2025 in Review

2025: The Year of Human in the Loop Finance

The promise was clear, agentic automation that speeds up day to day operations and gives teams leverage. The reality has been more nuanced. What emerged wasn’t full autonomy, but something more pragmatic: human in the loop finance automation.

At Sequence Collect, our inaugural user conference, CEOs from Runway, Anrok and Equals articulated the importance of finance processes requiring guardrails, transparency and oversight.

In practice, AI in finance is still a copilot, not a black-box decision maker. Outcomes need to be deterministic and there are edge cases where agents require human intervention.

This fundamentally changes the role of finance teams. Humans go from being doers to reviewers. Agents handle the heavy lifting - contract intake, invoicing checks, reconciliation prep - while humans are on standby. That "second pair of eyes" creates real peace of mind where accuracy matters as much as speed.

Why we built Watchtower

If AI is going to operate inside critical finance workflows, operators need a central control center. Watchtower gives finance teams full visibility into what agents are doing, where decisions are being made, and when human review is required.

Human in the loop only works if humans are actually in control. Watchtower makes AI activity observable and auditable, so teams can trust automation without giving up accountability.

The Progression of Agentic automation in 2026

Looking ahead, the next phase is about expanding what agents can do safely. We see 3 major shifts coming.

1. From single tasks to multi-step workflows
   Today, most agents operate at the task level. The next step is multi-agent workflows where agents hand off work across an entire process, from contract signature through revenue reconciliation. Each step remains observable, but the system coordinates end-to-end.
2. From rigid software to malleable software
   Malleable software isn't rebuilt every time requirements change. It adapts to new business models, edge cases, and rules without brittle workarounds. Instead of waiting for features, users express intent directly.
   
   Traditional software behaves like a machine: Input X, Output Y. Malleable software behaves like a medium: users encode logic, rules, and variation. Systems adapt without constant re-engineering.
3. From repeatability to expressiveness
   Machines are optimized for repeatability. Media are optimized for expression. Malleable systems bias toward expressiveness, allowing finance teams to encode their own logic without waiting for product roadmaps.
   
   

2025 proved AI in finance works best with humans in the loop. 2026 is about sequencing that foundation forward: from tasks to workflows, from rigid tools to malleable systems, from feature accumulation to expressive platforms.

At Sequence, we're building toward a future where finance teams automate work with clarity, control, and confidence at every step.

Company momentum

• 10×+ revenue growth year-over-year.
• $20m Series A raised, led by 645 Ventures, with participation from a16z, and operators from leading SaaS companies such as Klaviyo, Wise and Decagon.
• Expanded presence across New York, London, and San Francisco.
• Supporting the fastest growing startups in the world, with companies like Cognition, Moonpay, and many others who joined us on our journey in 2025.

Product features shipped in 2025

In 2025, we shipped 60+ customer facing features alone that made it to the public changelog.

CPQ

• Manually accept quotes
• Embedded signing
• Display monthly rates for annual prices
• Add tables to quotes
• Reorder products in quotes
• Custom quote duration
• Auto-execute accepted quotes
• Set payment terms on quotes
• Variables for quote templates
• Redesigned sales quotes
• Multiple quote countersigners
• Quote templates
• CPQ improvements
• Custom phase labels

Billing schedules

• Hourly on-demand billing runs
• Billing timeline
• Duplicate billing schedules
• Semi-annual billing
• On-demand billing
• Milestone billing

Invoicing & payments

• Mark invoices as sent
• Invoice activity logs
• Improved invoice email notifications
• Updated customer portal
• Duplicate invoices
• Invoicing, redesigned
• Upload attachments to invoices
• Updated invoice bulk actions
• Merge invoices
• Stripe payment retries

Revenue Recognition

• Revenue recognition (ASC 606 / IFRS 15)
• Revenue waterfall

AI

• AI contract intake
• Watchtower

Integrations

• Attio integration
• Equals integration
• Numeral integration
• HubSpot improvements
• QuickBooks customer, item, account, and tax mapping
• Avalara integration

Platform

• Role-based access control (RBAC)
• New dashboard home
• New dashboard settings
• Keyboard shortcuts

New Strategic Partnerships

• We’ve officially partnered with the teams at Attivo, airCFO, Armanino, Spendflo, and RORA and many more.

Sequence Collect

• In September, we hosted Sequence Collect, our first in-person user summit, bringing together 120+ finance and RevOps leaders
• Speakers and company representation included:
  • Sequence (Riya Grover & Enda Cahill)
  • Andreessen Horowitz (Ivan Makarov & Joe Morrissey & Seema Amble & Tugce Erten)
  • Drivetrain (Alok Goel)
  • Equals (Ben McRedmond)
  • The F Suite (Doug Bondor)
  • Pylon (Calvin Cupino)
  • Descript (Ibrahim Cisse)
  • Sardine (Josh Borin)
  • Together AI (Kai Mak)
  • Anrok (Michelle Valentine)
  • 11x (Connor Nowinski)
  • Runway (Siqi Chen)
  • Coterie (M.G. Thibaut)
  • Pave (Patrick Souris)
  • Clay (Steve Sidhu)

Looking ahead

In 2026, we’re focused on:

• Increasing our shipping velocity on our strongest foundations to date
  • After investing in our core infrastructure, we’re entering 2026 on the strongest foundations we’ve ever had - putting us in a position to ship even faster without sacrificing code quality.
• Going deeper on automation in finance workflows
  • We’re building new native workflows and AI agents in the platform, starting with CPQ approvals and guardrails, and leveraging existing Watchtower components to give teams auditable visibility into what’s triggering and executing actions on their behalf.
• Continuing to build with the teams running finance and revenue at the highest growth companies in the world
  • As always, we’ll continue building alongside our customers - doubling down on integrations and workflows that support increasingly complex, enterprise organisations as they scale.

From all of us here at Sequence, needless to say a massive thank you to every customer and partner who helped shape this amazing year. More exciting updates are coming very soon.