How we compare | Kaleidoscope

Speed isn't the same as rigour.

Most teams have already tried the obvious fix — adding AI to the spreadsheet models they already have. AI accelerates output; it doesn't automatically guarantee quality. If the structure underneath is broken, the outputs will be too.

Kaleidoscope's builds you a better model infrastructure from your existing spreadsheet models in just minutes. Not just a smarter interface on top, but a foundation that's transparent, robust and easy to flex with AI.

Here are the current approaches for financial modelling:

Spreadsheets, built manually

Logic lives in cells. Every assumption, every formula, hand-built and hand-maintained. You know where everything is because you built it. The problem isn't the spreadsheet — it's that cell-based logic was never designed to be financial modelling infrastructure. Change the business and you're rebuilding. Something always slips through.

Spreadsheets with an AI assistant

You can generate formulas faster and get explanations on demand. Genuinely useful for speed. But the infrastructure underneath hasn't changed — it's still cell-based, still fragile, still dependent on whoever built it. And when the AI gets something wrong, it's rarely obvious where or why. Faster output. Same structural risk.

Spreadsheets with an AI platform add-in

The interface changes but the underlying model often doesn't. Many tools — including those using model protocols to connect AI to your data — can read your numbers and act on them. That's not the same as understanding them. Connectivity isn't comprehension.

A FP&A platform, with AI layered on top

You're outside Excel, building or interrogating models through a purpose-built planning platform. These tools have genuine financial modelling expertise built in — that's their strength. The challenge is getting there. Implementation takes months. The budget and complexity were designed for enterprise finance teams, not lean ones.

How the approaches actually compare.

Across the things that matter most to finance leads building models for real businesses. See how the approaches stack up.

How Kaleidoscope Compares to other tools and solutions

Model smarter and faster with Kaleidoscope

Kaleidoscope uses a smart calculation engine built for AI financial modelling, from the ground up. A new platform, that fits to your business and removes the legwork with speed, rigour and accuracy.

Not a legacy platform with AI bolted on, not a general purpose LLM that can get it wrong, not a spreadsheet that takes hours to wrangle to make a simple decision.

Built by the founder of Anaplan, for the businesses Anaplan was never built for.

Our mission is to give fast-growing businesses access to powerful planning software that was once only reserved for the giants. A platform designed to be AI-first, flexible, intuitive, and aligned with real-world business models.

How Kaleidoscope can deliver better modelling for SMB teams

Move beyond modelling at the micro level — individual cells, specific formulas, localised data blocks. Start modelling at the macro level. Kaleidoscope maps the architecture of your entire model, the global dependencies, the structural integrity.

That's a different kind of intelligence.

Object-based with meaning, not cell-based

Logic is defined once at a semantic level — products, people, costs — and applied consistently, so every number carries its own context. No hunting for broken formulas, no rewriting logic to reuse it elsewhere — just numbers that stay usable across views and scenarios as your model evolves.

Discover the platform

Get your name on the waitlist

We're working closely with a small group of finance professionals in the run-up to our commercial launch. Whether you're interested in testing out the platform today or want to get on the list for launch updates — there's a place for you.