Andreessen Horowitz Leads $60 Million AI Fintech Investment

Paayal Zaveri, Bloomberg News

A visitor watches an AI (Artificial Intelligence) sign on an animated screen at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), the telecom industry's biggest annual gathering, in Barcelona. Photographer: JOSEP LAGO/AFP , Photographer: JOSEP LAGO/AFP

(Bloomberg) -- Black Ore Technologies Inc., a startup building artificial intelligence tools for the financial services industry, is emerging from stealth with a $60 million funding round, the company plans to announce Tuesday.

Austin-based Black Ore is the latest AI startup to raise millions while still in its very early stages. Last October, London-based Stability AI raised a $101 million seed round. And earlier this year, Paris-based Mistral AI raised $113 million in its first funding deal. Typical seed and Series A rounds, meaning a company’s very early financings, are less than $20 million, according to PitchBook data.

Andreessen Horowitz and Oak HC/FT, led the funding round for Black Ore, which is a combined seed and Series A. Other investors include General Catalyst, Peter Thiel-backed Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures and SV Angel, along with fintech executives including PayPal Holdings Inc. co-founder Max Levchin. The company declined to share its valuation.

Founded by fintech entrepreneurs Eyal Shinar and Pavel Kapovski, Black Ore makes a platform aimed at helping streamline tasks for accountants and other financial services professionals. On Tuesday, the startup announced its first product, called Tax Autopilot. The tool uses AI to study federal and state tax codes and regulations in order to simplify the tax preparation and review processes for accountants, the company said.

“CPAs know AI can significantly increase efficiency and enable more strategic revenue-generating work,” said Shinar, the company’s chief executive officer. “However, we know that firms have for years seen technology providers fall short of their promises of innovation and greater efficiency.”

Black Ore spent two years building the architecture and training its models, which is why it is just now emerging from stealth, Shinar said in an interview on Bloomberg Television on Tuesday.

The company currently has 20 employees. The cash influx will be used to grow its customer base, hire more people (including in AI and machine learning) and develop new products. Shinar said the company will aim to be efficient in hiring. “Engineers are expensive,” he said on Bloomberg TV. “The bottom line is if you build the right team you don’t need to throw too much money on the problem.”

Future product offerings will tackle additional financial services like wealth management and insurance.

--With assistance from Edward Ludlow.

(Updates with details from Bloomberg TV interview starting in the sixth paragraph.)