Nominal Looks to Disrupt the $US44B ERP Market
Nominal is a US startup harnessing generative AI to bridge the gap between what it claims are outdated, costly ERP systems and the financial management needs of modern mid-market, multi-entity businesses.
The company launched this month with $US9.2 million in seed funding from Bling Capital and Hyperwise Ventures, with participation from Vela Partners, Incubate Fund and executives from Bill.com, Salesforce, Justworks, ServiceNow and Intel.
The $US44 billion ERP market (Gartner 2023), originally revolutionized by the cloud, now grapples with outdated systems requiring costly engineering to meet modern companies’ needs.
Nominal believes that generative AI is a pivotal technology, especially in light of the decline in CPA candidates and the surge of financial and accounting point solutions. Compared to existing retrieval-based assistants such as SAP Joule and Sage Copilot, Nominal takes a proactive approach, transforming business logic into automated accounting workflows.
The company plans to use the funds to accelerate its product offering, expand its market reach and increase sales and support resources in the US. The company primarily focuses on mid-market, multi-entity companies such as holding companies, real estate, energy and multinational technology companies in its initial go-to-market plans.
The current ERP landscape is dominated by outdated technologies, costly system integrators and lengthy customization projects. Nominal surveyed over 120 financial professionals and found that for every dollar spent on software licenses, an additional $3 is spent on system integrators. The problem is further exacerbated in multi-entity companies. The complexity of managing multiple ledgers, currencies and regulations has amplified the need for expensive customizations and convoluted spreadsheets.
Nominal says it is bridging this gap with an entirely new, generative AI-powered and cloud-based platform. Nominal’s shadow ledger seamlessly extends existing ERPs and general ledgers, requiring no migration and carrying no risk to current operations.
Nominal’s key innovation is its generative subledgers that transform free text, documents and spreadsheets into automated workflows. The platform also offers custom workflows, enabling businesses to tailor their financial operations to their specific needs. The generative workflows can operate in auto-pilot mode or under human supervision to ensure financial accuracy.
“Today's dominant ERP software companies were started around 50 years ago and built for large enterprises. These solutions are expensive and difficult to implement, particularly for smaller companies with limited time and resources," said Kyle Lui, general partner at Bling Capital.
“Nominal leverages AI to deliver a next generation ERP solution purpose-built for mid-market enterprises that includes out-of-the-box integrations and a modern user experience."