Light, an innovative AI-native finance platform renowned for its ability to process an astounding 280 million records in under a second, has recently secured $30 million in Series A funding. Balderton Capital spearheaded this funding round, with contributions from other prominent investors, including Atomico, Cherry Ventures, Seedcamp, and Entrée Capital. Notably, several angel investors also joined the round, including Thomas Wolf, the Co-founder and Chief Science Officer of Hugging Face, and Charles Songhurst, a Board Member at Meta.
This latest funding round brings Light’s cumulative capital raised to $43 million. The infusion of capital comes at a time when Light has experienced extraordinary growth, achieving a remarkable 30-fold increase in its customer base over the past year. Companies utilizing Light’s platform have reported a 84% reduction in the time required for finance operations, particularly after transitioning from outdated legacy ERP systems.
Founded in 2022 by serial entrepreneur Jonathan Sanders, Light addresses a critical challenge faced by hyper-growth companies: delivering finance tools that can scale as these organizations grow at rates significantly faster than traditional Software as a Service (SaaS) businesses. While many competitors opt for adding AI functionalities to long-established, legacy systems, Light has taken a more unique approach by building its entire platform around AI technology. This creation enables its software to evolve organically and continually enhance itself, affecting all aspects, from database design to user experience.
Unlike conventional finance systems that often struggle to process 1 million records efficiently, Light’s platform can handle an impressive 280 million records in just a fraction of a second. Financial processes such as generating balance sheets are executed instantaneously. Complex functions such as multi-entity accounting, global payments, and expense management operate seamlessly and automatically across multiple jurisdictions. The platform’s AI is designed to match human accuracy, identifying errors and discrepancies that professionals often miss, thereby improving overall financial integrity.
Light’s method has attracted leading businesses that are undergoing explosive growth. Companies such as Lovable, Sana, and Legora have transitioned from their fragmented and inefficient finance tools to embrace Light’s unified platform. These organizations have recognized that they require more than simply incremental advancements; they need a robust infrastructure that can scale at their exceptional pace without necessitating a larger workforce or increasing operational complexity.
Light has established partnerships with key financial infrastructure providers, including industry giants such as JP Morgan, Adyen, and BDO. These collaborations not only ensure enterprise-grade reliability for users but also enable the rapid delivery of innovative solutions typical of a fast-growing startup environment.
The engineering team at Light comprises talented professionals drawn from some of the world’s leading technology firms, including Spotify, Google, Klarna, AWS, Booking.com, and Shopify. This diverse expertise has resulted in the development of a system purpose-built for global enterprises, eliminating the need for companies to adapt to inflexible workflows.
The Series A funding will significantly bolster Light’s efforts in geographic expansion. The company is setting its sights on opening a new office in New York to cater to increasing client demand, a strategic move aimed at enhancing its market presence in the region. And Light has ambitious plans to triple the size of its engineering team by the second quarter of 2026, launch a specialized process optimization workbench, and expand its deployment department.
KEY QUOTES:
“We’re not patching old systems with chatbots. We built finance software from scratch for how companies actually operate today. Companies shouldn’t have to spend $50,000 and five months just to expand into a new country. With Light, it happens instantly. ERP was built for factories. Light is built for the fastest-growing companies of the 21st century.”
Jonathan Sanders, founder and CEO of Light
“We’ve seen countless finance platforms over the years, but almost all of them tweak at the edges. Light is the first to throw out the old playbook. By rebuilding the general ledger from scratch instead of bolting AI onto legacy systems, they’ve unlocked the full power of AI. The result isn’t just faster, it’s a step-change. This is the financial platform hypergrowth companies have been waiting for.”
Rob Moffat, Partner at Balderton Capital
