InScope nabs $14.5M to solve the pain of financial reporting
AI-Powered Financial Reporting Startup InScope Raises $14.5 Million to Revolutionize Accounting Workflows
In an industry where precision is paramount and manual processes reign supreme, a new AI-driven platform is promising to transform how companies and accounting firms prepare financial statements. InScope, founded by veteran accountants Mary Antony and Kelsey Gootnick, has just secured $14.5 million in Series A funding to scale its mission of automating the tedious, error-prone aspects of financial reporting.
The San Francisco-based startup’s platform addresses a pain point that plagues finance teams across industries: the patchwork process of compiling financial statements from spreadsheets, Word documents, and endless email threads. By leveraging artificial intelligence, InScope aims to eliminate the manual busywork that consumes up to 20% of accountants’ time—tasks like verifying mathematical accuracy, ensuring consistent formatting, and standardizing currency symbols and commas.
“We kept running into the same manual challenges no matter where we worked,” Antony, who serves as InScope’s CEO, told TechCrunch. “The way financial statements come together, it’s just patched together in a lot of spreadsheets, moved into a bunch of Word documents, emailed back and forth between people.”
The founding team brings rare domain expertise to the table. Antony and Gootnick first crossed paths seven years ago at Flexport, where they held controller positions. Despite moving to different high-growth companies—Antony to Miro and Gootnick to Hopin and later Thrive Global—they maintained their professional connection while continuing to encounter the same workflow inefficiencies.
Their solution, launched in 2023, represents a significant departure from legacy platforms like Workiva and Donnelley Financial Solutions. While those tools aim to streamline financial reporting, InScope’s AI-first approach promises to automate a broader range of tasks within the preparation process. The platform currently handles everything from mathematical verification to formatting consistency, with the ultimate goal of fully automating income statement and balance sheet generation.
The market has responded enthusiastically to InScope’s proposition. Over the past 12 months, the company has grown its customer base fivefold, attracting major accounting firms including CohnReznick, which ranks among the top 15 nationally according to Inside Public Accounting. This rapid adoption suggests that even traditionally risk-averse accounting professionals see value in AI-assisted workflows.
The Series A round was led by Norwest Venture Partners, with participation from Storm Ventures and existing backers Better Tomorrow Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Sean Jacobsohn, a partner at Norwest, cited multiple client testimonials about time savings as a key factor in his investment decision.
“It’s a very complex space, and you need to be able to have been in the shoes of the buyer before,” Jacobsohn explained, highlighting the unique advantage that Antony and Gootnick bring as founders who understand both the technical and practical aspects of financial reporting.
The substantial funding will fuel InScope’s product development and expansion efforts. While the platform doesn’t yet fully automate financial statement generation—a feature that may take time for risk-averse accountants to embrace—it represents a significant step toward reducing the manual burden that has long characterized the profession.
Antony notes that accountants aren’t typically the type to launch startups, but she and Gootnick developed their entrepreneurial instincts through years of operating within the fast-paced cultures of other high-growth companies. This combination of deep industry knowledge and startup experience positions InScope to address a market ripe for disruption.
As artificial intelligence continues to reshape various professional services, InScope’s approach demonstrates how domain-specific expertise can create powerful solutions that go beyond generic automation. By focusing on the particular pain points of financial reporting, the company is building a platform that could fundamentally change how accountants work—freeing them from tedious manual tasks to focus on higher-value analysis and strategic advisory work.
The success of InScope also reflects a broader trend in enterprise software, where AI is increasingly being deployed not to replace professionals but to augment their capabilities and eliminate the repetitive tasks that drain productivity. For an industry where accuracy is non-negotiable and efficiency gains translate directly to bottom-line impact, this AI-powered approach to financial reporting could prove transformative.
With $14.5 million in fresh capital and a rapidly growing customer base, InScope is well-positioned to continue its mission of bringing financial reporting into the AI era—one automated task at a time.
Tags: AI, financial reporting, accounting automation, startup funding, Series A, Norwest Venture Partners, Storm Ventures, Better Tomorrow Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, InScope, Mary Antony, Kelsey Gootnick, financial statements, 10-K, 10-Q, Workiva, Donnelley Financial Solutions, CohnReznick, accounting firms, enterprise software, AI in finance, financial technology, fintech, automation, spreadsheet automation, document management, risk management, financial analysis, balance sheets, income statements, accounting workflows, manual processes, productivity, time savings, venture capital, tech innovation, financial services, compliance, accuracy, formatting, mathematical verification, email workflows, high-growth companies, Flexport, Miro, Hopin, Thrive Global, accounting professionals, risk-averse, domain expertise, entrepreneur, startup culture, enterprise AI, professional services, efficiency, strategic advisory, bottom-line impact, AI era, automation trends, business transformation
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