Meet Elian Kool, CEO of Aderis

Tell us more about Aderis

Aderis is the Live Finance Platform for growing businesses. It runs accounting autonomously on an AI-native core, with every number traceable to its source. Open by design, it orchestrates the full finance cycle across ledgers and currencies in real time. Built in and for Switzerland and Europe.

What was the “aha” moment that led to Aderis?

When I ran companies across two continents and seven countries, finance was always looking backwards. Month-end figures arrived days later, and consolidation still happened manually in Excel. By the time management had a reliable group view, it reflected where the business had been rather than where it stood.

Advances in AI created the opportunity to change that: a finance system that keeps financial data continuously updated and gives leadership a reliable view of the business at any point in time.

That became Aderis, the Live Finance Platform, giving leaders a continuous, reliable view of where they stand, not a monthly reconstruction of where they used to be.

So, what’s next for you – what’s a bold goal you’re chasing right now?

Our goal is to make Live Finance the new standard for businesses across DACH and Europe. That means supporting each market’s local requirements, from banking and payments to VAT, while giving multi-country organisations one current, consolidated, and fully traceable view of their financials. Very few solutions handle that complexity well today. That’s the gap Aderis is built to close.

Die Live Finance Plattform: Auf einer AI-native Grundlage verbindet die Plattform Gesellschaften, Hauptbücher, Währungen und Länder auf einem System. Buchungslogik, Kontrollen, Hosting und Integrationen arbeiten zusammen, statt in voneinander getrennten Systemen.

Which decision (big or small) had the most unexpected positive impact on Aderis?

Choosing an AI-native architecture from day one was a necessity. For AI to operate autonomously in finance, it has to work within the same rules and controls as every other action in the system. Every action, from creating an invoice to posting a journal or running a reconciliation, uses the same API, permissions, and controls, whether initiated by a person, an integration, or an AI agent. This makes AI-native finance governable and secure by design, not just fast.

How did you build your team, and what helps you maintain your startup culture?

We are building Aderis with experts who have delivered finance, AI, and enterprise systems at scale. Each person brings deep expertise and trusts the others to own theirs. That mutual confidence keeps standards high, accountability clear, and decisions fast, allowing us to move at a pace that still surprises me.

Building a tech company requires resilience. How do you stay focused during tough times?

For me, resilience is about staying clear on the goal and mastering challenges along the way. AI is not only part of our platform; it also shapes how we work as a team. That includes our purpose-built Aderis OS, which we developed to bring the company’s knowledge, priorities, and execution together. Seeing that collective capability create real value for our customers is something I’m genuinely proud of.

One piece of advice for someone who is just starting out with their own tech company?

Focus on a problem worth solving, and stay close to the people and teams living it while you build, not just at the start. Be ambitious about the future, but disciplined about the foundations beneath it. And surround yourself with experienced people who will challenge you. A strong vision only becomes real once you’ve tested it against real business evidence.

What’s your outlook on the future of the Swiss startup scene, and how can it compete internationally?

Switzerland has the talent, engineering quality, and trust to create global tech companies. Competing internationally means pairing that with real pan-European ambition: solving each market’s complexity in depth while building the company, product, and operatingmodel to scale across borders from day one, not as an afterthought.

What value do you see in being part of the Swiss Startup Association?

Being around founders navigating similar challenges under real constraints creates a valuable space to exchange practical experience, not just theory. Professionally, it connects Aderis to the broader Swiss tech ecosystem, and personally, it’s energising to trade notes with others building through the same challenges.

Is there anything else you would like to share with the community?

When finance becomes live, trusted, and actionable, it connects decisions to measurable outcomes. The ambition is bigger than faster accounting. We see it with our customers: when trusted numbers are available throughout the decision-making process and AI agents can act within clear controls, leaders start asking what else AI can change. Aderis creates an AI spark that becomes a practical advantage across the company.