New York-based Aleph, which has developed an enterprise-grade system for financial planning and analysis, emerged from stealth on Tuesday, with $11.5 million Series A led by Bain Capital Ventures. It previously raised $5.2 million in a seed round led by Khosla Ventures.
Existing investors Khosla Ventures, Y Combinator and Germany’s Picus Capital participated in the Series A round. Angel investors include Tristan Handy (CEO, dbt), Naeem Ishaq (CFO, Checkr), Thejo Kote (CEO, Airbase), Fred Laluyaux (ex-CEO, Anaplan), Dave Sherry (CFO, ServiceTitan), Rohit Shrivastava (ex-CPO, Anaplan), Sinohe Terrero (CFO, Envoy), and Hoang Vuong (ex-CFO, Amplitude).
‘Spreadsheet First’
Argentina-born Albert Gozzi and Santiago Perez De Rosso, a former Googler with a Ph. D. in computer science from MIT, co-founded Aleph during the pandemic. The duo set out to develop what they call a “spreadsheet-first” system because of its ubiquity, thanks to Microsoft’s Excel or Google’s Sheets.
“The ultimate way to help finance professionals is to give them the best of both worlds – the flexibility and familiarity of Excel with the centralization, power, and scale of a web app,” said Gozzi, who earned a degree in industrial engineering from Argentina and an MBA from Stanford University.
“Finance teams at small businesses and Fortune 50 companies alike gravitate toward spreadsheets for their ultimate flexibility. We believe there are good reasons why people like spreadsheets and that they are not going away any time soon,” Gozzi, who worked as a chief financial officer at a startup, besides serving as a consultant at Bain and Co., said in a LinkedIn post.
Aggregating Data from 150+ Sources
Aleph says its system allows finance and operations teams to integrate data from 150+ sources, such as ERP, HRIS and CRM, into a central database. On spreadsheets, it creates “deep two-way integration.” With AI-assisted dashboards and a real-time web app thrown in, Aleph’s platform enables quick analysis of data and real-time collaboration, helping businesses automate financial models, and streamline budgeting and forecasting.
Commercial Real Estate
MacKenzie Companies
Advertising / Media / Communications / Public Relations
Nevins & Associates
Financial Services / Investment Firms
Chesapeake Corporate Advisors
Commercial Real Estate
Monday Properties
Venture Capital
Blue Delta Capital Partners
Internet / Technology
Foxtrot Media
Having been both a CFO and an engineer, Gozzi understands why finance pros “love the flexibility of Excel, and greatly dislike most FP&A software,” said Christina Melas-Kyriazi, partner at BCV. That is why Aleph “is building a unique product that resonates with how those finance teams want to do their work,” she added.
Gozzi said Aleph would continue to learn from its customers, such as include Turo, Zapier, Envoy and Notion, and advance its system to meet existing and emerging needs.
“We will continue to listen to our customers to provide them the best possible user experience, and develop new ways to leverage the source of truth Aleph creates for companies of all sizes,” Gozzi said. “Also, we think generative AI will redefine how finance teams work, and we are eager to share more about what we’re building in this space soon.”
