British AI startup Cogna recently announced a $15 million Series A financing round led by Notion Capital, followed by Hoxton Ventures and Chalfen Ventures. The company, which has been established for only more than a year, is disrupting the development model of traditional ERP software with its AI-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) software development platform. Unlike traditional costly customized development, Cogna uses the AI platform and can automatically generate customized ERP solutions by simply describing the needs in natural language, greatly reducing enterprise costs and development cycles. Cogna founder Ben Peters, who founded the autonomous driving company FiveAI, has laid a solid foundation for Cogna's success.
The British startup, called Cogna, has just completed a $15 million Series A funding round led by Notion Capital, followed by Hoxton Ventures and Chalfen Ventures. It is worth noting that Cogna founder Ben Peters previously co-founded the autonomous driving company FiveAI, which was acquired by Bosch in 2022.
Cogna, which has been established for only more than a year, is innovating the development model of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. Traditionally, large enterprises have to invest huge sums of money in collaboration with system integrators and consultants to meet their specific needs by customizing off-the-shelf software or building exclusive applications from scratch. Cogna has completely changed this pattern through the AI platform.
Currently, Cogna has successfully signed customers such as British gas distributor Cadent Gas and infrastructure service provider Network Plus. Peters stressed that they are not providing ERP software in the traditional sense, but tailoring solutions for customers. Non-technical teams simply need to describe their pain points in natural language, and Cogna's AI can do the rest.
At the technical level, Cogna combines generative AI and other tools to build customized software. The company uses multiple large language models, including OpenAI and Anthropic, for users to interact with the platform, which are a key component of its "natural language compiler." Hussein Kanji, co-founder of Hoxton Ventures, said Cogna is building an engine that enables software to "really implement self-writing."
This innovation reflects the infiltration of generative AI into enterprise-level applications and more complex scenarios. As the founder of FiveAI, Peters demonstrated keen market insight and flexible strategic adjustment capabilities. After completing this round, Cogna aims to compete with traditional IT consulting firms such as Wipro and CapGemini.
The investment also marks the first investment since Hoxton's latest partner Bryan Gartner took office. Prior to that, Cogna had completed a $4.75 million seed round earlier this year, with investors including FiveAI co-founder Stan Boland and Acorn Software founder Herman Hauser).
Cogna's successful financing and innovative model indicate that AI-driven ERP software development will become a future trend, and its competition with traditional IT giants is also worth looking forward to. The financing will help Cogna further develop its AI platform and expand its market share.