Finance pros trust Compound AI for accurate, Excel-compatible AI analysis
In the fast-paced world of finance, where analysts juggle endless data rooms, SEC filings, and complex models, time is the ultimate currency. Enter Compound AI, a groundbreaking browser-based platform launched in beta on October 15, 2025, by Twenty Labs. Billed as the "world's first AI Analyst for finance you can trust," Compound redefines spreadsheet workflows by combining AI's speed with the auditability that finance pros demand. Unlike brittle generalist tools that falter on real-world messiness, Compound scales to handle unlimited files, parallel tasks, and editable outputs - promising a 10x productivity boost for tasks like TAM modeling or revenue waterfalls. Built by a team of ex-Google DeepMind and Coatue Management veterans, it's designed for deal teams craving accuracy without the black-box risks.
At its core, Compound operates as an AI-native workspace, ingesting vast datasets, from hulking S-1 PDFs to customer CSVs, and spitting out Excel-compatible spreadsheets in minutes. Users prompt it naturally ("Build a three-year projection for Robinhood"), and it delivers traceable results with citations to sources. Early buzz on X has been electric: the launch thread amassed over 760 likes and 228 replies in two days, with users clamoring for beta access.
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Gone are the days of static AI summaries. Compound's browser-based interface mirrors Excel, letting users dive into outputs with full interactivity. Tweak assumptions, like doubling growth rates in a pro forma model, and watch ripple effects update in real time. As demoed in the launch video, it crafts a TAM model for the U.S. airline industry from a blank sheet in under five minutes, complete with dummy data and forecasts. Formula tracing previews every calculation, ensuring outputs feel native to your workflow. This isn't just generation; it's co-creation, bridging AI's power with human oversight for seamless iteration.
Finance data deluges are no match for Compound's "infinite context." Upload thousands of documents, Excel sheets, image-heavy filings like Figma's S-1, or entire data rooms, and the AI scans them holistically, surfacing relevant snippets without manual hunting. It recommends analyses on upload, such as integrated contribution models from scattered financials. This feature shines in due diligence, where querying "Extract revenue trends from customer logs" pulls from disparate files instantly. No size caps or context windows mean deeper, wider insights, turning hours of sifting into targeted intelligence.
Why wait? Compound lets you spin up multiple "AI Analysts" in tandem, one threading a multi-year P&L while another waterfalls revenue from the same dataset. As shown in unedited demos, this parallelism populates an LBO template across workstreams in minutes, converging outputs into a unified spreadsheet. Ideal for deal teams, it handles interconnected tasks like comps generation alongside sector mini-models, slashing bottlenecks and enabling holistic views. Users report it feels like "10 Wall Street Karls on a deal," amplifying output without overwhelming the interface.
Integration is king, and Compound delivers with robust file support. Outputs export as .xlsx or .csv, fully forward- and backward-compatible with Microsoft Excel - no reformatting headaches. Upcoming .xlsm and .xlsb formats will unlock macros and binaries, while multi-workbook editing lets you chain analyses across sheets. Download locally, version in shared drives, or collaborate in-browser; it's built to slot into existing pipelines, from Cap IQ pulls to Bloomberg terminals (integrations eyed for future releases).
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Trust is non-negotiable in finance, and Compound embeds it deeply. Every cell cites sources, hyperlinked to PDF pages or data points, with a "review changes" pane logging AI steps from extraction to computation. Restore checkpoints or save versions effortlessly, minimizing errors in audits. AES-256 encryption safeguards data, with no model training on user inputs and custom VPC deployments for enterprises. A multi-billion AUM growth equity partner sums it up: "The only AI product that can create work output our team trusts."
Founded by Peter J. Liu (ex-Google Brain), Yijia Liang (Coatue alum), and Yao Zhao (Google vet), Twenty Labs bootstrapped Compound to win the "AI Excel war." Beta access is invite-only via X comments or getcompound.ai waitlist; pricing remains under wraps. As AI reshapes finance, Compound doesn't want to replace analysts, it's arming them for smarter, swifter wins. In a field where precision compounds fortunes, this tool could redefine the game.
