Behind the Term Sheet: Abacum’s $60M Series B
The Fintech Ushering FP&A into the Modern Era with AI
Anyone who’s worked in finance will likely relate to the pain of traditional financial planning and analysis (FP&A): endless spreadsheets, crashing Excel files, and late nights crunching numbers across tools that were never meant to communicate with one another.
FP&A solutions may have existed since the 1980’s, but they were designed with Fortune 500 companies in mind: legacy providers like IBM, Oracle, and SAP pioneered the first wave of software, built on-premise for enterprise clients with multi-million-dollar budgets. Following generations brought about some improvement, but nearly not enough: tools like Anaplan or Adaptive Insights still require deep technical knowledge and are optimized for slow-moving large corporations.
But what about up-and-coming, fast scaling companies?
Today, 75% of mid-market organizations across the U.S. and Europe still manage their planning with Excel and Google Sheets. At a certain point however, consolidating real-time data across systems becomes nearly impossible — files break, collaboration stalls, and decision-making slows considerably. Yet CFOs are under increasing pressure to make smart, data-driven calls in real time.
This is exactly what business planning software company Abacum has set out to solve. We recently invested in Abacum’s $60 million Series B, alongside Scale Venture Partners, Y Combinator, Atomico, Creandum, and K Fund. The round and the backers’ caliber in and of themselves are a testament to both the company’s growing traction and the broader appetite for sharper, AI-powered tools in financial planning. Here’s our take.
Enter Abacum — Leading the New Era of Business Planning
Abacum belongs to the third wave of FP&A software: a modern platform built with native integrations, intuitive UX and a collaborative approach designed for modern finance teams. It’s robust enough to support intricate modeling and data integration, yet easy enough to onboard without months of training. With Abacum, companies can centralize financial data, create dynamic budgets and forecasts, and collaborate across departments — all in one place.
FP&A alone is a $9B+ market growing at 5–10% annually, with a large greenfield opportunity in the SMB and mid-market segment.
What stood out with Abacum was their ability to connect disparate financial and operative data — CRM, ERP, HR, invoices, payroll — into one system of record. This not only improves decision-making, but also unlocks potential to expand horizontally into BI, tax, treasury, and beyond. The AI-heavy architecture at the heart of the product is truly a game-changer — with Abacum’s multi-agentic engine pulling live data from every system of record and engineered to:
- Predict revenue and cash-flow scenarios with time-series ML models
- Surface anomalies and drivers in plain language so finance can act, not react
- Generate board-ready dashboards and “what-if” plans on the fly, cutting reporting cycles by weeks
This means pairing intuitive design with a deeply integrated vertical AI system: Rather than layering AI on top of existing workflows, Abacum weaves it directly into the planning process — from automated variance analysis and forecast updates to AI-generated scenarios, performance alerts, and decision support. This is not just about speeding up reporting — it’s about turning the CFO’s office into a proactive, insight-driven partner to the business.
With a global presence spanning New York, London, and Barcelona, the company already serves customers in 31 countries, including fast-growing leaders like Strava (U.S.), Aiven (Finland), Cabify (Spain), and Ebury (U.K.) — clients that showcase Abacum’s ability to support complex, data‑driven organizations at scale. We’re talking a category long dominated by outdated tools and manual workarounds, where Abacum is redefining the possibilities — and setting a new standard for the future of the industry.
The company: From Barcelona to Brooklyn — Built by Operators, Backed by Results
Abacum was founded in 2020 by Julio Martínez and Jorge Lluch, two seasoned entrepreneurs from Spain deeply rooted in fintech, marketplaces and scaling venture-backed companies. Their previous experiences at Wallapop, TravelPerk and Sabadell gave them a unique vantage point into how finance teams operate — and more importantly, where and how they fall short. From the outset, Abacum’s purpose was clear-cut: to build the solution they wish they had in their previous professional run.
At first, the team focused on product — developing a full-stack platform from the ground up with enough horsepower to serve a wide variety of industries and use cases. FP&A isn’t one-size-fits-all, especially in the mid-market: It demands a blend of flexibility, collaboration, and scalability rarely found in traditional tools.
In 2024, that strategy began to pay off, and Abacum hit a true inflection point:
- Conversion rates spiked across sales channels
- Expansion occurred rapidly in the U.S.
- Revenue tripled
- Deals were consistently won against older incumbents
From then on, all signs pointed to a company with product-market fit, a clear ICP and the right leadership to scale globally.
Parting Thoughts — Promoting User-Centric, AI-Powered and Future-Proof FP&A
The CFO software stack is a space we know well — having backed fintech-enhanced SaaS like ZenBusiness and more recently, Nelly — and one where we believe the next era of financial infrastructure is just getting started.
What’s next for us at Cathay Innovation?
Remaining true to our purpose: finding companies tackling real challenges in the financial landscape to healthcare, consumer and energy. In fintech, that means companies with the potential to become the single source of truth for functional teams.
Abacum sits at the intersection of a massive, under-digitized market and a clear shift in finance teams’ future of work. We believe that Abacum represents the next generation of B2B SaaS champions: product-first, data-driven and deeply attuned to everyday hurdles faced by growing companies.
We’re excited to join Julio, Jorge and the Abacum team on this journey — and we’re even more excited about the future they’re unlocking for the industry.
