Semine brings accounting to life

FINANSAVISEN, 29 NOVEMBER 2021. We have been interviewed about the launch of our new insight and analysis tool. The article, written by Torger Kveim Sti, is reproduced in edited form here.

The AI company Semine is aiming to double revenues with a new tool that gives its customers a full overview of ongoing costs.

Christen Sveaas, the Adolfsen brothers and Amesto are just some of those who have invested in Semine, who in recent years have added some of the biggest companies in Norway to their customer list. Now the company is launching an insight and analysis tool that allows customers to view their accounts live and monitor their spending down to the smallest detail.

- Whether you are a big customer or a small one, once you master automation, you add more value, says Lene Diesen, CEO of Semine.

Automated accounting

Over the last few years, the company has landed more than 50 major Norwegian companies, including OBOS, KLP, Sport1 and Fredensborg. They now process over 200,000 invoices every month, tackling 2 million item lines and 300 million data points for their customers. The company has set itself the target of fully automating invoicing and addressing some of the accounts department’s biggest challenges: getting invoices to the right person as quickly as possible, avoiding accounting errors and giving management a more detailed and clearer picture of the company’s ongoing costs.

- Within complex companies such as OBOS that include many thousands of subsidiaries, you have to be able to process invoices in bulk, focus on the discrepancies and work with multiple companies at the same time, reports COO Jan Skjøy. For customers such as Fursetgruppen, it has been important to obtain an efficient system for invoice processing and to match the level of detail with their till systems.

New tool

Until now, it has mainly been a question of structuring and sorting the data from the invoices, but now the company has taken the technology one step further. This week, Semine is launching an insight and analysis tool that gives customers a live dashboard of their accounts, making it possible to monitor their expenditure down to item-line level. According to Diesen and Skjøy, this tool will give customers detailed insight into their spending, which in turn may lead to cost savings, improved liquidity management and a better decision-making basis for CFOs.

- It is often a matter of answering the very simplest of questions, such as what money is being spent on, whether sufficient liquidity is available and whether the accounts are accurate, says Skjøy.

Looking beyond Norway

Partneren KPMG viser i en rapport til at det som skiller Semine fra andre selskaper er at det har klart å lage en ende-til-ende løsning for automasjon av regnskap. Teknologien er kompatible med alle de store ERP-systemene som Visma, SAP og Microsoft Dyamics, samt rene regnskapsplattformer og kobles på gjennom API-er. Selskapet budsjetterer i år med en omsetning på rundt 30 millioner kroner i repeterende inntekster (ARR) og en total kontraktsverdi på over 150 millioner kroner. Neste år er planen å doble omsetningen og satse utenfor Norge.

– Tidlig 2022 vil vi gjøre løsningen tilgjengelig for selskaper i andre land. Teknologien er klar for det globale markedet, så vi vil se Semine i flere land fremover, sier Diesen.