Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are often described as a company’s ‘central brain’ because the software connects different departments—including finance, HR, and inventory—into a single database where everyone shares the same information.

In recent years, a new crop of AI-powered ERP startups, such as Rillet and Campfire, has emerged hoping to replace legacy offerings like NetSuite. These companies claim that traditional ERPs are clunky, expensive, and time consuming to implement.

However, according to Doss co-founder and CEO Wiley Jones, many new AI ERPs lack robust inventory management, the process of ensuring that the data on physical goods remains synced with the accounting ledger.

Doss claims to solve this by providing an AI-native inventory management layer that integrates with existing accounting systems, whether traditional ERPs or ones built by AI-based startups.

On Tuesday, Doss announced that it raised a $55 million Series B co-led by Madrona and Premji Invest, with participation from Intuit. Other new and existing inventors in the round include Theory Ventures, General Catalyst, Contrary Capital, and Greyhound Capital.

Doss, founded in 2023, originally focused on a core accounting product similar to those offered by AI-native startups like Rillet and Campfire. But last year, the startup decided instead of competing with these companies, “we would rather partner with them, and play a different game,” Jones told TechCrunch.

Jones explained that AI-native ERP companies manage accounts receivable, accounts payable, and other finance functions, but most don’t offer procurement and inventory management that integrates with accounting workflows.

“We’re building a lot of the traceability for the supply chain, but through the lens of plugging into a finance and accounting partner,” Jones said.

In addition to Rillet and Campfire, the company’s partners include Intuit, maker of QuickBooks.

“The reason that they work with us is that [physical goods management] is not something that they’re likely going to build as a core competency without putting in a lot of energy and effort,” Jones said.

Doss’s core customer base consists of mid-market consumer brands, typically generating between $20 million and $250 million in top-line revenue. One such customer is Verve Coffee Roasters, a high-end speciality coffee brand.

The startup sees itself as competing with traditional ERPs. But these players are not sitting ideal in the age of AI, either. NetSuite, for instance, has recently introduced its updated AI ERP. It also competes with other agentic procurement startups such as Didero.

While Jones admits that selling two ERP systems, one for accounting and another for inventory management like Doss, “is a hard sell,” he says that legacy ERPs are so hard to implement that many customers are choosing to have two newer, AI-powered systems.

“I think it’s going to be a very intense fight inside of mid-market that ultimately will be determined by whoever rebuilds their architecture to be most legible and usable for agents,” Jones said.