Startup Accrual Officially Launches with $75M in Funding to Bring Native AI Automation to Accounting

“Today we are excited to officially launch Accrual. »

The San Francisco-based startup posted this message on LinkedIn Thursday morning, announcing that its new platform’s native AI infrastructure is designed to unify tax preparation and review into a single system for accounting firms.

“Accounting firms are at the center of financial decision-making, but preparation, review and client context are still distributed across disconnected systems. As complexity and expectations increase, these fragmented workflows limit capacity, consistency and the ability to deliver the highest quality work at scale,” Accrual said in its LinkedIn post.

“By removing mechanical coordination while preserving accuracy, controls and auditability, we help companies develop their expertise without compromising their professional judgment.

“Over the past year, we have worked closely with companies across the United States to apply recent advances in AI to real-world accounting workflows. Today, Accrual is up and running with companies processing individual returns and seeing significant reductions in preparation and review time, as well as improved consistency and earlier detection of issues.”

Accrual said it raised $75 million in funding led by global investment firm General Catalyst, with participation from Go Global Ventures, Pruven Capital, Edward Jones Ventures and a group of founders and industry executives.

“Accounting is a deeply interconnected system, but most software treats it as a collection of disparate tasks,” Cosmin Nicolaescu, CEO and co-founder of Accrual, said in a Feb. 5 statement. “We’re building a foundational infrastructure from the ground up to unify these workflows into a single system that amplifies judgment and complements a company’s expertise over time.”

Accrual’s platform uses AI agents that function as a preparer, reading and organizing all customer input, identifying missing information, generating targeted follow-up questions, and producing draft returns ready for professional review. Data is structured as it enters the system, allowing preparation, review and client advice to build on each other rather than requiring repeated rework.

Accrual says it is currently focused on individual tax returns. The platform handles real-world entries including complex K-1s and 1099s, spreadsheets, emails, photos, and statements of hundreds of pages. It integrates directly with existing tax engines to support workflows for prior year data, carryovers and final returns, allowing businesses to continue using the systems they already trust, the company adds.

Over the past year, Accrual said it has worked closely with companies such as H&R Block, Armanino, Creative Planning and several others in the top 100.

“These early deployments have shown that recent advances in AI can eliminate long-standing bottlenecks in accounting workflows without compromising accuracy, transparency, or professional judgment,” the company said in a Feb. 5 press release.

Accural touts that businesses using its platform save thousands of hours per tax season. Preparation time has decreased by more than 85%, while revision time has decreased by up to 60%. All 50 complex returns effectively add an accountant’s capacity without increasing headcount while improving consistency and accuracy, Accrual says.

“Returns from accrual accounting are already of a manager-rated quality,” John Karls, national leader of the Private Client Advisors tax practice at top 20 accounting firm Armanino, said in a statement. “What previously required hours of staff preparation is now handled in minutes. Just as important, Accural detects issues that could have led to amended returns and processes documents that our existing tools cannot handle. This change allows our teams to focus more on higher-value planning and consulting work.”

“Accounting is one of the largest and most critical professional services markets in the world, but its core workflows have remained largely unchanged for decades,” added Marc Bhargava, Managing Director of General Catalyst. “Cos and Sidd (Siddharth Chandrasekaran, co-founder of Accrual) have spent their careers building software for complex, highly regulated environments and we believe they are the ideal team to rebuild these systems using AI without compromising the trust the profession depends on.

Accrual said it is actively onboarding accounting firms across the United States and plans to expand the platform beyond individual returns over time. The company is also hiring engineers, product managers and accounting experts to help build the next generation of accounting infrastructure.

To learn more or request a demo, visit https://accumulation.com/.