By Anna Tong
(Reuters) – Artificial intelligence startup Basis has raised $34 million in a Series A funding round for its AI-powered accounting automation product, the company said on Tuesday.
The round was led by Khosla Ventures. Other investors included NFDG, the AI-focused fund run by former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman and former Apple executive Daniel Gross, OpenAI board members Larry Summers and Adam D ‘Angelo, as well as Google’s chief scientist, Jeff Dean.
Basis, based in New York, is part of a class of AI startups creating autonomous agents, or systems that use AI to perform actions on their own. Leaders in the field, such as Sarah Friar, OpenAI’s chief financial officer, have said such systems will dominate the AI agenda next year because the models have recently gotten to the point where they can do remote planning. long term.
Basis’ product, which they sell specifically to accounting firms, is capable of performing various workflows such as transaction entry and double-checking data accuracy, and integrates with popular ledger systems such as QuickBooks and Intuit’s Xero, the company said.
Large accounting firms like Wiss, which employs 450 accountants, have seen a time reduction of up to 30% from using Basis, the company’s CEO Matt Harpe told Reuters.
The product, which functions like a junior accountant, allows salaried accountants to spend their time reviewing the AI agent’s work, rather than doing the work manually, Harpe said.
Basis is helping to address the current critical shortage of accountants, Khosla Ventures chief executive Keith Rabois told Reuters, as baby boomers retire and younger generations leave the profession.
The sector employs more than 3 million people in the United States, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But the number of candidates taking the annual CPA exam declined 33% between 2016 and 2021, according to the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants.
Global accounting firms have always faced shortages by setting up operations in outsourcing hubs like India.
Accounting is also among the industries most vulnerable to AI disruption. A 2023 OpenAI paper concluded that automation based on large-scale language models could impact 100% of accountants and auditors’ tasks.
(Reporting by Anna Tong in San Francisco; Editing by Bill Berkrot)