Maximor Raises $9M to Revolutionize Finance Teams with AI-Powered Excel Replacement for Streamlined Financial Management

Financial teams across various industries continue to rely heavily on Excel for closing books and reconciling numbers, even with the implementation of dedicated ERP, CRM, and billing systems. Two executives from Microsoft’s past aim to address this issue by establishing Maximor, a startup that seeks to replace spreadsheets with AI agents for routine financial tasks.

Maximor’s innovative approach revolves around a network of AI agents that connect directly to ERP, CRM, and billing systems, continuously pulling transactions. This integration helps unify operational and financial data, providing real-time financial visibility rather than waiting until the end of the month for sorting and analysis.

This strategy is expected to significantly reduce the time required for monthly closings. For instance, property management firm Rently, one of Maximor’s early customers, reportedly cut its closing time from eight days to four and avoided hiring two additional accounting staff members. Relying on Maximor’s agentic platform allowed Rently to redirect nearly half of their team’s time towards strategic work, according to the company’s CFO, Dustin Neel.

Maximor’s financial agents are compatible with various ERPs like NetSuite and Intacct, accounting tools such as QuickBooks and Zoho Books, and numerous SaaS platforms for payroll, CRM, and other services. Once connected, these agents generate workpapers, reviewer notes, and audit trails, streamlining audits.

While Maximor aims to diminish Excel dependency, it still supports the export of reconciled data into spreadsheets, a preferred format for many auditors and finance staff. Krishnamurthy, the co-founder and CEO of Maximor, explained that their platform performs the work and can present it either in its own UI or directly in Excel.

In addition to AI agents, Maximor offers human accountants as a backup option for AI tasks or as an accounting service for companies without in-house finance teams. Although this may seem at odds with Maximor’s promise of automating these tasks, Krishnamurthy assured TechCrunch that the software operates independently, with agents handling end-to-end work, while humans review the results much like traditional accounting teams, where junior staff handle routine tasks and managers focus on oversight.

Krishnamurthy co-founded Maximor in the summer of 2024 after years at Microsoft as a founding member of its digital transformation group. He collaborated with Ajay Krishna Amudan, now CTO, who previously worked on revamping Microsoft’s internal revenue systems and other projects there. The duo, having worked together for 14 years, starting as students at IIT-Madras, attracted angel investors including CFOs and finance leaders from Ramp, Gusto, MongoDB, Zuora, and the Big Four accounting firms.

The seed round also included Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas, a former IIT-Madras classmate of Krishnamurthy, and Zuora CEO Tien Tzuo, who was introduced by the venture capitalists backing the round. Institutional investors Gaia Ventures and Boldcap also took part in the funding.

Maximor, headquartered in New York with an office in Bengaluru, currently employs 18 individuals split almost evenly between the U.S. and India, and is actively hiring in both locations. The startup targets companies with at least $50 million in revenue and already boasts early customers in the U.S., China, and India. Additionally, Maximor’s software supports both GAAP and IFRS standards, catering to enterprises with a global footprint.