Toronto-based startup Glassbox has secured $1.65 million in pre-seed funding to modernize corporate finance workflows with artificial intelligence.
The round was led by FinTech Collective and Toronto’s StandUp Ventures, with participation from Watertower Ventures. The company plans to use the funds to expand its team and bring its AI-compatible financial analysis platform to market.
For decades, finance teams have relied on spreadsheets plagued by manual processes and human errors. While other industries have adopted AI-driven tools, corporate finance remains largely dependent on Excel.
Glassbox aims to change that with its proprietary framework, FinScript. Instead of traditional spreadsheet formulas, FinScript allows users to input plain-text instructions that align with large language models, enhancing efficiency and auditability.
“Corporate finance remains hindered by manual processes and fragmented, context-poor data trapped in spreadsheets,” said Allison Harris, CEO and co-founder of Glassbox. “Our goal is to build smarter, more transparent tools that will truly enable finance professionals to responsibly leverage AI at scale.”
According to the company, even junior analysts using FinScript can evaluate deals up to five times faster than experienced Excel users, while also reducing costly errors.
Backers believe Glassbox has the potential to reshape financial modeling. “You can think of Glassbox as the financial modeling equivalent of GitHub for code management or Notion for content creation,” said Brooks Gibbins, co-founder and Managing Partner at FinTech Collective. “It brings structure, traceability, and collaboration to financial workflows while remaining fully compatible with Excel.”
Harris, a Princeton-educated engineer with experience in investment banking and derivatives structuring, co-founded Glassbox with Ian Kennedy, a seasoned cloud architect. The startup has operated in stealth mode for 18 months, running private beta programs with industry leaders. It is now opening its waitlist to a broader audience, with plans for wider distribution later this year.
“The applications of Glassbox are remarkably broad,” Harris added. “From investment banking and private equity to hedge funds, FP&A, and insurance, our platform is designed for flexibility in financial analysis.”
With strong investor backing and an ambitious vision, Glassbox is positioning itself at the forefront of AI-enabled financial services, aiming to redefine how finance professionals model, analyze, and collaborate—all without leaving Excel behind.
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