Light Raises $30M for AI-Native Finance, Bailouts Back in Focus
Light raises $30M Series A to scale AI-native finance, open a NY office, and triple engineering. Plus: bailout snapshots and CFO lessons on liquidity, backstops, and capital stack.
AI-Native Finance Moves Mainstream: Light Raises $30M Series A
Light closed a $30 million Series A to scale its AI-native finance platform for hypergrowth companies. The company plans to open a New York office, triple its engineering team, launch a process-optimization workbench and expand its deployment function, according to a press release.
The platform is built for speed and scale. It processes 280 million records in under a second, generates balance sheets instantly, supports multi-entity accounting, global payments and expense management, and targets human-level accuracy.
"We're not patching old systems with chatbots," said Founder and CEO Jonathan Sanders. "We built finance software from scratch for how companies actually operate today."
Balderton Capital led the round. "By rebuilding the general ledger from scratch instead of bolting AI onto legacy systems, they've unlocked the full power of AI," said partner Rob Moffat. "The result isn't just faster, it's a step-change."
Light exited stealth in June 2024 with a $13 million round led by Atomico. Over the past 12 months, the company reports 30x growth and an 84% reduction in finance operations time for customers replacing legacy ERP with its platform.
Why finance leaders should care
- Close and consolidation speed: Instant balance sheets and high-volume posting can compress close cycles and shorten reporting windows.
- Complexity at scale: Native multi-entity and multi-country workflows reduce manual reconciliations across entities, currencies and banks.
- Control and audit: If you evaluate replacements for ERP, pressure-test controls, audit trails, role-based permissions and SOX readiness.
- Integration surface: Verify connectivity to banks, payments, expense, payroll, data warehouses and BI. Latency and reconciliation logic matter.
- Change management: A larger deployment team is a good sign; still plan for staged cutovers, data migration, parallel runs and policy updates.
Bailouts: What They Fix, Break and Teach
With Washington signaling support for Argentina alongside potential IMF coordination, it's worth recalling the playbook. Bailouts aren't new, and they rarely look the same twice. Here are quick realities that still shape risk decisions.
10 curious facts about bailouts
- 1907: J.P. Morgan locked trust company chiefs in his library until a rescue deal formed, paving the way for the Federal Reserve in 1913.
- Mexico 1995: The U.S. backstop was repaid early, and the Treasury booked roughly $580 million in profit.
- New York City 1975: "Drop Dead" made headlines, but federal seasonal loans followed-at above-Treasury rates.
- LTCM 1998: The New York Fed convened banks; private capital stabilized the fund. No taxpayer money went in.
- TARP 2008: Authorized at $700B (later capped at $475B). Net cost landed near $31B as many bank stakes paid back.
- Greece 2010-2015: Three programs totaled €288.7B, including record-scale private-sector haircuts in 2012.
- Cyprus 2013: A bail-in converted 47.5% of uninsured deposits into equity at Bank of Cyprus; insured deposits were protected.
- U.S. 2023: SVB and Signature depositors were made whole via a systemic risk exception. Shareholders and certain creditors were not.
- Credit Suisse 2023: UBS acquired the bank; AT1 bondholders were wiped while shareholders received UBS stock.
- India 1991: Roughly 47 tons of gold were airlifted to secure emergency FX-an image of true last-resort funding.
Operating lessons for CFOs and treasury
- Liquidity breaks first: Stress test deposit flight, collateral calls and dealer pullbacks. Keep dry powder and diversified funding.
- Backstops aren't free: Pricing, conditions and governance change behavior long after the crisis.
- Know the capital stack: Recent rescues prioritized depositors; equity and AT1 holders absorbed losses.
- Policy moves fast: Have a playbook for guarantee programs, discount windows, swap lines and new facilities.
- Counterparty and cross-border: Map exposures to banks, funds and sovereign programs. Model regime differences.
- Data readiness: Maintain real-time cash, collateral and term-structure views. Minutes matter under stress.
Useful resources
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