Glassbox, a Toronto-based fintech startup, announced that it raised $1.2 million in pre-seed funding in order to “reimagine” how finance teams work with spreadsheets in the age of AI (artificial intelligence).
The investment round was led by FinTech Collective (New York) and StandUp Ventures (Toronto), with participation from Watertower Ventures (Los Angeles).
The proceeds will be used to expand Glassbox’s team and “bring its AI-compatible financial analysis platform to market.”
For many years, corporate finance workflows have reportedly “relied on clunky spreadsheets, long hours, and error-prone manual processes.”
While other industries have begun embracing real-time collaboration tools and AI-powered assistants, finance teams have “been left with little more than bigger, more complex Excel files. Glassbox aims to change that.”
Glassbox’s solution is centered around a framework it calls FinScript.
Rather than building financial models and analysis with traditional spreadsheet formulas, users can “input plain text instructions that align with large language models’ (LLMs) capabilities for processing written information.”
This approach adds context and structure to data and “enables faster, more auditable analysis while maintaining compatibility with existing Excel-based processes.”
According to the company, junior analysts using FinScript can “evaluate deals up to five times faster than experienced Excel users. The system also reduces the risk of costly errors, an issue that has long plagued finance teams.”
The founding team brings expertise to the challenge.
Harris, who is an engineer with experience in energy investment banking and derivatives structuring on Wall Street, “brings insight into the inefficiencies of traditional finance workflows.”
Kennedy, an engineer and cloud architect, “leads technical strategy and development for Glassbox.”
Glassbox has been operating in stealth mode “for the past 18 months, running private beta programs with select industry leaders.”
The company is opening its waitlist to “a broader audience, with plans to scale distribution later this year.”
With its approach and backers, Glassbox says that it is positioning itself “as a key player in the emerging field of AI-enabled financial services.”
The company’s spreadsheet platform is said to be poised to “transform how financial professionals analyze deals, collaborate, and make decisions — all without leaving Excel behind.”
Established back in 2023 with head offices in Toronto, Glassbox is on a mission to empower capital markets and investment professionals with “tools that deliver unmatched productivity gains, reduce errors, and harness the power of AI.”
By “reinventing” the spreadsheet as an AI-compatible platform, Glassbox aims to make “financial analysis faster, smarter, and more transparent.”
FinTech Collective is a “global, early-stage venture capital firm backing entrepreneurs who are rewiring the way money moves through the world.”
Founded in 2012 with offices in New York City and London, the firm has experience investing “across capital markets, wealth and asset management, banking, lending, payments, insurance, and DeFi.”
Backed by institutional investors, FinTech Collective manages “~$1b in regulatory assets.”
During the past 10 years the company reports that it has had “10 exits, taken one company from pitch deck to public markets and invested in close to 100 portfolio companies including Anyfin in Stockholm, bunch and Mondu in Berlin, Simetrik in Colombia, and several businesses in NYC including MoneyLion, NYDIG, Quovo (acquired by Plaid) and Vestwell.”
