Inc. 在由 Nexus Venture Partners 领投的一轮融资中筹集了 4500 万美元，为开发能够为企业运营财务的 AI 智能体提供资金。
Inc. has raised $45 million in a funding round led by Nexus Venture Partners, securing capital for an effort to create AI agents that can run finances for businesses.
这家成立两年的初创公司在其 A 轮融资中吸引了包括 B Capital Group US LLC 在内的投资者，现有投资方 Foundation Capital LLC 和 BoldCap Ventures LLC 也参与了跟投。这家总部位于纽约、前身名为 Maximor 的公司目前累计融资额达到 5400 万美元。
The two-year-old startup drew investors including B Capital Group US LLC to its Series A round, joined by existing backers Foundation Capital LLC and BoldCap Ventures LLC. The New York-headquartered firm known previously as Maximor has now raised $54 million in total.
该公司由 Ramnandan Krishnamurthy 和 Ajay Krishna Amudan 于 2024 年创立，与 Ramp 等公司竞争，致力于开发面向金融服务的人工智能平台。Hyphenate 为包括在线市场 Groupon Inc. 和 AI 视频虚拟形象初创公司 Synthesia Ltd. 在内的客户定制 AI 智能体以处理账务。
Founded in 2024 by Ramnandan Krishnamurthy and Ajay Krishna Amudan, the startup competes with the likes of Ramp to develop artificial intelligence platforms for financial services. Hyphenate customizes AI agents to handle the books for clients including online marketplace Groupon Inc. and AI video avatar startup Synthesia Ltd.
据该初创公司在声明中称，其智能体为冰淇淋制造商 Mini Melts USA Inc. 处理订单、开票和退款业务 —— 几个月内，它们处理的工作量相当于每年超过 16000 小时的财务工作。AI 智能体旨在以最少的人工干预执行多步骤任务。公司表示，当需要人工判断时，Hyphenate 的智能体会将问题上报给实际的财务团队。
Its agents deal with orders, invoicing and refunds for ice cream maker Mini Melts USA Inc. — within months, they were handling the equivalent of over 16,000 hours of annual finance work, the startup said in a statement. AI agents are designed to carry out multi-step tasks with minimal intervention. Hyphenate’s escalate to actual finance teams when human judgment is required, the firm said.
Hyphenate 在班加罗尔雇佣了约三分之一的工程团队，将利用这笔新资金更深入地拓展会计和战略财务领域。“我们专有的强化学习算法从客户的财务历史中学习，”同时担任该初创公司首席执行官的 Krishnamurthy 表示，“这成为了自我改进 AI 智能体的大脑。” 人工智能正在迅速超越聊天机器人时代。AI 智能体现在分析市场、对账，并帮助银行和资产管理公司减少从合规到风险监控等领域的繁重基础工作。
Hyphenate, which employs about a third of its engineering team in Bangalore, will use the new capital to expand more deeply into accounting and strategic finance. “Our proprietary reinforcement learning algorithm learns from the financial history of our customer,” said Krishnamurthy, who’s also the startup’s chief executive officer. “That becomes the brain of the self-improving AI agent.”Artificial intelligence is quickly advancing beyond the chatbot era. AI agents now analyze markets, reconcile accounts and help banks and asset managers lessen grunt work in areas from compliance to risk surveillance.
然而，人们仍担心自主系统是否可被信任以处理敏感职能，以及人类可能失去对该技术的控制。
Yet fears persist about whether autonomous systems can be trusted with sensitive functions, or the potential for humans to lose control of the technology.
Krishnamurthy 和 Amudan —— 两人现年均为 32 岁 —— 在印度理工学院马德拉斯分校攻读计算机科学硕士学位时相识。他们出售了学生时期的创业项目，随后在微软公司美国总部工作了七年，才创立了 Hyphenate。
Krishnamurthy and Amudan — both now 32 — met while studying for their Masters in computer science at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. They sold their student startup and then worked at Microsoft Corp.’s US headquarters for seven years before founding Hyphenate.
他们表示，自大约 13 个月前完成 900 万美元的种子轮融资以来，公司营收已增长了 86 倍。
Their startup has grown revenue 86 times since its $9 million seed financing about 13 months ago, they said.
“团队一旦看到我们的 AI 能以审计师满意的方式处理一个工作流，就会把下一个任务、再下一个任务交给它，”联合创始人说。
“Once a team sees our AI handle one workflow to auditors’ satisfaction, they give it the next task and then the next,” the co-founder said.