Nominal, a developer of AI tools for enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, has raised US$20 million in series A funding.

The funding round was led by Next47 and Workday Ventures, with participation from Bling Capital, Hyperwise Ventures, Vela Partners, Incubate Fund, and private investors linked to Salesforce and Intel.

This brings Nominal’s total funding to US$30 million since its founding in April 2023.

The company, founded by Guy Leibovitz and Golan Kopichinsky, previously built Cognigo, which was sold to NetApp for US$70 million in 2019.

Nominal, with 40 employees in Israel and the US, plans to double its team as its AI platform has saved over 50,000 hours in manual accounting work.

🔗 Source: Calcalist

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ ERP systems are experiencing their first major transformation in 25 years

Enterprise Resource Planning systems have evolved through distinct phases since their origins in the 1960s as Material Requirements Planning (MRP) systems focused on manufacturing and inventory management 1.

The first major transformation occurred in the mid-1990s with the introduction of cloud-based solutions like Netsuite in 1996, which marked a shift from expensive on-premise software to more accessible internet-enabled platforms 2.

This cloud transformation, which CEO Leibovitz references as happening “25 years ago,” democratized access to sophisticated business software and expanded ERP adoption beyond large corporations 3.

The current AI-driven transformation represents the next significant evolution, with intelligent automation addressing both technology limitations and workforce challenges in financial operations.

Nominal’s approach of creating “agentic” AI that works alongside existing ERP systems rather than replacing them follows the historical pattern of building upon rather than discarding previous technological investments.

2️⃣ The accounting talent shortage has created a structural market opportunity

The shortage of accounting professionals has reached crisis levels, with over 300,000 CPAs missing from the U.S. workforce according to Nominal’s CEO, and 87% of finance leaders reporting critical talent shortages 4.

This talent gap is structural rather than temporary, with approximately 75% of CPAs nearing retirement age and fewer graduates choosing accounting careers, causing a 16% decline in qualified accountants since 2019 5.