Kim Kyung-Hoon/REUTERS
OpenAI just helped fund an AI tool that could reduce your stress when staring at a huge spreadsheet.
A venture fund launched by OpenAI to invest in early-stage tech companies has led a $14 million funding round for Endex, a startup that said it has created an AI agent that will exist in Microsoft Excel and help you process data, handle financial tasks, and write memos.
“Finance professionals don’t just need search results; they need structured thinking and deep analysis,” said Tarun Amasa, CEO of Endex and recipient of the Thiel Fellowship, in a statement. “We envision a future where every firm has access to teams of digital analysts, seamlessly augmenting time-intensive workflows.”
Based on OpenAI’s blog post, Endex is powered by OpenAI’s reasoning models.
In a video that Amasa posted on X to announce Endex’s product launch on Wednesday, a screen displaying the word “Microsoft Excel” was replaced after a screen glitch to display “Endex,” followed by a brief demonstration of how the AI agent works by Amasa.
In the following posts, Amasa also said his team has spent a large portion of last year in OpenAI’s San Francisco office and has offered to send limited early invites to users who comment beneath the posts.
Microsoft and OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how the AI agent would impact the Excel product.
The two companies have both competed and collaborated over the years.
Microsoft has invested over $13 billion in OpenAI since 2019 and is considered one of the company’s biggest backers. In exchange, Microsoft has access to OpenAI’s intellectual property and the right to resell it to customers through Azure’s OpenAI service and by building its own products with the technology, including its AI assistant, Copilot.
But as OpenAI builds its own service products like ChatGPT Enterprise and developer tools, it has also started to compete directly with its long-time investor. In 2024, Microsoft began to list OpenAI as a competitor in its annual report.
“What excites me most about this collaboration is our shared vision for vertical-specific AI,” said Amasa. “Our work goes beyond APIs — it’s about building the agent-user interfaces that will change how financial analysts do work.”
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