Hi, I'm Ashmeet Sidana, chief engineer at Engineering Capital. I'm a computer scientist first and a venture capitalist second. I'm also an associate of the Creative Destruction Lab at the University of Toronto, where Jeff Hinton pioneered the techniques which have led to the current explosion uses of machine learning. As a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley, I have had the privilege to see entrepreneurs embrace disruptive technologies and build companies from scratch all the way to IPO – and change the world along the way.
Artificial Intelligence, AI, is one of those technologies. And Auditoria is going to use AI to transform one of the core functions at the heart of every company – Finance. Ever since the days of the Dutch East India Company, the first joint-stock company in the world, or even earlier the Medici in Italy, we have had double-entry bookkeeping. So, the techniques are old. Yet companies continue to innovate in finance and a great CFO can unlock tremendous value for a company. Auditoria aims to transform how every CFO will run their operations. Their vision is to build a self-driving finance office.
I believe machine learning has reached a tipping point and is ready to be applied to all areas of finance, such as auditing, cash flow forecasting, invoices, accounts payable, how you manage your balance sheet, even finding errors or omissions. These are some of the functions Auditoria can automate. Auditoria will apply machine learning to enable companies to initially take cash flow forecasting and people management, and eventually enable entirely new frontiers for corporate finance.
For me at Engineering Capital, Auditoria was an ideal investment. I was an early investor in Palerra, which Rohit, Adina, and Gaurav had previously built and sold successfully to Oracle. I already knew each of them was an exceptional executive with a unique combination of functional skills, entrepreneurial grit, vision, and ambition to create an enduring company. Combine a world-class founding team, a massive market with a terrific technical insight and all the elements of an ideal investment come together in Auditoria. I am proud to be the first investor they chose to accept money from, and very happy to be working with them again.
So today, as we officially announce the arrival of Auditoria. What's exciting is that they are applying machine learning to a problem that literally touches every company in the world. I am honored to be on this journey with the Auditoria Team. Congrats Rohit, Adina, Gaurav, and the entire team! Wishing you God-speed!!