MAVI emerges from stealth

Molly Liu and Aman Puri announced on Monday that their AI-powered talent marketplace MAVI, founded in 2023, has officially emerged from stealth. The service connects U.S. companies with top AI-proficient global financial and accounting talent within days.

The U.S. accounting crisis

The U.S. accounting profession is shrinking, and those remaining often lack the AI skills companies need. Many U.S. companies hesitate to hire global talent, either because it is complex to manage or because they doubt the talent quality.

Global talent is equal or better

Liu said there is a new wave of tremendous global accounting talent with a high bar equal to or better than the U.S. MAVI handles the complex work of hiring globally, including cross-border contracts, legal compliance, and payroll management.

“There's been a new wave of tremendous talent, a really high bar that is equal or even better than the U.S.”

AI automation creates new gaps

Liu, who worked at Ramp, Lyft, and Dropbox, said AI automation will eliminate many entry-level accounting roles, worsening the mid-level talent shortage. Companies still need experienced humans to make judgment calls on critical financial work.

“AI will automate away many entry-level roles in finance and accounting, which will further exacerbate the talent shortage at the mid-level experience level, given there will be less entry-level talent growing into the mid-level over time.”

The accountant role is changing

An AI-proficient accountant needs strong finance fundamentals but also must direct AI tools, catch AI errors, integrate large language models into workflows, and use AI-native enterprise resource planning tools. Traditional accountants lack this AI integration knowledge.

Pressure increases on senior roles

As companies adopt more AI tools, senior finance staff face growing pressure to add reasoning skills and do more with less. Finance teams must now leverage AI while maintaining judgment over its outputs and decisions.

“They are increasingly expected to add more of their reasoning skills.”

MAVI raises four million dollars

Last year, MAVI raised a four million dollar seed round led by Harlem Capital, which the company announced on Monday. The platform now has more than three thousand accounting professionals and enterprise clients including personal care company Athena Club.

Focus on high-skill judgment work

Liu said MAVI focuses on mid-level and senior-level full-time placements that augment in-house finance teams. The company targets the high-skill talent and judgment layer that is paramount for finance teams to operate at the next level.

“We have a very strong point of view as to what the future of the finance team looks like.”