A new research study from Wakefield Research surveyed 100 CFOs at mid-market U.S. companies ($50M-$500M revenue). Between 60 and 77 percent already plan to adopt AI depending on the use case. But the findings reveal a massive trust gap blocking execution.

The trust gap is real. 96% of CFOs say AI’s biggest benefit is freeing time for strategic work. But only 14% completely trust AI to deliver accurate accounting data on its own. And 97% say human oversight is critical. That’s not a contradiction – it’s CFOs defining the solution.

The findings reveal a market stuck between two broken models. AI copilots, whether standalone or embedded in legacy tools, still require accountants to review transaction by transaction, delivering single-digit productivity gains.

AI agents, black-box LLM wrappers with finance branding, promise full automation but deliver unacceptable risk: no way to verify accuracy, no real audit trail, and low understanding of business context.

CFOs want neither babysitting nor black boxes. They want what they are calling “intelligent escalation”, AI that operates autonomously on routine transactions but knows when it’s encountering ambiguity and escalates with full context. One CFO put it simply: “We need an autopilot,  fast, accurate and with the sound judgment of our most reliable accountant.”

The bottleneck isn’t AI intelligence, it’s AI judgment. As foundation models get smarter, the differentiator isn’t raw capability, it’s understanding business context, company policies, and when a decision requires human input. Speed and accuracy are table stakes. Judgment is what separates automation from intelligent escalation.

“We evaluated several AI solutions, and the difference was night and day,” said Dominic Rand, CFO of Kiva Brands. “Most tools either wanted full control with zero transparency, or they created more work for my team. What we needed was what Maximor delivered: AI that could handle the routine with speed and precision and knew exactly when to bring a human into the loop. That’s when automation becomes a partnership, not a risk.”

“When intelligence becomes commoditized, judgment becomes the competitive advantage,” said Ramnandan Krishnamurthy, co-founder and CEO of Maximor. “CFOs aren’t asking for smarter AI – they’re asking for AI that knows its limits. They need systems that are verifiable, operate autonomously when appropriate, and demonstrate judgment about when to act and when to escalate. That’s the shift we’re seeing in the market.”

The study makes clear what finance leaders demand: speed, verifiable accuracy, full audit trails, and intelligent escalation, AI that earns the right to operate autonomously by demonstrating judgment about when to act and when to ask.

CFOs have drawn the line: AI that can’t show its work and doesn’t know when to escalate is unacceptable in finance.

The full report Here.

The round was led by Foundation Capital, with additional backing from Gaia Ventures and Boldcap, alongside high-profile angel investors including Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity; Tien Tzuo, CEO of Zuora; and finance leaders from Ramp, Gusto, Opendoor, MongoDB, and the Big Four.

The funding arrives at a time when leaders in finance departments are expected to guide strategy, but much of their time is consumed by reconciliations, fragmented systems, and spreadsheet corrections. 

The challenge is compounded by a shrinking talent pipeline, analysts warn that three-quarters of accountants are on track to retire by 2030, with fewer graduates entering the profession. This shortage raises the risk of errors, delayed audits, and heavier workloads for those left in the field.

Maximor’s solution centres on AI-driven finance agents that plug into systems such as ERPs, payroll, banks, and billing platforms. According to the company, the agents take over repetitive accounting processes while producing audit-ready outputs by default. Customers report measurable results: around 40 per cent more team capacity, faster closes, and smoother audits.

Proptech company Rently, which operates across three countries, cut its month-end close time from eight days to four within its first month of using Maximor. The company also avoided two additional hires by automating repetitive accounting work. 

Similarly, registered investment advisor Invst, with assets under management in the billions, used Maximor to automate reconciliations, allocations, and reporting, gaining profitability insights that were previously impractical.

“Finance should be the growth engine of a company, not a cost centre,” said Ramnandan Krishnamurthy, CEO and co-founder of Maximor. “Capital is how decisions are made. Our job is to automate the mechanics and unify the data so finance leaders can spend time guiding the business. We measure success by customer outcomes, not seats purchased.”

The startup was co-founded by Krishnamurthy and Ajay Krishna Amudan, who both worked at Microsoft’s digital transformation group. Their experience with large corporate finance teams exposed the limitations of existing tools, where millions spent on ERPs often failed to eliminate the reliance on manual spreadsheets.

For investors, Maximor represents a way to modernise a space long criticised for inefficiency. Ashu Garg, General Partner at Foundation Capital, said: “What attracted us to Maximor is their seamless integration to any ERP system. Instead of chasing features like many ERP startups, Maximor uses AI to tackle real challenges faced by finance leaders at global companies. Unlike solutions with disconnected AI tools, Maximor has built a unified platform where specialised AI agents work together seamlessly. For mid-market and enterprise finance teams, it bridges the gap between their current systems and advanced AI, enabling meaningful transformation without disruption.”

Customers are already reiterating this. Dustin Neal, CFO at Rently, said: “Finance should be a growth catalyst, not a bottleneck. With Maximor, our team delivers reliable, audit-ready outputs efficiently while freeing up nearly 50% of our capacity for strategic work. I’m excited about the doors this opens for our business—and energised to partner with a team that’s both world-class and customer-focused.”

Maximor describes its approach as a “financial command centre”, integrating ERPs like NetSuite and Intacct, payroll systems, banks, CRMs, and SaaS tools into one reconciled source of truth. Built on its proprietary Audit-Ready Agent architecture, the platform automatically generates workpapers, reviewer notes, and audit trails. The company argues this ensures compliance and transparency while reducing risk.

Maximor plans to extend automation across more accounting workflows, release industry-specific modules, and build advanced forecasting tools to support scenario planning. Its long-term goal is clear: to give mid-market and enterprise companies an “always-on, audit-ready AI-powered finance team.”