XFO Financials Inc., an accounting automation startup that does business as Vic.ai, has raised $52 million through a new funding round announced today.

Existing Vic.ai investors GGV Capital and ICONIQ Growth led the Series C round. Two other returning backers, Cowboy Ventures and Costanoa Ventures, participated as well. The company’s total outside funding now stands at $115 million.

Vic.ai provides a software platform that companies use to manage the accounts payable process, or the process of paying suppliers for goods and services. The startup’s platform uses artificial intelligence to automate much of the manual work involved in the task. According to Vic.ai, it has helped companies realize nearly $200 million in cost savings by streamlining their accounting operations.

To process a supplier invoice, a company must extract the transaction details that the invoice contains and add them to its enterprise resource management system. Historically, the task has been done manually. Vic.ai says that its platform’s AI models can extract data from invoices automatically to save time for finance teams. 

There are other tools on the market that can likewise automate the invoice processing workflow. However, Vic.ai says that competing tools often encounter accuracy issues when a company receives an invoice with a different format than the one its suppliers typically use. Vic.ai claims that its platform not only reduces such accuracy issues, but can also be deployed with less effort.

Companies often require executives to sign off on supplier invoices before payment is made. According to Vic.ai, its platform automatically routes each supplier invoice to the relevant executive for review. Moreover, the built-in AI models observe how a company processes supplier payments and over time learn when payments can be approved automatically.

Vic.ai provides an analytics dashboard for monitoring how accounts payable tasks are carried out. According to the startup, users can monitor the amount of time it takes different business units to process purchases. The startup’s platform can also track other metrics, such as how much a company spends on products from each supplier. 

“Every day we push the envelope of what AI can do – processing invoices 24/7 with up to 99% accuracy, boosting customers’ total productivity by 500%, mastering quick and accurate turn-around times for faster month-end closes, and beyond,” Vic.ai co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Alexander Hagerup wrote in a blog post. “And our intelligence dashboard tracks it all, providing invaluable finance and performance data insights.”

Vic.ai claims that its platform is used by more than 10,000 companies. The startup’s active user base has grown by 280% over the past year, while its contracted annual recurring revenue tripled in the same time frame. The $52 million funding round announced today will help Vic.ai continue adding new customers. 

As part of its growth strategy, the startup intends to roll out a series of new financial tools next year. The tools will enable companies to issue corporate credit cards and track business spending more efficiently. Additionally, Vic.ai plans to add AI features that will automatically suggest ways that a company can optimize its business spending.

“We envision a near future when AI technology will handle over 90% of cost transaction processing on behalf of finance teams, and facilitate autonomous purchasing,” Hagerup stated. 

Photo: Vic.ai