Tracelight, founded by Peter Fuller, Janek Zimoch, and Aleksander Misztal, has raised $3.6 million in seed funding to launch its AI-powered Excel plug-in. Backed by Chalfen Ventures, Acequia Capital, Inovo, Entrepreneurs First, and prominent angels like Charlie Songhurst and Suhit Gupta, the company is building tools that help financial professionals build models faster, more accurately, and with greater confidence.

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Bridging Spreadsheets and AI: No More Manual Headache

Financial modeling lives in Excel - still 40 years strong - with formulas, linked tabs, formatting, and logic buried in cells. Tracelight changes that by translating spreadsheet logic into a format viable for large language models. Analysts can now prompt models: “Build a debt schedule assuming 5% interest over five years,” and Tracelight parses dependencies, runs calculations, and outputs formulas or schedules with incredible precision. All while keeping humans firmly in control.

This is not AI writing financials - it’s AI understanding financials and augmenting analysts’ expertise.

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A Founder's Moment to Quote

Here’s the high-leverage pivot every founder should internalize: the most successful AI tools don’t replace workflows - they become the most intuitive step in them.

By embedding seamlessly into Excel - where finance teams already work - Tracelight doesn’t require reshaping behavior. Analysts gain efficiency because the tool enriches their familiar workflow. That’s how trust grows, and once trust is earned, adoption compounds.

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Why Investors Are Energized

• Chalfen Ventures is known for betting on software that powers professionals.
  
• Acequia Capital, Inovo, and Entrepreneurs First reinforce the startup’s credibility across fintech and deep tech.
  
• Angels like Songhurst and Gupta bring strategy and early distributions within global finance networks.
  

Together, this syndicate brings not just capital, but go-to-market velocity and high-impact pathways into financial services.

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Scalable Capabilities with Strategic Focus

With current funding, Tracelight will:

1. Enhance LLM integration to support scenario testing and risk analysis.
   
2. Add multilingual and regional finance-support models (e.g., IFRS vs. GAAP).
   
3. Expand go-to-market presence in investment banking, consulting, and corporate finance markets.
   
4. Open-source community snippets for common modeling tasks, boosting viral adoption.
   

This roadmap unlocks faster model rollouts and user retention with innovation built around financial workflows - not on replacing them.

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Real Results; Real Momentum

Early beta users - investment banks, private equity shops, consultancies - are reporting >90% time savings on repetitive modeling tasks: from constructing formulas and checking logic to formatting and debugging. Tracelight turns hours of agonizing work into minutes of creative decisioning.

And it's not just about speed - it’s about confidence. By interpreting model logic and ensuring integrity, Tracelight reduces risks of formula errors that can cost millions.

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Excel + AI = Market Catalyst

Let’s put that into context:

• Surveys show financial professionals spend 25–40% of their time building and debugging spreadsheets. That's real value left on the table.
  
• The enterprise collaboration tools market, which includes financial modeling software, is projected to exceed $60 billion by 2027, driven in part by AI-enhanced workflows.
  
• Demand for accurate, speed-enabled modeling is only rising - especially with market volatility and regulatory complexity accelerating.
  

Tracelight is stepping into a booming need: making AI the fastest path to clarity in high-stakes financial work.

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The Broader Takeaway for Founders

This isn’t just about tech; it’s about positioning:

If your product naturally integrates where deep knowledge lives, you’re not selling - you’re embedding future dependence. That’s where longevity and defensibility thrive.

Tracelight didn't invent AI; they invented usable AI inside Excel - turning a platform every financial team trusts into a superpower.