student who transitioned to tech with a master’s in Data Science at Northwestern, has spent a decade building data and machine learning products for startups in the US and Germany.
Numra’s AI assistant, Mary, behaves like a real-life team member, training on company processes and interacting over various communication platforms like email, Microsoft Teams, and Slack. Mary excels at repetitive tasks such as processing invoices, performing reconciliations, and managing collections, significantly improving the productivity of finance teams by 30-50%.
The funding will be used to accelerate customer acquisition in the US and to invest further in product development.
Numra targets companies with large in-house finance teams that process high volumes of transactions, such as those in manufacturing and professional services. Mary streamlines finance operations by automating tasks like invoice processing, 3-way matching, payments, and reconciliations. She can also manage complex tasks like answering vendor queries and performing detailed cost allocations, improving over time through user feedback.
A recent Gartner report highlights that 73% of accountants have seen their workloads surge over the past three years, with nearly one-third of finance leaders citing staff turnover and low morale as major challenges. Robert Half noted that 69% of CFOs struggle to recruit for vacant positions.
David Kearney, CEO of 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.”
Niall McEvoy, Venture Partner at Elkstone, said, “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.”
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