Ascentra Labs raises $2 million to help consultants use AI instead of all-night Excel marathons

While artificial intelligence has stormed into law firms and accounting practices with billion-dollar startups like Harvey leading the charge, the global consulting industry—a $250 billion behemoth—has remained stubbornly analog. A London-based startup founded by former McKinsey consultants is betting $2 million that it can crack open this resistant market, one Excel spreadsheet at a time.Ascentra Labs announced Monday that it has closed a $2 million seed round led by NAP, a Berlin-based venture capital firm formerly known as Cavalry Ventures. The funding comes with participation from notable founder-angels including Alan Chang, chief executive of Fuse and former chief revenue officer at Revolut, and Fredrik Hjelm, chief executive of European e-scooter company Voi.The investment is modest by the standards of enterprise AI — a sector that has seen funding rounds routinely reach into the hundreds of millions. But Ascentra's founders argue that their focused approach to a narrow but