The financial reporting and auditing process is not often on the list of sexy topics that technology startups want to go after. And yet, when errors are made on financial reports, like the one Lyft had earlier this year, it can have dire consequences for a company. Just ask Lyft.
After years of performing reporting and auditing work for companies like Miro, Autodesk, Dropbox, Flexport and Yelp, Mary Antony and Kelsey Gootnick decided reporting and auditing needed some technology love, too.
Both come from accounting backgrounds and met each other in 2018 while leading the accounting function at Flexport. They saw firsthand how difficult it was for companies to put together financial statements and disclosures — it can take weeks to months to compile, and many are prone to errors that can have severe consequences for companies if presented incorrectly.
So they started San Francisco-based InScope in 2023, leveraging machine learning and large language models to provide financial reporting and auditing processes for mid-market and enterprises. They launched the company in beta in early 2024 to customers who use Oracle Netsuite.
The first iteration of the product included automating GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) and non-GAAP reporting, including cash flow statements, CEO Antony said.
“It really looks like a sudoku puzzle that you have to do with trial-and-error to get right,” Antony told TechCrunch. “Cash flow statements are one of the most important metrics for a company, so they shouldn’t be a sudoku puzzle, or a puzzle in general. We make it possible for our customers to have effortless, but accurate and reliable financial statements every time.”
Along with the cash flow statements, the company will release a feature later this year that helps customers draft annual and quarterly financial reports, Antony said.
InScope’s closest competitor today is Workiva, which also provides finance and audit software. However, Gootnick said Workiva’s product offering is more focused on public companies, whereas InScope focuses on private companies.
Some legacy professional service firms offer similar services that make them indirect competitors, but Antony and Gootnick see InScope’s product really more complementary to them. So much so that they could be customers, Gootnick said.
InScope has five early customers, and is in the process of signing an additional six. The company is generating revenue currently and is aiming to grow both 10x in customers and revenue by the end of the year, Antony said.
That growth attracted venture capital investors, which injected $4.3 million in seed capital into the company recently. Lightspeed Venture Partners and Better Tomorrow Ventures led the round with participation from a group of individual investors including Vipul Ved Prakash (founder and CEO of Together AI), Jake Heller (founder and CEO of Casetext), Debbie Clifford (chief financial officer at Autodesk), Justin Coulombe (chief financial officer at Miro) and Nadia Asoyan (chief financial officer at Strike).
The founders say their next steps include expanding their customer base to 50 companies by the end of the year and will use the investment to scale its product, grow the team and enhance its AI capabilities.
Better Tomorrow Ventures has advised the company since its inception, and they were also part of Better Tomorrow’s first accelerator program in 2023.
“When we met the team through our accelerator program, we quickly noticed how dedicated and passionate they were to fix a critical component that can be detrimental to a company’s success,” said Sheel Mohnot, co-founder of Better Tomorrow Ventures, in a statement. “After advising the team for a few weeks, we knew that if anyone could tackle this problem, it would be Mary and Kelsey.”