Ascerta Raises $18M from Dell’s Venture Arm to Showcase Which AI Pays Off
Ascerta, formerly Pay-i, has secured $18 million in Series A funding led by Dell Technologies Capital. The platform enables CIOs and CFOs to understand the cost of AI, its staff adoption, and the value it brings to organizations.
The AI Landscape: From Experimentation to Material Line Items
Enterprise AI has progressed from experimental stages to becoming a significant line item in companies' budgets. Metrics like tokens, licenses, agent runs, and lines of AI-generated code are now tracked. However, many organizations struggle with the critical question: identifying which AI initiatives offer genuine value for scaling.
Introducing Ascerta: Enterprise AI Management
Ascerta, established in 2024, offers Enterprise AI Management, providing a comprehensive view of AI cost, adoption, and business value across the organization.
Founding and Growth:
Founded by Microsoft veterans David Tepper, Doron Holan, and Erik Winters, Ascerta emerged from stealth in May 2025 with a $4.9 million seed round focused on AI cost management. As AI adoption accelerated, the need for a solution to track AI usage and its business value grew, leading to the company's rebrand and expansion.
“The market is full of meaningless vanity metrics... We built Ascerta to cut through the noise and provide organizations with a guide through one of the most pivotal eras of transformation in history.” - David Tepper, CEO and Co-Founder of Ascerta
Ascerta's Functionality:
- AI Usage Insights: Ascerta connects to existing AI across the enterprise, tracking how people use AI, the AI's tasks, and their outcomes.
- Business Value Connection: The platform links AI use cases to specific business KPIs, revealing which initiatives drive value and which require adjustments.
- Granular Cost Measurement: Ascerta provides the most accurate estimation of AI's true cost, offering insights at the most granular level.
- Adoption Tracking: It monitors AI adoption by individuals, teams, and tools, fostering AI fluency throughout the organization.