By Anshika Mathews · AIM Media House
Few phrases provoke dread in finance teams like: “We’re implementing a new ERP.” John Glasgow , founder and CEO of Campfire, knows this firsthand. “You tell your accounting team, ‘We bought an ERP’—everyone’s ready to quit,” he said in a recent interview.
“Nobody wants to go through a one-year implementation.” It’s precisely that aversion and the inefficiencies it reflects that Campfire is built to solve.
Just nine months after launching, the AI-powered ERP startup has raised $35 million in a Series A round led by Accel, with participation from Foundation Capital, Y Combinator, Capital 49, and angel investors including Dan Kang, CFO of Mercury. Founded in 2023, Campfire is a modern ERP built for high-growth companies.
Its early momentum is striking: over 100 companies have already replaced legacy systems like NetSuite and QuickBooks with Campfire. That list includes Advisor360, a wealth management platform; Rhumbix, a construction software firm; customer experience company Fooji; as well as YC-backed startups like Replit and Replo.
For Glasgow, the product is a direct result of years spent working inside outdated systems. He began his career in finance, holding roles at Fidelity and Union Square Advisors. Later, he joined Invoice2go after a former manager took over as CEO.
Less than a year later, Bill.com acquired Invoice2go in a $625 million deal. Glasgow handled much of the M&A due diligence—and the shortcomings of their ERP system became impossible to ignore. “I was forced to manage hundreds of diligence requests in Excel because their ERP simply wasn’t up to the task,” he said.
“That’s when I knew something had to change.” That experience ultimately led to Campfire. The platform uses large language models (LLMs) to automate and accelerate a range of accounting functions from reconciling AWS cloud bills to generating detailed cash flow analyses and board-ready reports.
Its AI assistant, Ember AI, lets finance teams ask questions in natural language and receive real-time insights without relying on traditional dashboards or SQL queries.
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