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Former Microsoft execs launch AI agents to end Excel-led finance

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Despite millions spent on financial software, many finance teams still rely on Excel to close their books and reconcile numbers while preparing them for audit. Two former Microsoft executives view it as a problem — and they have started Maximor to replace spreadsheets with AI agents for the grunt work finance teams perform.

Excel spreadsheets are everywhere in finance. Even with dedicated ERP, CRM, and billing systems, many mid-sized companies and enterprises still export transactions into Excel for manual reconciliation. Teams often treat spreadsheets as makeshift databases, sometimes even relying on functions like VLOOKUP — a function used to pull matching numbers from one table into another — to line up figures across files.

Maximor aims to replace finance teams’ reliance on Excel with its AI system, and has emerged from stealth with a $9 million seed round led by Foundation Capital.

The startup uses a network of AI agents that connect directly to ERP, CRM, and billing systems to continuously pull transactions. That, co-founder and CEO Ramnandan Krishnamurthy (pictured above, right) said in an exclusive interview, helps unify operational and financial data and provide real-time financial visibility — instead of waiting until month-end to sort it all out.

The approach should help reduce the time needed for the month-end close, he believes. For instance, Maximor says that proptech firm Rently, one of its early customers, cut its closing from eight days to four and avoided two additional accounting hires. Rently was able to redirect nearly half its team’s time to strategic work after using Maximor’s agentic platform, Rently’s CFO Dustin Neel said.

Maximor’s financial agents plug into ERPs like NetSuite and Intacct, accounting tools such as QuickBooks and Zoho Books, and a range of payroll, CRM, and other SaaS platforms. Once connected, they generate workpapers, reviewer notes, and audit trails — helping streamline audits.

Although Maximor aims to reduce reliance on Excel, it still allows teams to export reconciled data into spreadsheets — a format that many auditors and finance staff prefer before sending numbers to audit.

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“We’re interoperable with Excel on that part, as our platform does the work and can present it in our own UI or in Excel directly,” Krishnamurthy told TechCrunch.

In addition to its AI agents, Maximor offers human accountants as a human-in-the-loop option for its AI work, or as an accounting service for companies without in-house finance teams. It’s an interesting failsafe, given that Maximor pitches itself as an AI startup that automates this work. Relying on humans may seem at odds with that promise.

However, Krishnamurthy told TechCrunch that the software is self-sufficient, with agents handling end-to-end work independently. The agents act as preparers and people act as reviewers, he said, adding that it works much like traditional accounting teams, where junior staff handle routine tasks and managers focus on oversight.

Krishnamurthy co-founded Maximor in the summer of 2024 after years at Microsoft as a founding member of its digital transformation group, where he led finance and data projects for Fortune 500 clients, including Coca-Cola. He teamed up with Ajay Krishna Amudan, now CTO, who previously worked on a revamp Microsoft’s internal revenue systems, among other projects there. The two have worked together for 14 years, starting as students at IIT-Madras.

The duo’s finance experience at Microsoft helped attract angel investors including CFOs and finance leaders from Ramp, Gusto, MongoDB, Zuora, and the Big Four accounting firms, Krishnamurthy said. The seed round also drew Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas, a former IIT-Madras classmate of Krishnamurthy, and Zuora CEO Tien Tzuo, who was introduced by the VCs backing the round. Institutional investors Gaia Ventures and Boldcap also took part.

Maximor, headquartered in New York with an office in Bengaluru, has 18 employees split almost evenly between the U.S. and India, and is actively hiring in both locations. The startup targets companies with at least $50 million in revenue and already counts early customers in the U.S., China, and India. Moreover, Maximor’s software supports both GAAP and IFRS standards, catering to enterprises with a global footprint.

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Spotify now lets you exclude tracks from your taste profile, improving recommendations

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Spotify on Wednesday announced the launch of a new feature that allows users to take more control over their recommendations. The service will now let users exclude certain tracks from influencing their taste profile. This taste profile refers to streamer’s sense of your personal musical taste and interests, and it drives Spotify’s recommendations, including your Discovery Weekly, Home page selections, annual Wrapped experience, Blend playlists with friends, and more.

The company had previously provided a way for users to exclude certain playlists from their taste profile, but this didn’t solve the overall problem of having music you’re not really into influence Spotify’s recommendations. Rather, the playlist feature was more useful for things like making sure your sleep music didn’t lead to more new age or white noise suggestions.

With this new option, you can move through your recently played items to tell Spotify that there are some songs you were playing but don’t actually like. (Parents everywhere, rejoice!)

To use the feature, both free and premium users can tap the three dots on the top-right corner of their screen after selecting the song they want to exclude. Users can then choose to exclude the song from their taste profile or include a previously excluded song.

Spotify’s hyperpersonalization has been a long-time key selling point for the service. But there are many scenarios where the ingestion of everything you listen to into algorithms doesn’t make sense. Families, particularly those with small children, immediately come to mind. Users also often share their Spotify account while in the car with friends and family, allowing others to take their turn at playing DJ. The growing number of smart speakers in the home has also led some members of the household to become the default Spotify account holder associated with everyone’s taste.

Given the wide range of scenarios, manually excluding tracks is a nice workaround, but it’s not the best solution. Ideally, users would be able to more easily switch between profiles, perhaps even by using voice commands, as you’re often listening while driving. Or the app could offer a way to tap to associate an entire listening session with one family member or the other, instead of forcing you to go through songs one by one.

In any event, the feature will at least offer some recourse for those who have longed to have their Spotify Wrapped not ruined by the kids’ music.

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What founders need to know before choosing their exit at Disrupt 2025

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Exit planning is no longer optional — it’s an essential conversation on the Going Public Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, happening October 27–29 at San Francisco’s Moscone West. Whether you’re already eyeing a liquidity event or just starting to scale, this is your chance to hear what top VCs and operators are looking for and how to set up your company for long-term success.

Three of the best in the business — Roseanne Wincek of Renegade Partners, Jai Das of Sapphire Ventures, and Dan Springer, former CEO of DocuSign and long-time Silicon Valley operator — will break down the decision-making process, from when to make a move to how to be ready when the moment comes.

TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 Roseanne Wincek and Jai Das

Why this session belongs on your calendar

Startups can no longer afford to treat exit planning as an afterthought. Between tighter capital markets, shifting investor expectations, and growing regulatory complexity, founders need a smarter playbook — and this conversation delivers just that.

You’ll get real talk on key timing considerations, market signals to watch, and how to structure your business for optionality, whether you’re thinking IPO, acquisition, or just keeping your head down and building. It’s a candid, high-level look at how the best founders are preparing for every possible outcome.

Meet the experts leading this conversation

  • Roseanne Wincek is a venture capitalist, early-stage founder, and co-founder of Renegade Partners. A veteran of IVP and Canaan Partners, she’s invested in game-changers like Glossier, MasterClass, Looker, Spekit, and Daily — and brings a sharp lens for what makes companies truly ready for scale and exit.
  • Jai Das is co-founder, president, and partner at Sapphire Ventures. He’s led investments in more than a dozen IPOs and two dozen acquisitions, with a deep focus on enterprise tech and AI-driven SaaS. His portfolio includes Netskope, ThoughtSpot, MuleSoft, and CircleCI, among many others.
  • Dan Springer is the former CEO of DocuSign, where he scaled the company from startup to global enterprise leader, taking it public in one of the most successful SaaS IPOs of the last decade. He brings unmatched operator perspective on what it takes to navigate the road to liquidity.

Get in the room where high-impact decisions start

TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 brings together over 10,000 startup and VC leaders from around the world, and this session is your front-row seat to one of the most important conversations founders will face. Register now to get your pass for Disrupt — with Late Bird savings of up to $444 — and take the guesswork out of your exit strategy.

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Data breach at Canadian airline WestJet affects 1.2M passengers

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Canada’s second largest airline WestJet said the personal information of 1.2 million passengers was stolen in a cyberattack and data breach earlier this year.

The airline disclosed the number of affected passengers in a filing with Maine’s attorney general, which confirmed 240 residents in the state were also affected.

According to the notice, the stolen data may include passenger names, dates of birth, postal addresses, and travel documents, including passports and government-issued identity documents, as well as other passenger accommodations, such as requests and complaints.

WestJet said information related to customer rewards may have also been taken, including points balances and other information related to reward accounts.

The Canadian airline giant disclosed a security incident in June after it discovered its systems were breached and it found that hackers had stolen data from its network.

WestJet spokesperson Jennifer Booth did not answer TechCrunch’s questions about the breach when reached by email.

Media reports have linked the WestJet breach to a hacking group known as Scattered Spider, a financially motivated group of mostly English-speaking teenagers and young adults known for calling IT help desks and tricking employees into granting them access to corporate networks.

The FBI and cybersecurity firms earlier this year warned that the hackers were targeting the transportation and aviation industry. Australian airline Qantas was allegedly hacked by the same group, resulting in the theft of more than 6 million customers’ personal information.

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