Dispute-tracking fintech Glimpse revealed on Wednesday that it has secured a $35 million Series A funding round, spearheaded by Andreessen Horowitz, with contributions from 8VC and Y Combinator.

Founders Akash Raju, Anuj Mehta, and Kushal Negi, who attended Purdue together, initially focused on a startup that specialized in Airbnb product placements. This venture was launched in 2020, but by 2024, the team shifted to a completely new concept: Glimpse, a platform designed to assist retailers in automating their financial deduction procedures. 

Last year, it completed a $10 million funding round, led by 8VC following the business pivot, which at that time was referred to as a Series A round. Now, they are designating the recent $35 million as a Series A and reclassifying their previous Series A as a seed round. To date, the company has garnered $52 million, including funds raised prior to their pivot.

“We ultimately recognized that we were missing product-market fit and opted for a significant pivot,” Raju stated regarding the earlier, unsuccessful initiative. “During this journey, we gained insight into the back-office operations of brands and the complexities of retail sales, which ultimately inspired us to create Glimpse as it stands today.”

They connected with their lead a16z investor through a shared founder acquaintance. “We developed a robust partnership as we expanded the business. We’re truly thrilled to collaborate with them in this next phase of growth,” he added.

Deductions represent the amounts a retailer detracts from what they owe a brand when processing an invoice. This is a standard practice and generally operates as follows: a brand bills the retailer, and the retailer compensates the brand. If the amount paid is less than the billed total, a justification is provided, such as if the goods were found to be damaged. 

Some deductions are legitimate, while others are deemed invalid; these invalid deductions can be burdensome to track and manage behind the scenes. “These inaccuracies are surprisingly prevalent,” Raju noted as the company’s CEO, adding that “a brand might send inventory correctly but still encounter charges for a short shipment.” 

“Teams typically log into various retailer systems, gather scattered documents, assess line items, reconcile with internal records, and manage disputes from start to finish. This challenge arises due to fragmented, unstructured data and siloed workflows across diverse systems and teams,” he described how the process generally unfolds.

If the brand fails to settle every invalid deduction, it may result in “consistent revenue leakage,” he remarked. 

Glimpse asserts it streamlines this process by examining deductions, identifying invalid ones, and filing disputes, thus aiding businesses in reclaiming funds they might have overlooked or lost. The platform’s AI agents access a retailer’s portal, retrieve and centralize all essential documents, and then categorize each deduction, Raju explained. Subsequently, the AI agents validate each adjustment against internal data (such as supply chain records and marketing calendars) to ascertain which deductions are legitimate and which are not. 

The company reported that it collaborates with over 200 retail brands, including Suave and its lip balm product Chapstick. 

“When discrepancies are detected, Glimpse automatically initiates disputes, monitors the process, applies recovered funds, and synchronizes everything back to the brand’s ERP,” Raju stated, emphasizing that the product connects across multiple systems. Besides the core enterprise resource planning financial software, it integrates with promotional calendars and retail platforms, significantly shortening the process to just days, he noted.

Despite Glimpse’s automation, Raju mentioned that his company maintains human oversight, “primarily to ensure outcomes,” he explained, like “following up on disputes to facilitate resolution and cash recovery, as well as ensuring quality control on critical activities such as classification and data extraction.”

The system becomes more adept each time a deduction is handled, continuously optimizing its classification, validation, and resolution processes. “In the long run, this fosters a compounding data advantage, where each new integration and client enhances the system’s intelligence and overall efficacy throughout the network,” he claimed. 

Others are also addressing invalid deductions with software solutions, like Revya and Confido.

“Our ambition is to serve as the AI infrastructure for CPG and retail brands, and this funding will assist us in advancing that ambition,” he concluded.