Materia, a generative AI platform tailored for public accounting firms, has launched from its New York headquarters with over $6.3 million in funding. The investment round was led by Spark Capital and included contributions from Haystack Ventures, Thomson Reuters Ventures, Exponential Founders Capital, and the Allen Institute for AI.
The US is facing a significant shortage of accountants, with 75% of CPAs expected to retire in the next 15 years and a 33% drop in new CPAs entering the workforce. This shortage is starting to impact financial statements across companies and accounting firms. Historically underserved by technology, the accounting profession has struggled with productivity. However, recent AI advancements now allow for the automation of complex workflows that were previously dependent on unstructured data and subjective judgments. Materia offers an easy-to-implement solution that can be set up within days, eliminating the need for complex onboarding processes.
Founded by Kevin Merlini and Lucas Adams, who met at Facebook while developing AI systems for journalism content, Materia was born out of Kevin’s experiences at KPMG where he encountered tedious audit tasks. This drove him to create a solution to streamline such processes. The idea was incubated at the Allen Institute for AI in the Fall of 2022, prior to the launch of ChatGPT.
Materia’s platform consolidates firms’ internal knowledge into a secure Knowledge Hub, providing an organized enterprise search layer that bridges data silos. Its AI Assistant and Document Analysis Workspace use this Hub to offer reliable answers based on proprietary knowledge and accounting standards. These tools accelerate tedious tasks and support complex decision-making with specialized AI agents.
Emerging from stealth mode, Materia collaborates with top national firms to address the US accountant shortage and technology gap in the industry. The platform’s AI capabilities automate routine tasks, enhancing productivity and allowing professionals to focus on higher-value work. With $6.3 million in funding, Materia aims to transform the accounting industry by providing significant efficiency gains and freeing up professionals for more strategic roles.
Words from those involved in the funding round:
“Materia has been an easy adoption for the audit practice. It’s AI that actually works, and that our staff understands how to use intuitively”
— Matt Sutorius, Partner at Clark Nuber
“We believe that Materia’s AI solution will transform the accounting industry, speeding up accounting professionals’ routine tasks and empowering them to provide higher quality services, more efficiently to their clients.
All of us at Spark are thrilled to partner with Kevin, Lucas, and the entire Materia team, who bring deep expertise in accounting and AI. The feedback from customers has been overwhelmingly positive and we can’t wait to watch Materia become the de facto AI solution for public accounting firms.”
— Natalie Sandman, General Partner at Spark Capital
“Accounting firms across the US are struggling with teams wasting valuable hours on low-value, tedious tasks that can be shifted to AI-powered workflows, freeing up accounting and auditing teams to focus on the highest-risk elements of an audit.
We founded Materia to address this critical need, saving time and helping pick up the heavy lifting and tedious tasks in day-to-day workflows while keeping security and accuracy central to our product design.”
— Kevin Merlini, CEO and co-founder at Materia
Featured image: Credit: Materia
