Eliminating the Pain of Financial Reporting: The InScope Story
Financial reporting is an intricate and time-consuming process. Even those without an accounting background can attest to the complexity of preparing financial statements just by looking at a 10-K or 10-Q. Existing platforms, such as Workiva and Donnelley Financial Solutions, attempt to make this process smoother, but the journey is still riddled with numerous manual challenges.
Two seasoned accountants, Mary Antony and Kelsey Gootnick, experienced this firsthand. The pair, who met seven years ago at Flexport, found themselves grappling with the same issues regardless of where they worked, be it at Miro, Hopin or Thrive Global.
Developing a Solution for Manual Hurdles in Financial Reporting
The process of compiling financial statements is tedious, often involving the use of multiple spreadsheets, Word documents, and countless emails. Antony and Gootnick noticed this inefficiency and, in 2023, resolved to provide a solution. They launched InScope, an AI-powered platform designed to automate the financial statement preparation process for businesses and accounting firms.
The innovative startup recently secured $14.5 million in Series A funding led by Norwest, with contributions from Storm Ventures and existing investors Better Tomorrow Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
InScope’s Impact on the Accounting Landscape
While the InScope platform does not completely automate the creation of income statements and balance sheets yet, it significantly reduces the manual work involved. The platform automates tasks like checking calculations and formatting, which can save accountants up to 20% of their time, according to Antony, InScope’s CEO.
In just 12 months, InScope has expanded its client base by a factor of five, with major accounting firms such as CohnReznick, ranked among the top 15 nationally, utilizing their services.
The Future of InScope
Although it may take some time for accountants, who Antony describes as risk-averse, to trust AI with completely automating financial statement preparation, this is the ultimate goal of InScope.
Sean Jacobsohn, a partner at Norwest, shared with TechCrunch that he decided to invest in InScope after hearing testimonials from several clients praising the time-saving benefits of the platform. Jacobsohn further highlighted that few founders possess the specific expertise needed to revolutionize financial reporting technology, making InScope unique.
The duo, Antony and Gootnick, agrees that accountants are generally not inclined to launch startups. However, their time spent in the fast-paced environments of other high-growth startups endowed them with the entrepreneurial instincts needed to create and grow InScope.
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