Technology
Startup Founded by Ex-Revolut Employees Uses AI to Automate Accounts, But Hopes to Keep Accountants in Jobs
Often, successful startups can provide rise to “startup mafias” – groups of former founders who create recent startups. But not less than as often, recent startups will be founded by employees. In the case of Live FlowThat’s exactly what happened — and up to now, $13.5 million has been raised.
A number of years ago, Anita Koimur was heading up the loyalty products department at fintech leader Revolut, while Lasse Kalkar was the country manager for the Nordic region.
After meeting, they kept in touch and later, as co-founders, got here up with the thought for LiveFlow, running it through Y Combinator after which raising a Seed round in 2021.
LiveFlow enables businesses to sync real-time data from their accounting services, banks, and payment platforms to their custom reports, automating workflows, consolidating business accounts, and enabling greater collaboration across the business. You might think that sounds easy, but even today, it’s a world where accountants have to transfer data between systems, often manually.
But as enterprise platforms regularly entrench themselves into accountants’ workflows, many are selecting to leave the industry, especially now that artificial intelligence is starting to take jobs away from humans. And the evidence is growing.
More than 300,000 U.S. accountants and auditors left their jobs between 2019 and 2021, and the variety of accountants in the U.S. fell 15.9% since 2019, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Meanwhile, younger accountants aged 25 to 34 and mid-career professionals aged 45 to 54 are leaving the career.
LiveFlow hopes not to speed up this flow, but to stop it. CEO Kalkar told TechCrunch that, “Our plan is to use AI to make accounting firms more efficient, but we think the accountant will still be there.”
Why is that this happening?
“Basically,” Kalkar said, “small businesses hire an accountant to feel secure. They want to know that someone has their back. We can’t completely replace that with technology.”
Still, Kalkar wouldn’t reveal what sort of AI the corporate plans to use: “It’s still in the pipeline and will be implemented in the next year or more… Unfortunately, we don’t disclose what AI we’re currently using.”
Whatever they’re doing, it seems to be working.
The startup has just raised $13.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Valar Ventures. VC co-founded by Peter Thiel, it was the primary enterprise capital fund to invest in Xero and later TransferWise.
Koimur and Kalkar, joined by former Web Summit engineering chief Evans O’Brien, at the moment are planning to expand into the US market, with headquarters in New York.
The company’s current clients include accounting firms corresponding to BDO and KLR, in addition to Wendy’s and Crumbl Cookies brands.
The company’s newest product, LiveFlow Next, is designed to unlock accounting to do more consulting work.
In a press release, Valar founder James Fitzgerald said, “LiveFlow helps save countless hours per month while eliminating human error.”
While LiveFlow has competitors, none of them are currently backed by equity investors. Understandfrom Australia is doing something similar, even though it apparently hasn’t secured VC funding, while Coverage Reporting According to Cruchbase, an organization in the US is in an analogous situation.
Technology
US medical device giant Artivion says hackers stole files during a cybersecurity incident
Artivion, a medical device company that produces implantable tissue for heart and vascular transplants, says its services have been “disrupted” resulting from a cybersecurity incident.
In 8-K filing In an interview with the SEC on Monday, Georgia-based Artivion, formerly CryoLife, said it became aware of a “cybersecurity incident” that involved the “compromise and encryption” of information on November 21. This suggests that the corporate was attacked by ransomware, but Artivion has not yet confirmed the character of the incident and didn’t immediately reply to TechCrunch’s questions. No major ransomware group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
Artivion said it took some systems offline in response to the cyberattack, which the corporate said caused “disruptions to certain ordering and shipping processes.”
Artivion, which reported third-quarter revenue of $95.8 million, said it didn’t expect the incident to have a material impact on the corporate’s funds.
Technology
It’s a Raspberry Pi 5 in a keyboard and it’s called Raspberry Pi 500
Manufacturer of single-board computers Raspberry Pi is updating its cute little computer keyboard device with higher specs. Named Raspberry Pi500This successor to the Raspberry Pi 400 is just as powerful as the present Raspberry Pi flagship, the Raspberry Pi 5. It is on the market for purchase now from Raspberry Pi resellers.
The Raspberry Pi 500 is the simplest method to start with the Raspberry Pi because it’s not as intimidating because the Raspberry Pi 5. When you take a look at the Raspberry Pi 500, you do not see any chipsets or PCBs (printed circuit boards). The Raspberry Pi is totally hidden in the familiar housing, the keyboard.
The idea with the Raspberry Pi 500 is you could connect a mouse and a display and you are able to go. If, for instance, you’ve got a relative who uses a very outdated computer with an outdated version of Windows, the Raspberry Pi 500 can easily replace the old PC tower for many computing tasks.
More importantly, this device brings us back to the roots of the Raspberry Pi. Raspberry Pi computers were originally intended for educational applications. Over time, technology enthusiasts and industrial customers began using single-board computers all over the place. (For example, when you’ve ever been to London Heathrow Airport, all of the departures and arrivals boards are there powered by Raspberry Pi.)
Raspberry Pi 500 draws inspiration from the roots of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, a non-profit organization. It’s the right first computer for college. In some ways, it’s a lot better than a Chromebook or iPad because it’s low cost and highly customizable, which inspires creative pondering.
The Raspberry Pi 500 comes with a 32GB SD card that comes pre-installed with Raspberry Pi OS, a Debian-based Linux distribution. It costs $90, which is a slight ($20) price increase over the Raspberry Pi 400.
Only UK and US keyboard variants will probably be available at launch. But versions with French, German, Italian, Japanese, Nordic and Spanish keyboard layouts will probably be available soon. And when you’re in search of a bundle that features all the things you would like, Raspberry Pi also offers a $120 desktop kit that features the Raspberry Pi 500, a mouse, a 27W USB-C power adapter, and a micro-HDMI to HDMI cable.
In other news, Raspberry Pi has announced one other recent thing: the Raspberry Pi monitor. It is a 15.6-inch 1080p monitor that’s priced at $100. Since there are quite a few 1080p portable monitors available on the market, this launch is not as noteworthy because the Pi 500. However, for die-hard Pi fans, there’s now also a Raspberry Pi-branded monitor option available.
Technology
Apple Vision Pro may add support for PlayStation VR controllers
According to Apple, Apple desires to make its Vision Pro mixed reality device more attractive for gamers and game developers latest report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
The Vision Pro was presented more as a productivity and media consumption device than a tool geared toward gamers, due partly to its reliance on visual and hand controls moderately than a separate controller.
However, Apple may need gamers if it desires to expand the Vision Pro’s audience, especially since Gurman reports that lower than half one million units have been sold to this point. As such, the corporate has reportedly been in talks with Sony about adding support for PlayStation VR2 handheld controllers, and has also talked to developers about whether they may support the controllers of their games.
Offering more precise control, Apple may also make other forms of software available in Vision Pro, reminiscent of Final Cut Pro or Adobe Photoshop.
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