London-based Briefcase, an AI-native accounting automation company, has secured $3 million in seed funding led by Early Bird. The round saw participation from Entrepreneur First, Tiny, and angel investors, including Charlie Songhurst, Mark Ransford, Greg Marsh, Bill Earner, and Chris Mairs, along with executives from companies like Pennylane, Deel, Pleo, and 11X.
The new funding will allow the company to expand its team by hiring top engineers and product specialists, accelerating product development, and better serving its growing base of early adopters. The key focus will remain to deliver a high-quality product, as the market demand is already evident.
Addressing the accounting need with AI
With the potential of Briefcase’s AI automation, the accounting industry is on the brink of a new era. Today’s accounting firms grapple with manual, time-consuming tasks and face challenges in hiring and retaining junior staff. In the UK, many firms have turned to outsourcing — a solution that often compromises quality and necessitates additional oversight.
Speaking to TFN, Reuben Steenkamp, co-founder and CEO of Briefcase, explained: “Traditional accounting software and tools still rely heavily on manual, inefficient processes, especially in areas like bookkeeping. There is an opportunity to apply AI to automate tasks that traditionally require human input, such as categorising transactions and assigning VAT rates.”
Briefcase’s solution promises to revolutionise the accounting industry by addressing a crucial market need. The UK government’s “Making Tax Digital” (MTD) initiative, launched in 2019, now requires sole traders and self-employed individuals to file tax returns quarterly instead of annually, significantly increasing their reporting obligations. This shift towards digital tax management creates a greater need for the automation and AI-powered accounting solutions that Briefcase aims to provide.
Steenkamp noted: “This change in regulation will drive the need for more efficient accounting technology, as the manual processes currently used will not be able to handle the increased workload. MTD and similar digitalisation efforts create a greater need for the automation and AI-powered accounting solutions that Briefcase aims to provide.”
Behind the world’s first AI-native accounting automation platform
Founded in 2023 by Reuben Steenkamp, a former Starling Bank CFO office member, and Jan Stehlik, who built AI systems at fintech startup Nous, Briefcase aims to eliminate tedious accounting tasks using advanced AI technologies. Their platform seamlessly integrates with popular ledger solutions like Xero and QuickBooks, surpassing traditional OCR-based tools using multimodal AI to automate complex reasoning tasks.
Briefcase sets itself apart by concentrating on core accounting task automation through advanced AI and seamless integration with existing systems rather than creating standalone tools. Steenkamp clarified: “Many competitors in the accounting software space have concentrated on building chatbots or ‘co-pilot’ tools for accountants, but accountants don’t want those solutions. Briefcase is committed to embedding its AI-powered capabilities directly into the existing accounting workflows and processes.”
The platform’s key strength lies in applying advanced AI reasoning to automate traditionally manual tasks. For example, Briefcase can automatically categorise transactions and assign correct VAT rates when processing invoices and receipts, eliminating manual intervention in bookkeeping tasks. Plus, the platform harnesses powerful AI models, including GPT, Gemini, and Claude, to bring sophisticated reasoning capabilities to accounting, moving beyond the basic data extraction offered by traditional OCR-based tools.
Earlybird Principal Akash Bajwa shared their confidence in Briefcase: “LLMs, vision models, and the new scaling potential of reasoning unlock a new paradigm of accounting automation than was possible before. We’ve been following this category for a long time and knew we had found the right team to execute against it after our first interaction with Reuben and Ján. They combine deep domain understanding with an incredible learning rate around the AI engineering needed to deliver truly agentic capabilities to this industry.”
Future of accounting: Increased demand, without replacement of accountants
AI and automation technologies are set to reshape accounting over the next 5-10 years. Steenkamp anticipates: “It is inevitable that AI will play a significant role in changing the accounting industry, whether it’s Briefcase or another solution. AI’s increased efficiency and automation will drive the demand for accounting services.”
Business owners now expect more frequent financial updates, shifting from annual or quarterly reports to daily insights. This change drives the need for more frequent reporting and analysis, which AI-powered solutions can deliver. The future of accounting will see AI and automation not replacing human accountants but empowering them to provide more timely, detailed, and valuable insights to their clients.
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