Former Microsoft execs launch AI agents to end Excel-led finance

Summary

Despite millions spent on financial software, many finance teams still rely on Excel to close their books and reconcile numbers while preparing them for audit. Two former Microsoft executives view it as a problem — and they have started Maximor to replace spreadsheets with AI agents for the grunt work finance teams perform. Excel spreadsheets are everywhere in finance. Even with dedicated ERP, CRM, and billing systems, many mid-sized companies and enterprises still export transactions into Excel for manual reconciliation. Teams often treat spreadsheets as makeshift databases, sometimes even relying on functions like VLOOKUP — a function used to pull matching numbers from one table into another — to line up figures across files. Maximor aims to replace finance teams’ reliance on Excel with its AI system, and has emerged from stealth with a $9 million seed round led by Foundation Capital. The startup uses a network of AI agents that connect directly to ERP, CRM, and billing systems to continuously pull transactions. That, co-founder and CEO Ramnandan Krishnamurthy (pictured above, right) said in an exclusive interview, helps unify operational and financial data and provide real-time financial visibility — instead of waiting until month-end to sort it all out. The approach should help reduce the time needed for the month-end close, he believes. For instance, Maximor says that proptech firm Rently, one of its early customers, cut its closing from eight days to four and avoided two additional accounting hires. Rently was able to redirect nearly half its team’s time to strategic work after using Maximor’s agentic platform, Rently’s CFO Dustin Neel said. Maximor’s financial agents plug into ERPs like NetSuite and Intacct, accounting tools such as QuickBooks and Zoho Books, and a range of payroll, CRM, and other SaaS platforms. Once connected, they generate workpapers, reviewer notes, and audit trails — helping streamline audits. Although Maximor aims to reduce reliance on ...