LiveFlow Secures $13.5M for AI-Powered Accounting Automation

Accounting tech startup LiveFlow raises $13.5m

This content is provided by an external author without editing by Finextra. It expresses the views and opinions of the author. As the number of small businesses rapidly increases, the demand for accountants is higher than ever. But between 2019 and 2021, more than 300,000 accountants left their jobs, U.S. accounting degree graduation rates are in sharp decline, and 75% of CPAs are expected to retire within the next decade. This growing gap between demand and supply is putting significant strain on accounting firms as they struggle to keep up. One key reason fewer people pursue accounting today is its reputation for being monotonous and repetitive -- but they see this changing soon. With the rise of technology and AI, accounting is primed for disruption. The goal is not only to lead this technological shift but also to make finance and accounting appealing again to young graduates. Over the years, I've learned that businesses hire accountants not just to manage their books, but to have peace of mind knowing someone has their back. While technology will drive significant advancements, the human element of accounting is still crucial. That's why it's essential to attract young graduates to the industry again by building software that automates the tedious parts of the job. This way, accountants can focus on providing intelligent financial analysis and advice, rather than just processing transactions. That's why we are building LiveFlow, an accounting automation platform trusted by thousands of businesses who aim to modernize accounting through advanced technology. Today, I'm thrilled to announce that LiveFlow has raised a $13.5 million Series A funding round, led by New York City-based Valar Ventures. Alongside this milestone, the company is launching LiveFlow Next, a platform designed to transform accounting firms into high-growth financial advisory powerhouses. The new product suite features tools for building custom client dashboards, intelligent forecasting, industry benchmarking, AI-driven transaction categorization, and more. LiveFlow Next builds on the company's significant success since launching a few years ago in helping accountants boost their bandwidth and eliminate manual work. After graduating from Y Combinator, our team established a strong customer base, serving global firms like BDO and KLR, along with well-known brands such as Wendy's and Crumbl Cookies. With this funding, we're also looking forward to expanding LiveFlow's New York-based go-to-market team and making significant investments in new R&D initiatives.

LiveFlow raises $13.5 Million for New Accounting Automation Products | PYMNTS.com

The Series A round will help the company fund the launch of LiveFlow Next, a new line of reporting and analysis products, as it expands its go-to-market team and invests in research and development, according to a Tuesday (Sept. 24) press release. "The new product suite features tools for building custom client dashboards, intelligent forecasting, industry benchmarking, AI-driven transaction categorization and more," LiveFlow CEO Lasse Kalkar said in the release. Founded in 2021, LiveFlow's customer base includes international accounting firms like BDO and KLR along with brands like Wendy's and Crumbl Cookies, according to the release. The funding comes as AI is poised to transform the accounting sector, as PYMNTS wrote in July, citing a report from venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. "...AI is becoming a crucial component in various sectors, with accounting firms particularly eager to harness its potential to enhance efficiency and manage increasing workloads," PYMNTS wrote. AI's integration into accounting makes sense, as bookkeeping, tax preparation and auditing involve repetitive tasks that can benefit from the technology. In addition, the industry faces a two-front challenge: an aging workforce and no one to replace them. "When preparing to use new technology, like AI, start with what you want your outcome to be first," Josh Schauer, vice president of finance at insightsoftware, told PYMNTS in the report. "By understanding what you want the impact to be, then looking for the right tools and data to solve it, you can inform what is required and the steps you need to complete it. "For instance, one of the biggest challenges accountants face today is a lack of bandwidth and an overload of repetitive, manual tasks -- like reconciliations and generating reports. Ultimately, accountants should be trying to do more with less. Understanding this goal, they can then seek tools that effectively decrease this manual work and free up time for more valuable tasks, like financial planning and analysis."

A startup from ex-Revolut employees uses AI to automate accounts -- but hopes to keep accountants in jobs

Often successful startups can give rise to 'startup mafias' - groups of former founders who go on to create other startups. But at least as often, new startups can be founded by employees. In the case of LiveFlow, that's exactly what happened -- and it's now raised $13.5 million. A few years ago, Anita Koimur led the Rewards Product for Fintech unicorn Revolut, while Lasse Kalkar was its country manager for the Nordic region. After meeting, they kept in touch, and later, as co-founders, came up with the idea of LiveFlow, taking it through the Y Combinator accelerator, and later raising a Seed round in 2021. LiveFlow allows companies to sync real-time data from their accounting services, banks, and payment platforms into their custom reports, thereby automating workflows, consolidating company accounts, and allowing more company-wide collaboration. You might think that sounds easy, but even in this day and age, it's still a world where accountants are having to transfer data between systems, often manually. But as enterprise platforms gradually eat into the workflows of accountants, many are choosing to leave the industry, especially now AI begins to strip away jobs for humans. And the evidence is mounting. More than 300,000 U.S. accountants and auditors left their jobs between 2019 and 2021, and the number of accountants in the U.S. has fallen 15.9% since 2019, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Meanwhile, younger accountants aged 25 to 34 and mid-career professionals aged 45 to 54 are leaving the profession. LiveFlow hopes not to hasten that flow, but to stem it. CEO, Kalkar, told TechCrunch that: "Our plan is to utilize AI to make to make accounting firms more efficient, but we think the accountant will still be there." So why is that? "Basically," said Kalkar, "small businesses, hire an accountant to feel safe. They want to know that someone has their back. We can't replace that entirely with technology." That said, Kalkar was coy about what actual kind've AO the company plans to use: "It's still in the roadmap, and it will still be rolled out over the next year or so... We are not disclosing which AI we are using right now, sorry." Whatever they are doing, it seems to be working. The startup has now raised a $13.5 million Series A funding round led by Valar Ventures. The VC was co-founded by Peter Thiel, and was the the first venture fund to invest in Xero and, later, TransferWise. Joined by former Web Summit engineering lead Evan O'Brien, Koimur and Kalkar now plan to expand in the US, based out of New York. And the company now counts accounting firms like BDO and KLR, as well as brands Wendy's and Crumbl Cookies as customers. Its newest product, LiveFlow Next, is designed to help accounting do more advisory work. In a statement Valar's Founding Partner James Fitzgerald commented: "LiveFlow helps save countless hours per month while also eliminating human error." Although LiveFlow does have competitors, none appear to be venture-backed right now. Fathom, out of Australia, does something similar, although it appears not to have raised VC funding, while Reach Reporting in the US is in a similar position, according to Cruchbase.