The European economy is on the ground, but there is a silver lining for the company’s start-up: The building tool is to help businesses open their finances in a more stable and predictable way.
In the latest development, AccountsIQ, an accounting technology company founded in Dublin, has raised €60 million (about $65 million) to build “the finance function of the future” for mid-sized companies: a cloud-based automated service powered by AI to help the accounting department can be faster and smarter.
AccountsIQ, which has been in business (mostly bootstrapped) for almost 20 years, was founded by an accountant who saw an opportunity to build the tools they wanted. As you can expect from their pedigree, they have been fiscally prudent when it comes to growth.
Until this fundraising, with only €12.7 million in external funding, AccountsIQ has acquired around 1,000 customers, including 10,000 “entities” (multi operations for single businesses) and 20,000 users. The company’s CAGR has been steady at 30% annually for the past few years, COO Darren Cran said in an interview.
The company offers a range of digital accounting services (including accounts receivable and payable, banking, business intelligence, forecasting and budgeting), digital tax services, and reporting. It also integrates with various third-party services, and has an API to work with other platforms, all delivered via a SaaS subscription starting at around $250 per user, per month.
The platform is hosted on Azure, and Cran said it uses Microsoft’s AI tools as well as in-house customization to offer next-generation services, which will include robotic process automation and AI-based features to speed up user experience. work
“We are now ready to take AccountsIQ products and services to the next level,” said Tony Connolly, founder and CEO of AccountsIQ, in a statement. “This investment comes at the perfect inflection point for our offering, to allow us to leverage AI tools into practical and easy-to-use services for our user base; to make the role of the finance team more flexible, cost-effective, less repetitive and more interesting.
The funding is a significant amount not only because it is almost five times more than AccountsIQ previously, but because startups, as a whole, are still struggling to raise money as they would have done a few years ago, especially in this startup’s home market.
A new report from the Irish Venture Capital Association found that start-up funding in Ireland in the first quarter of this year has fallen by 48% compared to a year ago.
But the usual bear market motif is always a solution that can help companies do their jobs better and more efficiently. Thus, the beginnings of prosaic accounting continue to gain attention.
“Recognizing the potential to accelerate the development of the AccountsIQ product with additional capital and expertise, we are excited to work with them to scale AIQ to the next level,” said Martin Wygas, founding partner of Axiom Equity, in a statement.
For comparison, PennyLane, another accounting startup focused on the SMB market, raised $40 million at a valuation of more than $1 billion a few months ago. It currently has around 120,000 users. AccountsIQ and the lead investor for this round, Axiom Equity, did not disclose the valuation.
It is one potential competitor, although AccountsIQ will argue that PennyLane and others are looking to displace some of the incumbents in the market that sell to small businesses, such as Xero, QuickBooks and Sage. In contrast, Cran said AccountsIQ positions itself as a platform that businesses will move to when they raise.
“We’re really offering an olive branch to businesses,” he said. “When it grows, and the financial controller or CFO comes, usually they realize that they have to expand the business, and in order to do that, they have to use new systems.”
AccountsIQ’s competitors include the likes of Sage Intacct, Netsuite and Acumatica, he said.
