Nominal is a company tapping into generative AI to bridge the gap between outdated and costly ERP systems and the financial management needs of modern mid-market and multi-entity businesses. The company launched this week with $9.2 million in seed funding from Bling Capital and Hyperwise Ventures, with participation from Vela Partners, Incubate Fund, and executives at companies like Bill.com, Salesforce, Justworks, ServiceNow, and Intel.
Nominal believes that generative AI (GenAI) is a pivotal technology, especially in light of the decline in Certified Public Accountant (CPA) candidates and the surge of financial and accounting point solutions. Compared to retrieval-based assistants like SAP Joule and Sage Copilot, Nominal takes a proactive approach, transforming business logic into automated accounting workflows.
The company plans to use the funding to accelerate its product offering, expand its market reach, and increase sales and support resources in the U.S. In its initial go-to-market plans, it primarily focuses on mid-market and multi-entity companies like holding companies, real estate, energy, and multinational technology companies.
Nominal’s co-founders Guy Leibovitz (CEO) and Golan Kopichinsky (VP of R&D) are have a proven track record in AI and data security. They previously founded Cognigo (acquired by NetApp in 2019). And the company benefits from a rich core of senior technology leaders, some of whom are alumni of Israel’s top intelligence units and veterans of fintech companies like Riskified, Datarails and PayEm.
Nominal surveyed over 120 financial professionals and found that for every dollar spent on ERP software licenses, an additional $3 is spent on system integrators. This problem is further worsened in multi-entity companies. The complexity of managing multiple ledgers, currencies, and regulations highlights the need for expensive customizations and complex spreadsheets.
Nominal is addressing this issue with a new, generative AI-powered, cloud-based platform. Nominal’s shadow ledger seamlessly extends existing ERPs and general ledgers without requiring migration and carries no risk to current operations. The company’s key innovation is the generative sub-ledgers that transform free text, documents, and spreadsheets into automated workflows. Plus, Nominal’s Financial Data Lake aggregates data from diverse sources, enabling advanced reporting for strategic decision-making and operational efficiency.
The generative sub-ledgers include an intercompany ledger for streamlined multi-entity consolidation and efficient management of cross-company transactions, a lease sub-ledger for simplifying ASC 842/IFRS 16 compliance, and accruals and revenue recognition sub-ledgers. This platform also offers custom workflows, enabling businesses to tailor their financial operations to their needs. The generative workflows can operate in auto-pilot mode or under human supervision to ensure financial accuracy.
Nominal is established across hundreds of entities and manages over $1 billion in book value. This platform has proven its significant impact and efficiency in the financial management landscape. For example, a mid-sized energy company saves 20+ hours per week by replacing manual work with automation. Plus, Nominal future-proofs its clients’ growth with a platform that adapts to increased business demands without the necessity of expanding financial teams.
KEY QUOTES:
“The decision to back Nominal couldn’t have been easier given the confidence we have in the team led by second-time founders Guy and Golan, as well as the early customer success achieved while in stealth. Nominal is poised for rapid mid-market growth by using AI and cloud technology to disrupt the ERP market.”
- Nathan Shuchami, managing partner with Hyperwise Ventures
“The ERP market is broken. Solutions today are complex, siloed and require costly engineering. Following a miserable experience at our startup and then at a Fortune 500 company, Golan and I decided to use our AI and data engineering experience to fix it. We are set to build a company that can make a real difference and deliver a solution that automates manual work and lets finance teams focus on strategy over spreadsheets.”
- Nominal co-founder Guy Leibovitz (CEO)
“Today’s dominant ERP software companies were started around 50 years ago and built for large enterprises. These solutions are expensive and difficult to implement, particularly for smaller companies with limited time and resources. Nominal leverages AI to deliver a next generation ERP solution purpose-built for mid-market enterprises that includes out-of-the-box integrations and a modern user experience.”
- Kyle Lui, general partner at Bling Capital
