Three new partners for aiGUST, fintech company of BDO, Van Havermaet and Vandelanotte

aiGUST, the fintech company of BDO, Van Havermaet and Vandelanotte, which creates financial advice, trends and benchmarks via AI, attracts three new shareholders: Baker Tilly, Certifisc and RSM. In August 2024, aiGUST will go to market to create added value for all stakeholders through data sharing. This will further optimise the accountancy landscape. Tim Bottelbergs, CEO of aiGUST, believes in the power of collaboration: "Achieving something like this is only possible if we join hands across competitive borders to further optimise aiGUST's AI-generated outcomes."

 

aiGUST, the fintech company of BDO, Van Havermaet and Vandelanotte is joining forces with three new partners: Baker Tilly, Certifisc and RSM[1]. With a capital increase, aiGUST's shareholding and its database are being expanded.

The fintech company was founded in 2022 by BDO, Van Havermaet and Vandelanotte. The goal of aiGust is to collect data from several existing accounting software packages and other systems in one secure and anonymous place. Data is gathered through the business model: parties share their data when using the platform. This creates a comprehensive database that allows them to formulate financial advice, trends and benchmarks for the business world via artificial intelligence. In this way, the fintech aims to improve the way of working across the industry.
"We did not launch aiGUST with the idea of starting from three parties and keeping it between us. We encourage participation because we see the benefit of working together to make our industry more efficient. This is only possible if we join hands across competitive borders to optimise aiGUST's AI-generated outcomes. Together, we are powering the AI future of the accountancy sector," says Tim Bottelbergs, CEO of aiGUST.

 

AI in the sector 

By making aiGUST's technology available to other accountancy firms, the fintech company succeeds in creating real-time, detailed analyses of companies and sectors. This allows accountants to provide even more specific and faster advice to their clients. For example, an analysis of the construction sector shows that during the first 9 months of 2023, a loss in turnover of more than 6% on average was recorded compared to the same period last year, despite rising prices. For a quarter of the companies, turnover dropped more than 25%. Moreover, these construction companies are facing rising personnel costs compared to the same period last year, which also puts pressure on profitability. Thanks to these insights, companies can move quickly to limit their turnover loss.

 

Advice across competitive borders 

As of the first quarter of 2024, new partners will be able to use aiGUST's modules via a license. This is good news because with anything AI-related, the same principle applies: the more data, the better the performance of the system. In August 2024, aiGUST will move to the market, making it possible for other players to share their data with aiGUST and use their services.
Today, there is a noticeable shift from an accountant as a data processor to an accountant as an advisor for businesses. This makes aiGUST interesting for the entire industry. "First, AI can help save a lot of time, allowing accountants to process data more efficiently. Secondly, through this extensive data set, AI can gain new and broad insights with which an accountant can advise his clients in a very targeted way, based on input from the entire industry," Bottelbergs says.

[1] RSM is a multinational network of accounting firms with audit, tax and consulting experts. Baker Tilly is an accounting and business advisory network specialising in accountancy, audit, consulting, corporate finance & ESG. Certifisc, an accounting firm based in Oudenaarde & Ghent, is a smaller player that is digital-minded.

 

About aiGUST 

aiGUST is a Belgian fintech company that is building Belgium's largest financial data pond and running self-developed intelligent algorithms to automatically formulate opinions and detect trends for accountants. The tech start-up aggregates data from all possible accounting software packages and other sources such as payroll data, detailed sales figures, energy consumption or client data. Companies that buy a software licence from aiGUST join an ecosystem where they can use the power of all the collected data to strengthen their own innovation capabilities based on the insights. aiGUST is based in Leuven and has 10 employees.

 For more info: www.ai-gust.io