AlphaSense acquires Y Combinator-backed Carousel, an AI assistant for Excel

In a significant move within the tech landscape, AlphaSense has announced its acquisition of Carousel, a New York-based startup known for its innovative AI assistant designed for Microsoft Excel. This tool streamlines the creation of financial spreadsheets and model-building processes, tapping into the enduring relevance of Excel in business intelligence. While financial terms of the acquisition remain undisclosed, AlphaSense's CEO, Jack Kokko, revealed that the company has surpassed an impressive $500 million in annual recurring revenue and currently serves 6,500 corporate clients. Founded in 2011, AlphaSense is valued at approximately $4 billion, according to PitchBook. The Carousel team, established in 2023 by Daniel Wolf and Jude Rizzo as part of Y Combinator’s Winter 2024 batch, will be integrated into AlphaSense. Their focus will shift towards developing AI-driven tools that enhance spreadsheet generation. Kokko highlighted that Carousel's technology addresses many of the more tedious aspects of analysts' workflows, such as data extraction from PDFs, model formatting, and complex logic explanations. AlphaSense has experienced rapid growth over the past year, largely propelled by advancements in generative AI. This acquisition follows AlphaSense's earlier purchase of Tegus, a research and financial data provider, for $930 million in 2024, which shifted its client base towards financial services firms. The integration of Carousel is expected to automate numerous tasks for AlphaSense users, enabling them to pull vast amounts of data from original documents with greater efficiency. Kokko emphasized that this technology will primarily benefit junior and mid-level employees, who are typically responsible for modeling tasks. He stated, "AI isn't replacing analysts — it's giving them superpowers." As generative AI continues to transform workflows in the financial services sector, Kokko likened its impact to that of Excel, which significantly increased the number of analysts in the industry. He believes that this new technology will similarly allow professionals to model more scenarios in less time, thereby enhancing productivity within these firms.