Feb 20, 2026
$100M Valuation at Seed: Why a16z Is Betting on Meridian to Disrupt Excel
A fundraising interview with John Ling, Founder of Meridian
Raise Report
Building the Future of Finance
Meridian has raised $17 million to modernize financial planning with AI. The round, led by Andreessen Horowitz and The General Partnership, values the company at $100 million. This valuation is backed by strong market traction, including $5 million in contracts signed in December 2025 alone. Building on this momentum, Meridian will accelerate platform development and expand adoption among large businesses seeking faster, more accurate financial modeling.
How Meridian Is Built Differently
The financial modeling industry has changed little over the past few decades, with Excel remaining the default tool for analysts across banks, investment firms, and corporate finance teams. Despite the rapid advancement of AI, most finance professionals have yet to integrate it into their core workflows.
"I don't think anyone has spent a thousand hours trying to build complex financial models entirely with AI. Most people just keep doing things the way they've always done them."
"But there's probably a way to decompose those workflows so models can handle certain parts extremely well."John LingCEO of Meridian.AI
According to Ling, the industry has barely scratched the surface of building complex financial models entirely with AI, and the challenge isn’t just adoption. AI agents built on top of traditional spreadsheet tools often lack the consistency and predictability required in regulated financial environments. As a result, they produce outputs that analysts can’t reliably trust.
Meridian addresses this challenge at its foundation. Rather than layering AI on top of Excel, the team built a standalone platform designed specifically for financial modeling workflows. This architecture gives Meridian greater control over AI outputs while maintaining the transparency and reliability that financial institutions require. The platform runs up to 20x faster than Excel, supports direct database ingestion, and handles larger data sets. The team is also exploring how large language models interpret multi-dimensional cell data, including formatting, background colors, and borders, an area where most general-purpose AI tools fall short. These architectural choices position Meridian to take advantage of a much larger opportunity.
Although Excel remains the most widely used professional software in the world, it was never built for intelligent automation that modern finance teams need. Meridian is positioning itself to fill that gap.
Meridian addresses this challenge at its foundation. Rather than layering AI on top of Excel, the team built a standalone platform designed specifically for financial modeling workflows. This architecture gives Meridian greater control over AI outputs while maintaining the transparency and reliability that financial institutions require. The platform runs up to 20x faster than Excel, supports direct database ingestion, and handles larger data sets. The team is also exploring how large language models interpret multi-dimensional cell data, including formatting, background colors, and borders, an area where most general-purpose AI tools fall short. These architectural choices position Meridian to take advantage of a much larger opportunity.
Although Excel remains the most widely used professional software in the world, it was never built for intelligent automation that modern finance teams need. Meridian is positioning itself to fill that gap.
Built by People Who've Done It Before
Meridian is led by a repeat founder with a track record of building, iterating, and executing across multiple ventures. Ling co-founded Encarte and went through
Y Combinator in Winter 2019, an experience that shaped how he thinks about product development and customer feedback.
He then co-founded Canopy, a fund administration platform that grew to approximately $3 million in revenue and reached profitability, demonstrating his ability to build sustainable businesses. Those experiences shaped his commitment to customer-driven development, ensuring Meridian solves real-world problems rather than theoretical ones.
Y Combinator in Winter 2019, an experience that shaped how he thinks about product development and customer feedback.
He then co-founded Canopy, a fund administration platform that grew to approximately $3 million in revenue and reached profitability, demonstrating his ability to build sustainable businesses. Those experiences shaped his commitment to customer-driven development, ensuring Meridian solves real-world problems rather than theoretical ones.
"Everyone always says, 'listen to your customers,' and it sounds obvious. But you don't really internalize it until you live through a moment like that."
"And you realize that, more often than not, your customers are right, or at least pointing you toward something important."John LingCEO of Meridian.AI
Before founding Meridian, Ling spent a year and a half at Scale AI, working directly with researchers at frontier AI laboratories on model capability development, data ontology, and evaluation frameworks. That experience now shapes Meridian’s architectural foundation.
"I decided to go to Scale largely because it felt like a very unique place to observe how AI was developing in real time."
"I felt that not really understanding what LLMs could do, or not immersing myself in this rapidly developing ecosystem, would be a mistake."John LingCEO of Meridian.AI
The Meridian team also combines AI expertise from industry leaders like Scale AI and Anthropic with finance veterans from Goldman Sachs. This combination of perspectives enables them to build a product that financial analysts actually trust and use, moving beyond “technically impressive” AI to meet the rigorous demands of the industry.
From Strategy to Signed Contracts
Meridian’s go-to-market strategy reflects more than technical strength; it is grounded in the team’s firsthand understanding of how AI adoption unfolds in regulated industries. In finance, adoption typically happens top-down, with strict security and audit compliance required first. To navigate these complex approval processes, the team focuses on identifying and empowering internal champions, visionary leaders who drive efficiency gains and unlock access to teams across the organization.
"If you look at a company like JPMorgan or Bank of America, they have dozens of teams, hundreds of teams that can all potentially use a product.
"The question is who is the easiest person, or what's the most valuable entry point."John LingCEO of Meridian.AI
This strategic, stakeholder-led approach is already generating significant momentum. In December alone, Meridian closed contracts with big companies like Decagon, and totaling $5 million in signed deals. The traction shows that the market is not just ready, but actively seeking the solutions Meridian is building.
The Future Meridian Is Building
As AI tools continue to advance, Meridian is bridging the gap between cutting-edge technology and real-world business needs. This philosophy is embedded in the platform today, allowing users to automate data transformation and analyze massive datasets from multiple sources. By running significantly faster than traditional spreadsheets, Meridian removes the manual, tedious, and repetitive tasks that once consumed an analyst’s day.
"The job just looks very different. Rather than displacing people, AI tends to change the core function of what people do."John LingCEO of Meridian.AI
"If you think about what Meridian looks like maybe six months from now, what you might be able to do is send an email and say, 'Here's a model that I currently have, can you update it?' And then you'll just get another response in your inbox."John LingCEO of Meridian.AI
For Meridian, the goal has always been clear: to help those who spend their days in spreadsheets work dramatically faster, and to make the experience feel less like using software and more like collaborating with an intelligent partner. As the company scales, it is not just changing how models are built, but redefining the role of the modern finance professional.
Watch the in-depth interview with Meridian John Ling on the EO YouTube channel!
Explore more