Day-to-day accounting is usually associated with hours of keyboard typing, data processing, and entry – a process that eats away the time accountants and bookkeepers could spend completing creative or strategically important tasks. AI-driven document automation platforms and software help businesses overcome this issue by allowing employees to classify structures and unstructured documents by using Machine Learning and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to replace manual data entry with automatic document scanning, classification, data extraction, and data release.
One regional newcomer in the sector is the Bulgarian document management AI startup 2Parts which helps organizations automate their document data extraction with computer vision and optical character recognition. Co-founded by Ivelin Ivanov and Lazar Draganov, the startup is the first one to offer a document data extraction solution that processes data in Cyrillic and can be used by Bulgarian businesses. For its one year on the market, 2Parts has already attracted the interest of investors and has received a €50K seed investment from the Bulgarian VC fund Innovation Capital.
“Unlike in other European countries, Bulgarian documents are not standardized which means that there are many different types no matter whether they are used for accounting, banking, or law. Moreover, since documents are often unique, they can’t be processed with the use of templates – something that Western European countries such as Italy which has only three types of documents do,” the founders of 2Parts explained in an interview for The Recursive
Eliminating the need for typing with AI
The idea came as a result of the previous professional experience of the two founders in software development, management, and mathematical algorithms. Draganov had worked in management positions in software development for 15 years, while Ivanov had occupied senior lead developer positions in projects for international companies such as Walt Disney.
“We both came to believe that a small group of highly trained and dedicated DevOps can tackle more complicated challenges in a shorter time. One problem we found persisting in different fields of local business and administration was manual data input – keyboard typing,” the founders of 2Parts shared.
The product of 2Parts which has the symbolic name UNAC (in Bulgarian – braveheart) is a document processing tool that helps businesses improve the speed and the precision of data extraction by imitating human sight and analyzing the document structure. It uses computer vision and AI to extract data from semi-structured text and images or PDFs such as invoices, contracts, receipts, and bank statements. Their second product DOCRAI which stands for Document Optical Character Recognition Artificial Intelligence has a PaaS model (platform-as-a-service) and provides users with an easy-to-navigate interface as well as an opportunity for them to export formats to 3rd party accounting software providers.
The entrepreneurial journey of 2Parts
Draganov and Ivanov shared that during the development phase of their product they have been constantly in contact with businesses. They have received advice and insight from one of the biggest software producers in Bulgaria – Microinvest, which became their first strategic partner and allowed them to obtain market verification for their product. 2Parts is also in close collaboration with another Bulgarian company – RPA Consulting, which is a local pioneer in the development of smart robots for process automation.
The team of 2Parts is currently applying the technology in the field of accounting. The SaaS UNAC helps producers of accounting software to add a layer of automation to their existing software products. The PaaS DOCRAI which is still being developed will be a more customized solution, focused on user experience.
The founders share that in the beginning, they relied on bootstrapping and revenue from clients to fund their project until the €50K investment from Innovation Capital. “As in any start-up the hardest part is the beginning, but thanks to our investors from Innovation Capital we managed to focus on our work and reach our targets without making compromises with the tech parts,” the two founders added.
In the short term, they intend to apply their technology to other industries such as law, insurance, logistics, banking, and warehousing, as well as to expand their service to other regional markets. In terms of product development, the founders plan to adapt their software to other languages. Their goal is to boost their marketing efforts and onboard new clients while continuing to target niche markets.
