The $100T world of B2B commerce operates in a “Wild West” where businesses provide goods and services first and chase payment later – often for months. Despite decades of software innovation, the accounts receivable process still depends on millions of finance professionals manually sending emails, tracking down contacts, answering invoice questions, and reconciling incomplete payment data. With 57% of invoices paid late and 77% of AR teams falling behind, this communication and negotiation bottleneck has become one of the most persistent inefficiencies in the modern economy. Lunos is addressing this challenge with AI agents that manage receivables like a human colleague – reading customer histories, adapting tone and timing, handling two-way conversations, and working 24/7 without forgetting anything. Founded by Duncan Barrigan, former Chief Product Officer at European payments unicorn GoCardless, Lunos connects to existing tools like QuickBooks and NetSuite to automate the chase while maintaining personalized customer relationships. The platform offers both white-glove service and self-serve options, requiring no six-month integration process to start delivering value.
AlleyWatch sat down with Lunos Founder and CEO Duncan Barrigan to learn more about the business, its future plans, recend funding round, and much, much more…
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
Our investors were General Catalyst and Cherry Ventures. It was a $5M pre-seed funding round.
Tell us about the product or service that Lunos offers.
Lunos is an AI accounts receivable partner that manages receivables just like a human. Well, like many humans who work 24/7, never forget anything, and read every message sent to them… The $70T world of global B2B commerce has forever depended on millions of AP and AR professionals manually chasing payments and answering questions. Lunos finally makes the flexible, human approach to AR scalable, giving CFOs both efficiency and effectiveness
What inspired the start of Lunos?
It’s been a very personal journey, and I’ve seen firsthand the issues that businesses have with getting paid. After spending years at GoCardless, watching finance teams wrestle with the same repetitive tasks, I couldn’t help but think there had to be a better way. With endless emails, PDFs, and late payments, accounts receivable can really feel like the Wild West where there is very little control and consistency. If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.
I still remember the late nights poring over invoices, wondering why technology hadn’t caught up to make this easier. With 57% of invoices paid late and 77% of AR teams falling behind, it’s clear this isn’t just a payments issue… it’s about communication and negotiation, tailored to each unique customer relationship.
How is Lunos different?
Lunos AI is the answer for the challenges that so many businesses face when it comes to collecting invoices. We create an AI worker that steps in via Slack, email, or our web app, and connects with the tools that most companies already use (such as QuickBooks, NetSuite, etc.) to handle the chase, reconcile the numbers, and keep cash flowing. It’s designed to feel like a teammate you can trust, and we’ve made it accessible with both white-glove service as well as a self-serve platform. And we’re doing it all with no six-month integrations required.
Instead of sending one-size-fits-all “no-reply” reminders, Lunos’ system reads customer histories, email tone, invoicing context, and operational data to tailor how and when it reaches out. Lunos AI doesn’t just nudge, it negotiates, responds to questions, escalates intelligently, and adapts to each customer’s behavior over time.
The AR process is notoriously complex… filled with endless follow-ups, scattered communications, inconsistent payment behaviors, and human error. The world of global B2B commerce has depended on huge teams of AP and AR professionals manually chasing payments and answering questions for this critical workflow. Lunos finally makes the flexible, human approach to AR scalable, giving CFOs both efficiency and effectiveness, without compromise.
What market does Lunos target and how big is it?
The best way to think about this is to start by analyzing an important number: $100T.
This is the amount of B2B trade that is settled after goods and services are provided. This means that far too many businesses are dealing with late payments (and sometimes even no payments) when they have already provided what they agreed to.
The frustrating thing for me was that despite decades of advances in software and payments, this system still runs on the manual labor of millions of people in finance teams around the world. It’s an endless stream of emails and PDFs.
Lastly, Lunos primarily targets the B2B / enterprise market, but really any company that issues invoices and manages accounts receivable.
What’s your business model?
The short answer is that we base our fees on both a percentage of invoice revenue Lunos is helping to collect, as well as (in some cases) a monthly fee. We have offerings that include both white glove service where we will oversee the entire process along with you and a self-serve option where customers can sign up and begin using Lunos instantly. But there is another important part to include about how the business actually works on the backend.
We emphasize that the AI agents we provide are for all intents and purposes workers that understand your business, learn your relationships with your customers, and work around the clock to manage your receivables process so that you get paid faster and with a lot less frustration. As I mentioned before, this isn’t a payments problem, it’s a communication and negotiation problem… We train AI agents to work on your behalf, understand your business and your relationships, and then work with other AI agents to negotiate on your behalf.
How are you preparing for a potential economic slowdown?
This is where Lunos becomes very essential! In an economic slowdown, companies are more likely to delay payments as they begin to worry about cash flow and reserves. But for businesses who have already done the work and need to get paid, this delay can be catastrophic.
Lunos is arguably the most important during challenging economic times as we will make sure you get paid faster for the work you’ve done!
Lastly, we see this as a problem that affects all aspects of commerce, and always has. This is a multi-trillion dollar issue that businesses have been dealing with. If anything, we will move harder and faster to get this message out when businesses need it most.
What was the funding process like?
The truth is… it was a very straightforward experience for us. The funding process was largely fueled by my track record as CPO of GoCardless. I had gotten to know investors quite well and we set out to tackle a problem that so many had experienced. They trusted us, knew the problem we were solving, and saw our approach as a differentiated way to address it.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
It wasn’t a particularly challenging process for us because again, we were fortunate to have a great network built from previous experience. But like anything in life, rejection will happen, and you are likely to get more “no” responses than “yes” responses. That’s just part of the deal and you have to learn to be ok with it. But in our case, it wasn’t too challenging based on who we knew and what we needed to get started.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
I think one of our investors, Dinika Mahtani, who is a Partner over at Cherry Ventures summed it up nicely. What she mentioned to us throughout the process was that having a coworker who can automate receivables, chase invoices, and manage the admin would be a dream. This is where the real time and difficulty comes in for so many businesses. But with Lunos this is exactly what we are doing! We are looking to redefine receivables and payments for B2B commerce, leveraging AI in a way that’s both practical and transformative. It was this practical focus on a very real problem that made the funding process easy.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
We want to continue to expand Lunos AI’s capabilities beyond that of just accounts receivable. We want to also get to a point in the near future where we are also a cash flow optimization assistant. This includes making Lunos an even bigger partner for our clients and becoming integral to not just their receivables but to how they think about and manage their entire cash flow experience. We are building a team of AI agents that will work on their behalf, getting a lot more done without having to increase headcount.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
I think for any founder or founding team, persistence and relentlessness are two traits that are really important. New York is an expensive city… It’s expensive to do business here, to hire great talent here, etc. But it’s expensive for a reason and if you hustle, the world can be right here at your fingertips.
I would also add that for companies operating in this area who don’t have a ton of capital, my advice is to focus on keeping your operations lean and be strategic about your priorities. That means doubling down on your core value proposition and allocating resources to strengthen that edge. Second, build strong relationships with customers and partners as their feedback and loyalty can drive organic growth and open doors to new opportunities.
Finally, explore creative financing options like grants, strategic partnerships, or revenue-based financing to bridge gaps without diluting equity.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
We want to continue expanding our footprint and relationship with customers. As mentioned before, we want to become a really integral part of our customers’ cash flow process, handling not just receivables (although that is where the biggest need is) and helping to optimize the entire cash flow experience. On a more practical and immediate level though, we want to get our product embedded amongst our teams, so we are not just an outsourced solution but more like an internal part of their teams.
What’s your favorite fall destination in and around the city?
I am also a pilot! So, one of my favorite things to do in the Fall is to get up in the air and see all of the beautiful Fall foliage.
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