In a finance department at a mid-sized energy firm, what used to be 20 hours of tedious intercompany reconciliation per week is now handled autonomously. The software behind that shift comes from Nominal, an enterprise tech startup betting that the future of corporate finance hinges on AI agents, not dashboards or process mapping tools, but task-completing software that works alongside existing ERP systems without requiring a rip-and-replace approach.
Founded in 2023 by Cognigo veterans Guy Leibovitz and Golan Kopichinsky, Nominal emerged with a $9.2 million seed round and recently secured an additional $20 million Series A led by Next47 and Workday Ventures. The company, which now employs about 40 people, says its agents have already eliminated more than 50,000 hours of manual accounting work.
Its primary offering is a “shadow ledger” platform that syncs with a company’s ERP system in real time, enabling AI agents to automate workflows such as transaction matching, journal entry creation, multi-entity consolidation, and variance analysis. These agents operate with contextual awareness, learning a company’s accounting logic and policies so they can autonomously execute tasks that would otherwise require entire teams. For companies struggling to keep up with finance operations (particularly amid a CPA shortage in the U.S.) Nominal sees an opening.
“Unlike traditional systems of record, Nominal is a system of intelligence. It doesn’t just manage work, it performs it,” CEO Leibovitz said in a recent announcement. “With over 300,000 certified public accountants missing from the U.S. workforce, agentic AI automation isn’t optional anymore-it’s a must.”
A Complementary Tool for ERP
Rather than compete directly with giants like Oracle or SAP, Nominal aims to complement them. Its platform is designed to integrate with ERP systems including NetSuite, Intacct, Workday, and SAP. It doesn’t replace the existing system but mirrors it with a parallel ledger structure, allowing its AI agents to operate on real-time financial data.
The technology’s reach extends beyond transactional automation. Nominal supports NL instructions for generating journal entries and explanations of anomalies. Its interface also includes tools for period-end close management, flux analysis with narrative generation, and cross-entity financial rollups, designed to reduce the cycle time and cognitive load on finance teams.
Customers, including companies in the energy, manufacturing, and consumer goods sectors, report outcomes such as 30% reductions in close time. While these figures are self-reported and not independently verified, Nominal’s traction has been enough to attract follow-on capital from Bling Capital, Hyperwise Ventures, and new investors tied to Salesforce and Justworks.
A “More Comprehensive” Platform
Nominal’s proposition reflects a broader trend in enterprise software: moving from data aggregation to intelligent execution. In that sense, it’s part of a growing class of “agentic” tools that aim to replace static reporting with automation. Unlike competitors focused narrowly on accounts payable or receivable automation, Nominal is positioning itself as a more comprehensive platform that can cover transaction-level work across multiple parts of the CFO stack.
The approach comes at a time when the ERP market, valued at $220 billion, is showing signs of generational change. According to Morgan Stanley, 20% of ERP growth is now going to startups that can offer lower-friction, AI-native enhancements. For Nominal, the opportunity lies in enabling midmarket companies with multi-entity structures to avoid costly, bespoke ERP customizations. Its go-to-market strategy focuses on these customers: holding companies, real estate firms, and energy providers, where reconciliation, consolidation, and regulatory compliance are resource-intensive.
The company’s investors also bring potential channel advantages. Next47, backed by Siemens, has facilitated enterprise customer introductions, while Workday Ventures offers embedded alignment with one of the major ERP providers Nominal integrates with. The firm’s expansion plans include doubling headcount and extending its agent library and ERP connectors.
Still, challenges remain. ERP modernization efforts often stall due to inertia, regulatory sensitivity, or stakeholder complexity. And while Nominal’s no-migration approach helps ease adoption, it still requires finance leaders to trust autonomous software with core accounting functions. But if the demand for automation continues to grow as CFOs seek to scale without expanding headcount, Nominal’s vision of finance superintelligence may find a lasting foothold.
