1. A Rebrand, a New Mission, and a Vote of Confidence
In the fast-moving world of enterprise technology, a name change often signals more than just a new logo. It can mark a company’s coming of age, a shift in strategy, or a response to what customers are actually asking for. That’s exactly what’s happening with Ascerta, the Bellevue, Wash.-based startup formerly known as Pay-i. The company, which started out helping businesses track the rising costs of artificial intelligence, has rebranded to reflect a much bigger ambition: helping companies understand whether their AI investments are actually paying off. To fuel that evolution, Ascerta announced an $18 million Series A funding round led by Dell Technologies Capital, with participation from Hitachi Ventures, BGV, Wipro Ventures, and existing backers. That brings the startup’s total funding to $22.9 million, a solid foundation for a company that only emerged from stealth in May 2025 with a $4.9 million seed round. The name “Pay-i” was a nod to the company’s original focus on AI cost management, but the founders realized that customers were using the platform in ways that went far beyond tracking dollars and cents. They were using it to figure out which AI tools and agents were actually driving business results, which ones were being adopted by employees, and which initiatives deserved more investment. Ascerta, with its roots in the word “ascertain,” captures that broader mission. It’s about gaining clarity, not just cutting costs. The funding announcement is a strong signal that investors believe in that vision. In a landscape where AI spending is exploding and executives are under pressure to show returns, Ascerta is positioning itself as the company that can help leaders make sense of the chaos.
2. Built by Veterans Who Understand the Machinery of AI
Behind Ascerta are three founders who know the inner workings of massive technology systems better than almost anyone. David Tepper, the CEO, spent 19 years at Microsoft, where he led generative AI strategy for internal use across Azure. That means he was responsible for helping one of the world’s largest companies figure out how to use AI safely, efficiently, and at scale. Doron Holan, the CTO, spent 27 years at Microsoft architecting hyperscale throttling infrastructure — the kind of behind-the-scenes plumbing that keeps cloud platforms from collapsing when hundreds of billions of requests pour in every day. If you’ve ever wondered how a service like Azure manages to keep working smoothly while millions of customers depend on it, Holan is one of the people who made that possible. Erik Winters, the COO, rounds out the leadership team with deep operational experience. Together, they founded Ascerta in 2024, and the company launched publicly as Pay-i a year later. The initial pitch was straightforward: AI is expensive, and enterprises need better visibility into what they’re spending. That might sound simple, but anyone who has tried to decipher a cloud bill knows how confusing it can be. AI costs don’t always show up in obvious places. They hide in sub-token usage, in background processes, in agent runs that spin out of control. Tepper and his co-founders had seen these problems up close at Microsoft, where the scale of AI usage made even small inefficiencies turn into massive expenses. They knew that enterprises were about to face the same challenges, and they wanted to build a tool that could bring order to the chaos. The early focus on cost management was a natural starting point, but it was only the beginning of a much larger journey.
3. From Cost Tracking to Enterprise AI Management
The shift from Pay-i to Ascerta didn’t happen in a vacuum. It came from listening to customers. As enterprises began rolling out AI tools more broadly, they quickly realized that knowing how much they were spending was only part of the equation. They also needed to know whether that spending was justified. Were employees actually using the AI tools the company was paying for? Were those tools improving productivity, speeding up workflows, or generating revenue? And which AI initiatives deserved more investment, which ones should be scaled back, and which ones should be abandoned altogether? These are the questions that keep chief technology officers and chief financial officers up at night. Tepper put it plainly in a statement: “Pay-i reflected our starting point in AI cost management, but customers increasingly use the platform to understand adoption, measure business outcomes and decide which AI initiatives to scale. Ascerta reflects that broader role in helping enterprises manage their entire AI investment, including its people.” That last part — “including its people” — is important. AI adoption isn’t just about technology; it’s about human behavior. A tool that nobody uses is worthless, no matter how powerful it is. A tool that people use in unexpected ways can be either a treasure or a liability. Ascerta wants to help companies see the full picture: who is using what, how often, and to what effect. This is what the company calls enterprise AI management. It’s a category that goes beyond simple cost tracking, encompassing adoption metrics, business outcomes, and strategic decision-making. In a sense, Ascerta is trying to be the financial and operational dashboard for the AI era. Just as companies use analytics to understand their sales, their marketing, and their supply chains, Ascerta wants them to have the same level of insight into their AI investments.
4. Real Stories of Hidden Costs and Millions Saved
To understand why Ascerta’s platform matters, it helps to look at real examples from its customers. One case involved an AI agent that seemed reasonably priced at an average of $0.40 per execution. That’s the kind of number that makes a finance team nod in approval. But averages can be deceiving. When the customer dug deeper, they discovered that some executions were spiking to $70 each — and those outliers were happening hundreds of times a day. That’s not a rounding error; that’s a budget-busting problem. The rogue runs were likely caused by complex tasks, inefficient code, or agents that went off the rails and consumed far more computing power than expected. Without visibility into those outliers, the company would have continued bleeding money, unaware that a seemingly cheap tool was quietly draining resources. With Ascerta, they were able to isolate the issue immediately and make changes that saved them a significant amount of money. Tepper noted that customers are often surprised by what they find when they start looking closely at their AI usage. Another example involved a global insurance carrier that used Ascerta to right-size its AI capacity commitments with a hyperscale cloud provider. The insurer had been reserving capacity for individual AI agents independently, which is a bit like buying separate gym memberships for every employee instead of getting a family plan. It’s inefficient and expensive. By consolidating multiple agents onto shared capacity reservations, the insurer was able to save approximately $3 million within its first few months. That’s the kind of result that gets the attention of executives. It’s not just about avoiding waste; it’s about finding opportunities to do more with the same resources. These stories illustrate the practical value of Ascerta’s approach. It’s not abstract theory. It’s real money, real savings, and real operational improvements for companies that are trying to navigate the complex world of enterprise AI.
5. A Platform That Speaks the Language of Modern AI Tools
So how does Ascerta actually work? The platform connects to a company’s existing systems and integrates with the major AI tools that enterprises are already using. That includes Microsoft Copilot, Amazon Bedrock AgentCore, Salesforce Agentforce, and coding assistants like GitHub Copilot and Claude Code. By plugging into these tools, Ascerta can track adoption by person, team, and tool. It can show which departments are embracing AI, which individuals are getting the most value, and which tools are gathering digital dust. This kind of granular visibility is essential for companies that are trying to make smart decisions about where to invest. It also helps with the human side of AI adoption. If a team is struggling to use a particular tool, the data might reveal the need for better training. If another team is using a tool in an unexpected way that delivers great results, that insight can be shared across the organization. Ascerta currently counts Atos, Wipro, and several global financial institutions among its customers. These are large, sophisticated organizations that deal with complex AI deployments. The fact that they trust Ascerta to help them manage their AI investments is a testament to the platform’s value. The company is still small, with 15 employees, but it’s operating in a space that is growing rapidly. The team is lean, experienced, and deeply knowledgeable about the challenges of enterprise AI. They’re not trying to be everything to everyone. They’re focused on a specific problem — helping companies understand and optimize their AI investments — and they’re doing it very well. The platform’s ability to integrate with a wide range of tools is a key part of its appeal. In the modern enterprise, AI is not a single product; it’s a patchwork of different solutions, each with its own costs, benefits, and quirks. Ascerta provides a unified view of that patchwork, making it easier for leaders to make informed decisions.
6. Looking Ahead: Scaling Up and Going Deeper
With the new funding in hand, Ascerta has ambitious plans for the future. The company intends to nearly triple its headcount to roughly 40 employees by the end of 2027. That growth will be focused on expanding platform capabilities, building out go-to-market teams, and strengthening engineering. The company also plans to extend its integrations to support every major enterprise AI tool, ensuring that no matter what technology a company uses, Ascerta can provide visibility and insight. The goal is to become the standard for enterprise AI management, the go-to platform for companies that want to move beyond guesswork and make data-driven decisions about their AI strategies. The timing could not be better. As AI becomes more deeply embedded in business operations, the pressure to demonstrate return on investment will only increase. Executives are no longer satisfied with vague promises about the transformative power of AI. They want to know exactly what it costs, what it delivers, and whether it’s worth the investment. Ascerta is designed to answer those questions. It’s a tool for the age of accountability, a way to bring financial discipline to a technology that often feels magical and mysterious. But at its core, Ascerta is about something more fundamental: helping people make better decisions. Whether it’s a CFO trying to understand why costs are spiraling, a CTO trying to decide which AI projects to scale, or a team leader trying to figure out why adoption is lagging, Ascerta provides the clarity needed to act with confidence. The rebrand from Pay-i to Ascerta is more than a cosmetic change. It’s a statement of purpose. The company has evolved from a cost-tracking tool into a strategic partner for enterprises navigating the AI revolution. And with $22.9 million in funding, a strong investor base, and a clear vision, Ascerta is well-positioned to help shape the future of how businesses manage and measure their AI investments.
