Naspers has become part of a group of top technology investors that are betting big on using AI to simplify spreadsheets, a major pain point for companies and professionals around the world.
For almost four decades, proficiency in spreadsheet applications, specifically Microsoft Excel, has been a mainstay for professionals in fields such as banking, law, finance, statistics and data analytics.
Given the difficulty and complexity of performing certain tasks in the program, many tech firms see an opportunity to disrupt the space by using AI to simplify tasks, cutting down the time taken to achieve certain results.
Enter Naspers, whose CEO, Fabricio Bloisi, is bullish about fresh opportunities brought on by the growth of AI. At the start of August, the group’s international unit, Prosus, led a $30m (R524m) series A funding round in Fundamental Research Labs, a company specialising in the development of AI agent platforms.
This is part of a growing trend around AI-powered agents, known as agentic AI, taking over more tasks from human beings. For example, an agent that works like a personal assistant, making bookings, creating meetings, and summarising notes and other important information.
Fundamental has been building AI agents for a number of years, finding success in gaming and now working on general purpose computing and tasks.
Shortcut takes on Excel
Most recently, the team launched Shortcut, “the first superhuman Excel agent”. Fundamental says the platform is already “solving championship-level cases in under 10 minutes with over 80% accuracy, 10 times faster than humans. It edits, builds models, and scales fast.”
In recent blind studies against first-year analysts at firms such as McKinsey and Goldman Sachs, Shortcut is said to have outperformed in 89% of cases, as judged by managers at those firms.
AI investment has grown exponentially in recent years, driven by the rapid adoption and popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT since it was launched in November 2022. Technology companies have since sought to capitalise on the trend through AI-backed services or software platforms, while others benefit from growing hardware demand to power such systems.
In a tech landscape as defined by AI, Prosus is fighting to position itself as a “leader operating at the intersection of marketplaces and AI innovation”.
The technology investor estimates that the e-commerce industry is at the cusp of a fundamental shift that will see AI agents and systems being able to do autonomous buying decisions on behalf of consumers.
Overall, Fundamental has raised more than $40m, competing with other companies like Endex, which makes AI agents for financial modelling and data analysis in Excel, backed by OpenAI. In August, Endex raised $14m in a funding round led by the ChatGPT owner.
Big tech rivals respond
Established spreadsheet players Google and Microsoft are not resting on their laurels. Google has been building spreadsheet capability into its Gemini AI through the Google Sheets platform, while Microsoft is doing the same in Excel through its ChatGPT-based Copilot system.
While many of the agents developed by the companies mentioned so far deal with taking over much of the tedious manual work associated with spreadsheets, Paradigm, another emerging player in the space, has taken a different approach.
The company has built an AI-powered spreadsheet that uses more than 5,000 AI agents to complete tasks. Using prompts, the various agents can fill out or populate a spreadsheet by crawling the internet to find specific and relevant information.
Paradigm, whose platform recently went public featuring the likes of EY as early customers, raised a $5m seed round led by General Catalyst.
Other companies working on AI platforms associated with spreadsheets include Numerous.ai, Formula Bot, Ajelix, Zapier, Smartsheet and Airtable.
Other bets on AI
Elsewhere in the Naspers universe, the group has been making a number of other bets on AI. In August, Indian start-up Arivihan, which offers AI-powered personalised coaching for school students, received backing in a $4.17m (R75m) pre-series A funding round, led by Prosus and Accel, with participation from GSF Investors.
At home in SA, Naspers is banking on investment in AI to boost Takealot, SA’s largest e-commerce platform.
Bloisi recently told Business Day AI was central to the unit’s sustainable growth and was being used to transform operations through “intelligent stock positioning, advanced demand forecasting, fraud monitoring and productivity tools”. He said such implementations would enhance core infrastructure and create competitive advantages for the business.
Internally, Naspers has developed its own platform, Toqan, formerly PlusOne. It is used by staff and associate companies to streamline processes and increase efficiency while encouraging AI experimentation.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.