Accounting firms are struggling to adopt high-tech solutions. That’s according to a survey earlier this year from Rightsworks, which found that, while 88% of firms believe tech has had a positive impact on their efficiency, 60% are suffering from disconnected systems, inconsistent processes, and a lack of standardized workflows.
Startups like Aiwyn are trying to meet the demand. Founded in 2020, Charlotte, North Carolina-based Aiwyn sells software designed to address the revenue cycle side of the CPA business. Aiwyn’s platform automates and reconciles payments and invoices for both CPAs and their customers.
Aiwyn was co-founded by entrepreneurs Pat Morell and Justin Adams. While building his first startup, healthcare company Digitize.AI (which Morell also helped co-found), Adams had a bad experience with a CPA firm. The firm sent him an invoice two months after he’d sold Digitize.AI, and wanted Adams to mail a check to a P.O. box in Pennsylvania.
“[I]t kind of left a bad taste in my mouth from a customer experience perspective,” Adams wrote in a LinkedIn post. “It caused me to dig in and ask: Why does a top-10 accounting firm have such a lousy experience? Why did they make it so difficult to pay them? Why put a lot of friction in the process?”
So, despite feeling “pretty burned out” after selling Digitize.AI, as Adams described it, he called up Morell, and the two started brainstorming what would become Aiwyn.
Aiwyn has about 80 staffers today, and notched $8 million in revenue in 2023, according to Adams. The company serves around 130 of the top 500 accounting firms.
It’s a lucrative position to be in.
According to Verified Market Research, the sector for accounting practice management software was worth $1.29 billion in 2024 and could reach $2.36 billion by 2031. Ninety-three percent of accountants believe that accounting firms making more use of tech are more likely to survive periods of high inflation and interest rates, per one poll.
Aiwyn is developing what it describes as a “comprehensive” accounting practice management platform, as well as a tax-focused application. To fund those efforts, the company recently closed a $113 million funding round led by KKR and Bessemer Venture Partners.
The round brought Aiwyn’s total raised to $127 million.
“Aiwyn is committed to empowering CPA firms to elevate their operations and client relationships,” Adams said in a statement. “With this investment, we are poised to redefine how firms manage their operations from the CRM to the general ledger while setting a new benchmark for client experiences.”