Zeni Launches AI-Powered Finance Concierge for Startups

Distributed by Business Wire
9th March 2021

With $13.5M in Funding, Zeni Brings Real-Time Insights to Startup Founders via Intelligent Bookkeeping, Accounting, and CFO Services

PALO ALTO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Modern bookkeeping fintech Zeni today launched the first AI-powered finance concierge for startups, making its intelligent bookkeeping, accounting, and CFO services available to businesses across the United States.

The company also announced it has raised $13.5 million in funding to-date, its Series A led by Saama Capital with participation from Amit Singhal, Sierra Ventures, SVB Financial Group, Liquid 2 Ventures, Firebolt Ventures, Dragon Capital, and Twin Ventures, with additional prominent angel investors.

Zeni has experienced rapid growth and adoption since onboarding its first paid customers in January 2020, today managing more than $200 million in funds every month across more than 100 startup customers. Using a seamless blend of artificial intelligence and a dedicated team of certified finance experts, Zeni’s full-service finance concierge performs daily bookkeeping and manages all other financial needs of its customers. The speed and accuracy of this approach gives startup founders real-time access to key financial insights via the Zeni Dashboard — including burn rate, operating expenses, cash/card balance, revenue by product, month-end reports, and more.

“Startup founders are flying blind daily because they don’t have access to a timely, accurate snapshot of their business finances,” said Swapnil Shinde, Co-Founder and CEO of Zeni. “We’re giving founders and startup decision makers real-time visibility, control, and expert support with a finance solution that can finally keep pace with their growing business.”

Zeni manages everything finance-related on behalf of its startup customers for a flat monthly fee as part of its bookkeeping, accounting, and CFO services, which includes:

Bill Pay and Invoicing
Expense and Receipt Management
Financial Projections, Budgeting, and FP&A Support
Payroll Administration
Real-Time Reporting via Zeni Dashboard
Monthly Financial Statements
Yearly Taxes and R&D Credit

Zeni has processed more than $300 million in transactions in its first year, and is on-track to process a total of $1 billion in transactions in the next 12 months.

“Zeni is solving real-world pain points for startups like ours,” said Jenova Chen, Co-Founder and President of thatgamecompany. “We view the Zeni team as an extension of our own. We rely on them multiple times a day to answer questions and get us our financial reports in a timely manner. For the first time, the Zeni dashboard gives me a real-time snapshot of how our business is tracking and a constant outlook on business performance.”

Zeni Co-Founders and twin brothers Swapnil Shinde and Snehal Shinde are repeat entrepreneurs and technologists with a proven track record unifying human expertise with artificial intelligence, selling their last company, AI-powered travel assistant Mezi, to American Express in 2018. Leveraging their technical expertise and first-hand experiences as founders, the twin brothers recruited a team of expert CPAs, accountants, tax advisors, FP&A experts and CFOs to create the only finance management solution for founders, by founders.

“Bookkeeping automation is a $10 billion market opportunity begging for a solution that can optimize human output and meet the needs of growing businesses,” said Ash Lilani, Managing Partner at Saama Capital. “When Swapnil and Snehal said they wanted to challenge the fragmented, complex bookkeeping solutions on the market today, we knew they were the team to do it. We’re thrilled to support Zeni in helping startups optimize their business daily.”

To learn more, visit www.zeni.ai.

About Zeni

Zeni is the first AI-powered finance concierge for startups powering high velocity decision making. With Zeni’s intelligent bookkeeping, accounting, tax, and CFO services, startups have access to real-time financial insights via their Zeni Dashboard, and a team of finance experts to manage every finance function for a flat monthly fee — daily bookkeeping, yearly taxes, bill pay and invoicing, financial projections, budgeting, payroll administration, and more. Zeni was founded in 2019 by twin brothers and serial entrepreneurs, Swapnil Shinde and Snehal Shinde, who most recently founded Mezi, the AI-powered travel assistant acquired by American Express in 2018. Zeni is backed by Saama Capital, Amit Singhal, Sierra Ventures, SVB Financial Group, Liquid 2 Ventures, Firebolt Ventures, Dragon Capital, and Twin Ventures, and prominent angel investors including Manish Chandra, Gokul Rajaram, Ed Lu, Nickhil Jakatdar, Kunal Shah, and Anupam Mittal.