News Summary

• It brings the company’s total raised to $33.5 million, following a previously undisclosed $5 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz.“As a product that helps businesses understand their financials and plan better, we are in the fortunate position of being a counter cyclical product,” Chen said.
• But it’s also true that there are other platforms that accomplish — or at least claim to accomplish — much the same thing.Consider Dougs, which handles a company’s financial statements and generates certified tax filings, connecting bank accounts so that the platform can automatically generate reports and invoices.
• “Making the business more accessible to folks outside of finance helps companies create context over control, giving them a huge competitive advantage.”Now, is it true that Runway accomplishes all that?
• And it’s something he felt self-conscious about.“I’ve always thought it was something for ‘real business people’ and I could just go and do what I enjoyed, which is product and engineering,” he told TechCrunch in an email interview.
• So he started Runway, which aims to replace spreadsheets with “intuitive” financial modeling, planning and reporting workflows.“Runway is the first strategic management platform for modern, high-growth technology companies,” Chen said.
• Other rivals include Pigment and Mosaic.Runway seemingly hasn’t had trouble attracting business, though, from customers including Superhuman, Stability AI and Chen’s old stomping ground, Sandbox VR.