Tracelight launches AI engine for financial modelling: raises $3.6M seed round

• Excel-native AI plug-in enables complex, accurate modelling at unprecedented speed, helping financial analysts make better judgment calls faster

• Early users in investment banking and professional services report 90% time savings on laborious and repetitive modelling tasks 

• Seed round led by Chalfen Ventures will fund Tracelight’s product, team, and go-to-market expansion.

LONDON and NEW YORK, Aug. 7, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Tracelight, the UK-founded AI company making financial models easier to build and trust, has raised $3.6 million in seed funding.

The round was led by Chalfen Ventures, with participation from Acequia Capital, Inovo and EF, and angels including Charlie Songhurst (ex Microsoft head of Corporate Strategy) and Suhit Gupta (ex-CIO General Atlantic and Carlyle).

Complex financial models are the hidden architecture of global finance, shaping mergers, investments, and strategic decisions worth trillions. Yet it is a world largely untouched by the AI revolution. The tools underpinning financial modelling have barely evolved in decades – with Microsoft Excel, the spreadsheet platform still at the heart of most modelling, celebrating its 40th anniversary this September.

Tracelight bridges the gap between financial models and large language models (LLMs) by turning spreadsheet logic into LLM-friendly data, allowing financial analysts and consultants to harness the benefits of Generative AI when building complex financial models.

By integrating directly into the spreadsheet workflow and enhancing how LLMs interpret and work with Excel, Tracelight eliminates repetitive modelling tasks. From writing complex formulas and validating models to autonomously running analysis from simple natural language prompts, it is a force multiplier for analysts, augmenting their skills with AI, letting them model faster and smarter without needing to change the way they work.

Since launch, Tracelight has gained early traction among analysts at investment banks, private credit investment and private equity houses and leading professional services firms. Early users are already reporting >90% time savings on laborious modelling tasks like building common analyses, formatting, and finding errors.

Crucially, Tracelight keeps humans in control of decision-making. Rather than replacing analysts, it enables them to build better financial models and focus on high-stakes decisions where human judgment is essential.

Tracelight was founded in 2024 by Peter Fuller, a former McKinsey consultant and Entrepreneur First team lead, alongside Aleksander Misztal (ex-Jane Street engineer) and Janek Zimoch (founding engineer at 11x).