# Lumi AI

Aiolum story: https://aiolum.com/story/lumi-ai/ · added 2026-11-08 · updated 2026-11-08

**In short.** Lumi AI (AI data analyst for ERP systems, databases and data warehouses, Canada): Acquired by Newforma, October 2026. Evidence grade E: no revenue figure was checked. Team: 2 co-founders in 2023; headcount at the sale in October 2026 not published. Launched March 2023; sold 43 months after launch.

AI data analyst for ERP systems, databases and data warehouses · Canada · AI-native · team of 2 to 10 · sold · group: Documents, data and slides

- Outcome: Acquired by Newforma, October 2026 (evidence grade of the headline number: E; no revenue figure)
- Launch: March 2023; months from launch to the outcome: 43
- Team: 2 co-founders in 2023; headcount at the sale in October 2026 not published
- Outside funding: US$3.7M seed round led by AgFunder, March 2025, as AgFunderNews reported (its parent company is an investor)
- Main factor: Domain experience
- Meters, 1 to 4: evidence strength 1, copyable pattern 1, capital needed 3
- Tags: AI-native, Small team, Funded, Exit, B2B, Data analytics

Links:

- Visit lumi-ai.com: https://www.lumi-ai.com/

**The product.** A web app that connects to a company's ERP systems, databases and data warehouses, such as SAP, Oracle, Snowflake, Databricks, Google BigQuery and Amazon Redshift, builds a description of what the tables mean, and answers questions typed in plain language with tables, charts and the SQL and Python code behind each answer. It can also watch chosen metrics and send alerts. Before the sale, the pricing page listed self-service plans from US$45 a month and enterprise contracts that start with a pilot.

**Why it worked.** The founders knew supply-chain data from consulting work, so they started with companies that run SAP, Oracle or Microsoft Dynamics and hold inventory, sales and purchasing data. They designed it so that raw data is processed inside the client's own systems, which large retailers wanted. Customers came through demos and pilots, and Ashqar told AgFunderNews that 90% of pilots became customers. Newforma bought the engine to answer questions over the project records that its own software has collected for more than 20 years.

Evidence grades: A = disclosed by a public company, a filing or a payment processor, or verified by one; B = two or more independent reports agree, or a journalist confirmed it; C = a founder claim that no one else verified; D = reported, not verified: one founder claim or a third-party estimate with no second source; E = no revenue figure found, so the headline is a non-money fact and the other facts carry their own grades; calc = computed on this page from graded facts.

## Summary

Lumi AI sold agentic analytics: software in which a language model plans the steps of an analysis, writes database queries, runs them and explains the result. It connected to a company's ERP, the enterprise resource planning system that records orders, inventory, purchasing and accounts, and to its data warehouse, a database built for analysis that collects copies of data from many systems. A user typed a question such as "which stores are not following the inventory rules?" and got a table or chart with the SQL and Python code that produced it.

Ibrahim Ashqar and Tudor Boiangiu, who met at Deloitte's AI practice, founded it in Toronto in 2023; the earliest archived copy of lumi-ai.com, from 17 March 2023, offers early access to "Your Personal Data Analyst AI". By June 2024 its pricing page listed a Standard plan at US$50 per user per month. AgFunderNews reported a US$3.7M seed round led by AgFunder in March 2025, and on 15 April 2026 the company said that anyone could now sign up, with prices from US$45 a month. On 21 October 2026 Newforma, which sells project information software to architecture, engineering and construction firms, announced that it had acquired Lumi; the terms were not disclosed.

No revenue figure and no sale price exist in the sources, so this is a grade E story: the headline is the sale itself, stated by the buyer. Ashqar told AgFunderNews that Lumi's annual recurring revenue (the yearly value of its subscriptions) grew by more than 100%, but that the company could not raise the US$10M to US$20M Series A round it needed, and decided at the end of May 2026 to look for a buyer.

## Pricing

Lumi AI prices from its pricing page read on 8 November 2026, which match the Internet Archive copy of 19 May 2026, and from the archived copy of 18 June 2024 (grade C)

| Plan | Per month, billed yearly (US$) | Per month, billed monthly (US$) | Limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter (2026) | 45 | 50 | 1 user, 1 data model; chat, charts, query builder |
| Pro (2026) | 999 | 1,110 | 10 users, 3 data models; dashboards, alerts, role-based access |
| Enterprise (2026) |  | contact us | custom users, unlimited data models, on-premises data gateway, SAML single sign-on, pilot |
| Standard (June 2024) |  | 50 per user | up to 100 data requests per user a month, 5 table connections |
| Pro (June 2024) |  | 750 | first 10 users included, up to 2,000 data requests a month, 10 table connections |
| Enterprise (June 2024) |  | custom | custom users and data requests, unlimited table connections |

In 2026 the page has a Monthly and an Annual switch; the annual prices are 10% lower. A data model is one connected and described set of tables. In 2024 the Standard plan was priced per user and the Pro plan included the first 10 users. Every plan had a 14-day free trial, and Enterprise customers could start with a hands-on pilot. Newforma's CEO told Construction Dive after the sale that Lumi will not be open to companies that are not Newforma customers, although the page still listed these plans on 8 November 2026.

## How much did Lumi AI make, and what was it sold for? The numbers, graded

An AI data analyst for supply-chain and retail data, started by two co-founders in 2023 and sold to Newforma 43 months after its first public page; no revenue figure or price was published

| Fact | Value | Grade | Note | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Outcome | Acquired by Newforma, announced 21 October 2026 | A | Newforma's press release: "Newforma ... today announced it has acquired Lumi AI, a Toronto company". Lumi's own post and Dealroom News report the same day. | [1, 2, 4] |
| Sale price | not disclosed | C | Construction Dive: "The terms of the transaction were not disclosed." AgFunderNews and Dealroom News say the same. Ashqar told AgFunderNews it was not "a multi-billion-dollar exit". | [3, 5, 4] |
| Founders | Ibrahim Ashqar (co-founder, CEO) and Tudor Boiangiu (co-founder, CTO) | C | Named in Newforma's release. AgFunderNews: Ashqar "met his cofounder Tudor Boiangiu while working at Deloitte's AI practice". | [1, 6, 7] |
| Founded | 2023, in Toronto | C | Newforma's release and AgFunderNews give 2023; Bridge MENA gives April 2023. Some outlets call the company UAE-based; the press release and AgFunderNews say Toronto. | [1, 5, 7] |
| Earliest archived version | 17 March 2023: "Your Personal Data Analyst AI", early access | C | Answers to operational questions in plain language, in Slack or Microsoft Teams, with a "Get Early Access" button and no prices. | [8] |
| Paid plans, June 2024 | Standard US$50 per user per month; Pro US$750 a month | C | Archived pricing page of 18 June 2024, with a 14-day free trial and custom Enterprise pricing. | [9] |
| Self-service launch | 15 April 2026, Starter from US$45 a month, Pro US$999 a month | C | Lumi's post: "Until now, accessing Lumi required a demo or pilot engagement." The archived pricing page of 19 May 2026 shows the same plans. | [10, 11] |
| Funding | US$3.7M seed round led by AgFunder, March 2025 | C | AgFunderNews, whose parent company AgFunder is an investor; Bridge MENA names Forum Ventures, ADQ, Annex Investments and Qora71 as other investors. No later round is reported. | [6, 7] |
| Customers | supermarket chains, CPG companies and consulting firms | C | AgFunderNews, March 2025, lists "a leading US supermarket chain, a top meal-kit provider, a leading consulting firm, the largest retail operator in the Middle East". The home page quotes staff of Kroger, Growmark, Chalhoub Group and Levy Restaurants. CPG means consumer packaged goods. | [6, 13] |
| Growth measures, no amounts | more than 100% yearly growth in recurring revenue; 90% of pilots converted; 109% net revenue retention | C | Ashqar to AgFunderNews, October 2026. Net revenue retention is this year's revenue from last year's customers divided by last year's revenue from them. No revenue amount is given. | [5] |
| Team at the sale | headcount not published | C | Boiangiu joins Newforma as VP of AI Engineering, and the Lumi engineering team keeps working from Toronto. Newforma's CEO told Construction Dive there will be no layoffs. Ashqar is stepping back, AgFunderNews reported. | [1, 3, 5] |
| Time from the earliest archived page to the sale | 43 months | calc | Calculated: March 2023 to October 2026. | [8, 1] |

How to read this table: a grade A value is stated by the buyer, Newforma, in its own press release. A grade B value is a statement by the buyer's CEO to a journalist. A grade C value is a statement by Lumi on its own pages (live or in Internet Archive copies), by its founder in an interview, or by a news site. A "calc" value was computed on this page. No money amount for the sale or for revenue exists in the sources.

## When did Lumi AI launch, and how did it grow? Timeline

From an early-access page in March 2023 to a sale to a construction-software company in October 2026, in 43 months. Each entry carries its grade.

- **17 March 2023** (grade C [8]): The earliest archived copy of lumi-ai.com offers early access to a data analyst AI that answers questions about inventory, orders and sales in Slack or Microsoft Teams.
- **April 2023** (grade C [7]): Ibrahim Ashqar and Tudor Boiangiu found Lumi AI, Bridge MENA reports.
- **18 June 2024** (grade C [9]): The pricing page lists Standard at US$50 per user per month, Pro at US$750 a month and custom Enterprise contracts.
- **25 March 2025** (grade C [6, 7]): AgFunderNews reports a US$3.7M seed round led by AgFunder, to serve customers such as a leading US supermarket chain and the largest retail operator in the Middle East.
- **15 April 2026** (grade C [10, 11]): Lumi opens full self-service sign-up, which until then needed a demo or a pilot. Its post lists prices from US$45 a month.
- **21 October 2026** (grade A [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]): Newforma announces that it has acquired Lumi AI, terms not disclosed. Boiangiu becomes Newforma's VP of AI Engineering; Lumi's engine is to power Newforma's assistant Vojo and the analytics in Newforma Konekt.

## Why did Lumi AI work?

### Start with one kind of data

Lumi began with companies whose operations run on SAP, Oracle or Microsoft Dynamics: inventory, sales history, purchasing, vendors and shipments. Ashqar told AgFunderNews in 2025 that the founders knew this data well, so they started there rather than offering to do everything for everyone. Preset questions, such as vendors whose minimum order quantities far exceed actual use, gave mid-sized clients a first result.

### Show the work

Every answer showed the SQL and Python behind it, the engine asked clarifying questions when a prompt was vague, and it flagged data-quality problems. These are the three tests of explainable, verifiable and accurate answers that Newforma's press release gives as its reason for the purchase.

### Pilots first, self-service later

Until April 2026, Lumi's own post says, access required a demo or a pilot, and Ashqar told AgFunderNews that 90% of pilots became customers. Only then did Lumi open sign-up to anyone. The enterprise route gave it large customers, and the self-service route came six months before the sale.

## How it was built

These details come from Lumi's own pages, live and archived, from Newforma's press release and from Ashqar's interviews with AgFunderNews. They are grade C. No source names the language model that Lumi used.

- Connectors to ERP systems such as SAP and Oracle and to the warehouses Snowflake, Databricks, Google BigQuery, SAP Business Warehouse and Amazon Redshift, as the April 2026 post and the site menu list them.
- A semantic layer, a stored description of what each table and field means and how tables join, set up with an AI helper called Magic Wand. Newforma's release says the semantic and clarification layer was developed over three years.
- Answers with the SQL and Python used, a query builder for analysts, and a human verification step in which an analyst confirms or rejects an AI-generated insight before it is final.
- Raw data processed inside the client's own infrastructure from the first version, Ashqar told AgFunderNews in 2025; the Enterprise plan adds an on-premises data gateway and a single-tenant option.
- Access from Slack and Microsoft Teams, offered from the 2023 page onward, and a SOC 2 security audit, which the home page calls "SOC 2 compliant".

Sources: [10, 12, 1, 6, 8, 13]

## Who tried this before Lumi AI, and why did they fail?

Three companies in our database of failed startups sold analytics or AI insight software for business data and failed. The values below are from that database and are not independently verified.

The failed startups come from our database of dead startups, retold here in our own words; Its entries are AI-assisted summaries of public sources, so they carry no evidence grade.

### SumAll (2011 to 2019; funding US$15M; cause: Competition)

- Promise: One dashboard for a small business's marketing and sales data, without a data scientist.
- Why it died: Large analytics companies and free tools offered the same dashboards, and it could not justify its price.
- Record: 

### Pando (2018 to 2024; funding US$35M; cause: Unit Economics)

- Promise: AI supply-chain visibility: real-time tracking and predictions across logistics networks.
- Why it died: Twelve-month implementations, hard data integration and a services-heavy model left no margin.
- Record: 

### Milky Way AI (2021 to 2024; funding US$12M; cause: Ran Out of Cash)

- Promise: AI retail optimization for stock levels and customers.
- Why it died: It spent its money on AI before solving retail basics, against Amazon's scale and many similar tools.
- Record: 

## What changed

The three promised insight from business data and failed on cost or competition. SumAll's dashboards were matched by free tools, Pando's supply-chain platform needed twelve-month implementations, and Milky Way AI ran out of money, according to the database. Lumi met the same pressures: its Enterprise plan included forward-deployed engineers and service-driven pilots, and Ashqar told AgFunderNews that it competed mainly with Databricks and Snowflake, two very large data platforms.

Two things differ. A language model writes the queries, so a customer does not wait for a data team to build each report, and the 2024 price list shows published prices before the seed round. And Lumi did not run out of money: when it judged it could not raise a larger round, it chose a sale to a buyer with its own data and customers, and Ashqar said the deal would keep employees' jobs and service for customers.

## Can one person copy Lumi AI now?

**Verdict: The enterprise company, no. A narrow data assistant, yes.**

Lumi was a funded company that sold to large retailers through pilots, with engineers on site, and its CEO told AgFunderNews it needed US$10M to US$20M more to keep pace with AI. A single founder cannot copy that. The part that is open is the narrow start: one kind of data that the founder knows well, answers that show their query, and a price list from the first year.

1. Pick one kind of business data that you know from work, such as inventory, purchasing or field service records, and the two or three systems that hold it.
2. Make every answer show the query behind it, ask a question back when the request is unclear, and flag bad data.
3. Publish prices early and offer a short trial, as Lumi's pricing page did from 2024.
4. Keep the data inside the customer's systems if large customers are the goal; it was a selling point in Lumi's interviews.

**What is still open.** Plain-language analysis for one vertical system that the large data platforms do not serve well, such as a single trade's job-management software or one family of ERP add-ons.

## What could go wrong for Lumi AI?

- **What is not verified.** No revenue figure, no count of paying customers and no sale price were found. We read Newforma's press release, Lumi's acquisition post, Construction Dive, Dealroom News, two AgFunderNews articles, Bridge MENA, and Lumi's live and archived home and pricing pages. The growth measures (more than 100% growth in recurring revenue, 90% pilot conversion, 109% net revenue retention) come from Ashqar alone, to AgFunderNews, whose parent company AgFunder led the seed round and is an investor. The headcount at the sale is not published. The home page's statement that users found "over $150M of value-driving insights" and the customer results in its quotes are customer outcomes, not Lumi's revenue, and were not checked. A reader could look for a Newforma statement on the price or a later interview with a revenue figure.
- **The product after the sale.** Newforma's CEO told Construction Dive that Lumi will not be accessible to companies that are not Newforma customers, and its engine is to be built into Newforma's assistant Vojo and its Konekt dashboards. The pricing page still listed the Starter and Pro plans on 8 November 2026. Ashqar is stepping back from the business, AgFunderNews reported.
- **Competition.** Ashqar told AgFunderNews that Lumi competed mainly with Databricks and Snowflake, not with other startups; on this site ai2sql, a text-to-SQL web app run by one founder, sells a smaller form of the same idea.
- **Dependence on model providers.** Ashqar described Lumi to AgFunderNews as "off-the-shelf scaffolding that surrounds the frontier models", and said a customer that connected Claude directly to its data reached 21% accuracy, then over 95% with its own scaffolding. No source names the models Lumi used. He also said the fear of a "widening gap" between the product and fast-moving AI was a reason to sell rather than raise a small extension.

## Sources

1. PR Newswire, 21 October 2026: Newforma Acquires Lumi AI and Sets Its Standard for AI Answers on Project Data — https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/newforma-acquires-lumi-ai-and-sets-its-standard-for-ai-answers-on-project-data-302914832.html (grade A). Read in full, 8 November 2026. The buyer's press release. Source for the acquisition, the roles after the sale, the three-year engine and the About Lumi text.
2. Lumi AI blog, 21 October 2026: Lumi AI Has Been Acquired by Newforma, by Ibrahim Ashqar — https://www.lumi-ai.com/post/lumi-ai-has-been-acquired-by-newforma (grade C). Read in full, from the copy that the pipeline downloaded on 8 November 2026. Lumi's own announcement.
3. Construction Dive, 21 October 2026: Newforma acquires Lumi AI, will incorporate into its tech, by Matthew Thibault — https://www.constructiondive.com/news/newforma-acquires-lumi-ai/833635/ (grade B). Read in full, 8 November 2026. Source for the undisclosed terms and for the Newforma CEO's statements by email: no layoffs, and no access for non-Newforma customers.
4. Dealroom News, 21 October 2026: Newforma buys Lumi AI to set an accuracy standard for project-data answers — https://dealroom.co/news/164708-newforma-buys-lumi-ai-to-set-an-accuracy-standard-for-project-data-answe/ (grade C). Read in full, from the copy that the pipeline downloaded on 8 November 2026. Confirms the deal, Toronto and the undisclosed terms.
5. AgFunderNews, 21 October 2026: Lumi AI finds new home at Newforma as agentic analytics gathers pace, by Elaine Watson — https://agfundernews.com/lumi-ai-finds-new-home-at-newforma-as-agentic-analytics-takes-off (grade C). Read in full, 8 November 2026. Its parent company is an investor in Lumi. Source for the growth measures, the failed Series A, the decision to sell in May 2026, competition and the model scaffolding.
6. AgFunderNews, 25 March 2025: Lumi AI nets $3.7m to unlock supply chain insights with natural language prompts, led by AgFunder, by Elaine Watson — https://agfundernews.com/lumi-ai-nets-3-7m-to-counter-dashboard-anarchy-and-unlock-supply-chain-insights-with-natural-language-prompts (grade C). Read in full, 8 November 2026. Source for the seed round, the customer list, the Deloitte background, the supply-chain focus and data staying with the client.
7. Bridge MENA, 26 March 2025: Lumi AI raises $3.7M in Seed funding to advance AI innovations in supply chains — https://bridgemena.com/news/lumi-ai-raises-3-7m-in-seed-funding-to-advance-ai-innovations-in-supply-chains (grade C). Read in full, 8 November 2026. Source for the April 2023 founding date and the other seed investors.
8. Internet Archive copy of the Lumi AI home page, 17 March 2023 — https://web.archive.org/web/20230317221225/http://www.lumi-ai.com/ (grade C). Read in full. The earliest archived copy of the domain. Source for the first product description.
9. Internet Archive copy of the Lumi AI pricing page, 18 June 2024 — https://web.archive.org/web/20240618122918/https://www.lumi-ai.com/pricing (grade C). Read in full. The earliest archived pricing page. Source for the 2024 plans.
10. Lumi AI blog, 15 April 2026: Lumi AI Is Now Available for Full Self-Service — https://www.lumi-ai.com/post/self-service (grade C). Read in full, 8 November 2026. Source for the self-service launch, the earlier demo-or-pilot access and the 2026 prices.
11. Internet Archive copy of the Lumi AI pricing page, 19 May 2026 — https://web.archive.org/web/20260519035935/https://www.lumi-ai.com/pricing (grade C). Read the plan section. Shows the 2026 plans five months before the sale.
12. Lumi AI pricing page, read 8 November 2026 — https://www.lumi-ai.com/pricing (grade C). Read in full. Source for the current plans, the feature comparison and the Enterprise pilot.
13. Lumi AI home page, read 8 November 2026 — https://www.lumi-ai.com/ (grade C). Read in full. Source for the named customer quotes, the security statements and the acquisition banner.
14. Database of failed startups, local export — /method/#dead (grade C). Local export. AI-written summaries, not independently verified. Source for the failed predecessors.

Contact: aiolum@livyden.com. Run Lumi AI? Send corrections or a verified figure to aiolum@livyden.com (subject: Correction: Lumi AI).