Finance departments need faster and more efficient ways of wrapping up the month’s books; current processes are manual, error-prone, and resource intensive. Stacks allows finance teams and AI agents to collaborate to close the books twice as fast – and eventually with just one click.

In just nine months, Stacks’ product-focused team built one of the most comprehensive, feature-rich financial close solutions, onboarding dozens of leading companies including Volt, Cleo, Juni, and Genesis. Customers report a 47% reduction in close time, a 97% decrease in manual reconciliations, and a 33% faster audit cycle. Investment comes from leading global VC firms EQT Ventures and General Catalyst.

Amsterdam, 19 February 2025 – Stacks, the AI-powered workspace helping companies close their books quickly and efficiently, has announced a $3 million pre-seed round led by EQT Ventures, followed by a fast-tracked $7 million seed round led by General Catalyst, with EQT Ventures doubling down on their investment. The rounds also saw participation from s16vc and prominent angel investors including Mike Taylor, CFO of Gusto and Simone Rüschenberg, CFO at Taktile. 

Every business is familiar with the end-of-month crunch that comes with book closing, which is often tedious and resource intensive. Although many tools are available, companies still often rely on archaic software systems as their main record-keeping, which are not fully integrated with each other. The result is fragmented data, increased manual labour, and susceptible to error. 

At the same time, AI is continuing to disrupt almost every industry and the accounting industry is no exception. Stacks offers a comprehensive solution that integrates financial processes, allowing businesses to streamline their monthly financial close with a single click. 

Just over a year ago, founder Albert Malikov was Head of International Product at U.S. fintech, Plaid; before then, he worked in a senior product role at Uber’s Money team, where he observed the majorly inefficient processes finance teams go through each month. 

Fast forward less than a year, the Stacks team’s customer-centric approach has allowed them to identify a key issue within the finance market, quickly build a product, recruit dozens of clients, and already start generating revenue. Albert has carried this work out alongside a growing, experienced product centric founding team, who come from leading disruptors in Uber, Plaid, Miro, and Mollie. 

Albert Malikov, founder of Stacks, commented:

“I’ve seen firsthand how much time finance teams lose to manual tasks—a decade ago at Uber, we were already building data-driven tools to elevate finance into a true strategic partner, not just a back-office function. Today, that need is finally hitting the mainstream: finance leaders everywhere are realizing they must go beyond just closing the books and start driving strategy and innovation. At Stacks, we’re here to make that happen. Our vision is to simplify the month-end close into a single click, freeing teams up to find new revenue streams, optimize cash flow, and shape the company’s future.”

He continues: “With AI-powered workflows, we’re eliminating tedious tasks so you can focus on the bigger picture. And we know that to truly reinvent an industry, you need a product-obsessed team that builds from the ground up, not just makes things incrementally better. The last nine months have been a blast bringing that vision to life with world-class investors and our pioneering customers—and we’re just getting started.”

Stacks is easy-to-adapt due to being fully integrated with Enterprise Resource Planning software systems and major vital data sources and tools, such as Excel, Slack, and others. There is no need for lengthy and costly data migration projects; customers can be operational in under two weeks. The platform handles essential compliance workflows and reduces risks with central reconciliation views. Features like AI-powered transaction matching, data ingestion, and journal entries help teams work more efficiently.  Finance teams can hire AI agents for some workflows and easily review their work through the platform.

Kaushik Subramanian, Partner at EQT Ventures, added: 

“It is uncommon to find a top quality product leader in Europe with deep experience from leading Silicon Valley businesses. EQT Ventures was looking for a company to support our thesis that financial close is mostly manual workflows and will be one of the first spaces in the 'office of the CFO' to be disrupted by AI. When we met Albert just over a year ago, it was just him and an idea, but we could not partner soon enough.”

Zeynep Yavuz, Partner at General Catalyst, said:

"Within just six months of its launch, Stacks has delivered meaningful results for its customers. Albert’s relentless dedication to building a best-in-class product and rapidly shipping new features has driven deep customer obsession. In an industry where CFOs are cautious about adopting new tools for essential tasks like financial reporting, the positive feedback speaks volumes about the impact Stacks is making."

Ruben Arnbert, CFO at Juni, added

"Since adopting Stacks, we've reduced our financial close time by three and a half days—a material improvement that has allowed us to utilize resources more effectively. What stood out most was Stacks’ transparency about current functionalities and future developments, a rare quality among providers. Additionally, the innovative technology and clever workflows offered a unique solution, seamlessly linking tasks, journals, and events specific to the closing process. This integration has transformed how our teams collaborate during financial close."

About Stacks

Stacks is an AI-powered workspace that shortens monthly financial close cycles, reduces accounting risk, and boosts accuracy. Founded by senior product, engineering, and finance leaders from Uber, Plaid, and Miro, it helps mid to large enterprises transform their top finance workflow—monthly close. The platform is trusted by dozens of leading companies, including Volt, Cleo, Juni, and Genesis. Stacks has raised $10M in seed funding, backed by General Catalyst, EQT Ventures, and s16vc.

About EQT Ventures

EQT Ventures is an early stage lead investor built by founders and operators, offering the next generation of entrepreneurs a fast track to scale. The fund is based in Luxembourg and has investment advisors strategically located across Stockholm, Amsterdam, London, New York, Berlin, and Paris. Currently investing out of its third (€1.1B) fund, the largest early-stage fund ever raised in Europe, EQT Ventures is one of the most active VC firms partnering with hundreds of ambitious founders and startups. Driven by a team of accomplished company builders and scalers, EQT Ventures is committed to providing the capital and hands-on support necessary for generation-defining founders and companies to transform their visions into global successes.

About General Catalyst

General Catalyst is a global investment and transformation company that partners with the world’s most ambitious entrepreneurs to drive resilience and applied AI. We support founders with a long-term view who challenge the status quo, partnering with them from seed to growth stage and beyond. With offices in San Francisco, New York City, Boston, Berlin, Bangalore, and London, we have supported the growth of 800+ businesses, including Airbnb, Anduril, Applied Intuition, Commure, Glean, Guild, Gusto, Helsing, Hubspot, Kayak, Livongo, Mistral, Ramp,  Samsara, Snap, Stripe, Sword, and Zepto.

About s16vc

s16vc is a Founders for Founders fund focused on Pre-Seed to Series A investments into global-first tech companies. We build the fund as a product in public, invest in founders referred by the community, treat every founder request as our own, and play poker. s16vc is trusted by over 150 founders, operators, and investors, incl. founders of Datadog, UiPath, Miro, Chargebee, Wolt, Supercell, Pitch, Picsart, and Intercom.