Slope, the name of the startup is inspired by Sam’s quote, “Hire for slope, not Y-intercept. This is my number one piece of life advice.”

Slope, a two-year-old AI startup based in San Francisco, has secured a substantial $30 million equity round led by Union Square Ventures and featuring participation from OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman. This brings the startup’s total funding to an impressive $187 million.

Slope also acknowledged other investors in the funding announcement: Y Combinator, USV, monashees, Sam Altman, Stanley Tang from Doordash, Arash Ferdowsi from Dropbox, Zach Perret and William Hockey from Plaid, Jack Altman from Lattice, Alex Bouaziz from Deel, David Helgason from Unity, Eric Wu from Opendoor, Mathilde Collin from Front, Michael Tannenbaum from Brex, Rujul Zaparde from Zip, and many more.

Slope aims to establish a gold standard for B2B payments tracking and receipt. Unlike B2C transactions, B2B dealings come with a host of complexities, including the uncertainty of receiving timely payments, the potential for baseless excuses, business closures, and shrewd financial maneuvers. (VentureBeat)

Slope’s approach combines proprietary rules-based technology with the power of OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 Turbo, along with the development of their own large language models (LLMs) – all the while maintaining a lean team of just 18 full-time employees.

The company’s comprehensive technology addresses the entire B2B customer payments journey. From customer onboarding to risk assessment, invoicing, billing, cash application claims, and integration with accounting systems, Slope’s platform handles it all. Notably, the company also offers financing options for customers who can’t make upfront payments, creating a new level of visibility into the often opaque B2B payment workflows.

One innovative tool in their arsenal is SlopeGPT, which leverages OpenAI’s GPT technology to analyze transaction and purchase order data, identifying regular payments and anomalies. This tool aids in detecting fraudulent activities and safeguarding payments. They have developed their own proprietary LLM, further enhancing their risk identification capabilities.

This AI-driven approach promises to redefine the landscape of B2B payments, offering efficiency, transparency, and security in an arena known for its challenges.

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Image of Slope team celebrating the $30M raise — they have different colored bucket hats for each funding milestone: Slope