In a bid to modernize how companies monitor their financial operations, Celery, a financial oversight startup based in Israel, has raised $6.25 million in Seed funding to expand its AI-driven platform, which automates the detection of fraud, compliance issues, and financial inefficiencies—without the need for software integrations or IT overhauls.
The round was led by Team8, the Israeli venture firm founded by veterans of the IDF’s elite Unit 8200, with participation from Verissimo Ventures, Centre Street Partners, 97212 Ventures, and other strategic angel investors. The raise brings Celery’s total funding to $9 million.
Celery’s technology is already in use at dozens of U.S. healthcare providers, and its ambitions extend into other labor-intensive sectors such as construction, hospitality, and manufacturing—industries where finance teams often grapple with fragmented systems, high error rates, and enormous volumes of transactional data. The company claims it can reduce manual oversight by as much as 91% and has already processed more than $550 million in payroll data.
“Finance leaders today are being asked to do more with less,” said CEO and co-founder Yuval Brot. “Yet, financial controls are still being done manually—often across massive spreadsheets and disconnected systems.”
Founded in 2023, Celery initially focused on payroll auditing but has since evolved into a broader platform for revenue and expense monitoring. Its “audit agents”—automated tools powered by artificial intelligence—scan data to identify irregularities ranging from payroll discrepancies to unprofitable client relationships and missed billing. The company says it has already prevented $2.3 million in losses for its users.
The founding team includes Brot, a serial entrepreneur; CTO Noam Slomianko, a cyber expert and the first employee at Vulcan Cyber; and Hillel Shalev, a CPA and former biotech CFO who experienced the pain points the company now targets. “I spent years chasing down revenue leakage errors and reconciling spreadsheets that should never have needed fixing,” said Shalev. “I knew there had to be a smarter way.”
The platform requires no system integration and can be deployed with minimal setup—a key selling point for mid-sized companies without large IT budgets or dedicated compliance teams. In one case, Ultimate Care, a New York-based healthcare provider, reduced overtime and billing discrepancies by more than $200,000 annually after adopting the platform.
