Tracelight raises £3m to bring LLMs to financial modelling – UKTN

Tracelight, a London-based startup developing large language model (LLM) tools for the financial sector, has raised $3.6m (£2.7m) in seed funding.

Financial models hold an intriguing place in the current AI climate. The complex and time consuming processes that inform long-term strategy and the movement of billions of pounds seem ripe for automation.

At the same time, AI LLMs have struggled to make an impact in financial modelling, with much of the global industry to this day sticking with the Excel spreadsheet as its foundational tool.

Tracelight believes it can crack into the market by integrating its generative AI technology directly into the spreadsheet workflow.

The startup said its technology eliminates repetitive modelling tasks including writing formulas and running analysis from language prompts.

Tracelight has stressed that decision-making will remain in the hands of humans, however, it claimed its tools can help them build models effectively and quickly.

“Complex financial models underpin all of the corporate world’s most important decisions. Until now, LLMs have barely touched this workflow. Tracelight is purpose-built for this; it works seamlessly inside the tools analysts already trust,” said Tracelight co-founder and chief executive Peter Fuller.

“Our aim is to take away the entire mechanical workload of financial modelling. Our users act as directors and orchestrators of AI that is quickly becoming superhuman at the task of Excel analysis.”

The investment was led by Chalfen Ventures with participation from Acequia Capital, Inovo and EF, and angels.

“The most magical AI tools work at the highest level of abstraction, making them radically easy to adopt, while understanding and executing complex work under the hood,” said Chalfen Ventures founding partner Mike Chalfen.

“Tracelight does that. It has taken the world’s most widely used modelling platform and embedded AI where it can have immediate impact and its rapid adoption by analysts in demanding modelling environments shows just how big the opportunity is.”

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