For too long, financial closing has been a tedious, error-prone slog. Manual data wrangling and endless Excel sheets. Every month, finance teams spend up to 12 days reconciling data, chasing numbers, and dealing with fragmented systems. It’s a bottleneck that companies can no longer afford.

We saw this problem as part of our work on the Office of the CFO. Financial closing wasn’t just a niche corner of the finance function — it was consuming entire departments just to get data right. How was it possible that only one major incumbent, Blackline, had attempted to solve this? And was a company founded over two decades ago really providing best-in-class solutions for today’s financial leaders?

After speaking with dozens of finance teams, it became clear: the market was overdue for a radical shift.

Meet Stacks: The AI-First Financial Closing Engine

Stacks is here to end the era of clunky financial closing. Forget outdated, manual processes — this is about using AI to make financial closing faster, cheaper, and exponentially smarter. Stacks acts as an AI-powered engagement layer, pulling data from ERPs, bank accounts, and payment systems to streamline closing workflows and eliminate the inefficiencies that have plagued finance teams for years.

Stacks wasn’t built in theory — it was built from deep industry pain. Founder Albert Malikov had been in the trenches at Plaid and Uber, building financial infrastructure from the ground up. At Uber, he witnessed firsthand how closing processes were holding companies back, causing delays in decision-making and forcing entire finance teams into inefficient work. Determined to fix this, he set out to tackle the problem head-on.

Albert’s journey has been anything but conventional. Coming from Russia, he had to push past systemic constraints to build his career. His resilience and drive to prove himself are exactly what’s needed to take on such a complex, overlooked problem.

Why We’re Backing Stacks

We spent two days in Amsterdam with Albert, digging into how he plans to build Stacks. Over long conversations — including a five-hour dinner — we covered everything from his early learnings at Uber and Plaid to the challenges of scaling financial automation in mid-market companies. He walked us through his hiring approach, sharing profiles of engineers and finance leaders he’s already in discussions with.

It was clear he had deeply thought through execution. He knew exactly what gaps he needed to fill and how to get there. His product roadmap was already in motion, shaped by conversations with potential customers and deep research into the inefficiencies of existing solutions.

More than anything, we saw the level of obsession required to solve a problem of this scale.

Why Now? Why Stacks?

Financial closing is a $19.5bn market, yet existing solutions only serve a fraction of it. The fastest-growing companies — from high-growth startups to multinational enterprises — are still reliant on outdated workflows. Legacy solutions haven’t kept up with how modern businesses operate.

Stacks is built for companies that don’t have the time or patience for outdated workflows. By automating the heavy lifting, finance teams can shift their focus from chasing numbers to making decisions that drive the business forward.

Join the Revolution

We’re excited to lead this pre-seed round and support Stacks as they redefine financial closing for businesses everywhere.

If you’re in the business of making bold moves and transforming industries, let’s connect.

It’s time to build the future of finance. 🚀