ROI on generative AI: Microsoft vets raise $4.9M to quantify business value of AI investments

Pay-i, a Seattle startup founded by Microsoft veterans, raised a $4.9 million seed round to help businesses figure out whether AI initiatives actually deliver business value. It’s a pressing question as companies try to keep up with the flurry of new AI tools hitting the market and assess potential impact on their businesses. Founded last year, Pay-i has developed software that takes usage data from generative AI tools and combines it with key performance indicators (KPIs) to provide real-time insights on ROI for different models and design choices. The idea is to bring together usage and outcomes in an automated… Read More

May 21, 2025 - 14:40

ROI on generative AI: Microsoft vets raise $4.9M to quantify business value of AI investments

From left: Pay-i CTO Doron Holan; CEO David Tepper; and COO Erik Winters. (Pay-i Photos)

Pay-i, a Seattle startup founded by Microsoft veterans, raised a $4.9 million seed round to help businesses figure out whether AI initiatives actually deliver business value.

It’s a pressing question as companies try to keep up with the flurry of new AI tools hitting the market and assess potential impact on their businesses.

Founded last year, Pay-i has developed software that takes usage data from generative AI tools and combines it with key performance indicators (KPIs) to provide real-time insights on ROI for different models and design choices.

The idea is to bring together usage and outcomes in an automated way.

“Pay-i pinpoints which GenAI use cases create net-new value today, quantifies that value in dollars or hours, and predicts how it will compound tomorrow,” Pay-i CEO David Tepper said in a statement.

Tepper said the company’s main competition is organizations trying to build similar solutions inside their own infrastructure.

Tepper spent 19 years at Microsoft and helped lead internal generative AI consumption within Azure.

Doron Holan, co-founder and CTO, spent 27 years at Microsoft, most recently as a principal architect.

“With traditional software, we could track exactly how features were used,” Holan said in a statement. “But with GenAI, that visibility gets lost. Pay-i closes that gap and shows exactly where value is being created, in real time.”

Pay-i COO and co-founder Erik Winters was previously vice president of corporate development at Advanced Vapor Devices.

The company has nine employees. It has not generated revenue but projects more than $2 million in ARR by the end of 2026 based on existing partnerships.

Seattle-area venture firms FUSE and Tola Capital co-led the seed round. Other backers include Firestreak, Pear VC, Gaia Capital, and angel investors.