A bad experience with an accounting firm prompted this founder to launch Aiwyn

Accounting firms find it difficult to adopt high-tech solutions. Because of this request According to data from Rightsworks earlier this year, while 88% of firms believe technology has a positive impact on their efficiency, 60% suffer from disconnected systems, inconsistent processes and a lack of standard workflows.

startups like Aiwyn they try to meet the demand. Founded in 2020, Charlotte, North Carolina Aiwyn CPA sells software designed to solve the revenue cycle side of the business. The Aiwyn platform automates and reconciles payments and invoices for both CPAs and their clients.

Aiwyn was founded by entrepreneurs Pat Morell and Justin Adams. While building his first startup, the healthcare company Digitize.AI (which Morell also helped co-found), Adams had a bad experience with a CPA firm. Two months after selling Digitize.AI, the firm sent him an invoice and asked Adams to mail a check to a PO box in Pennsylvania.

“(I) didn’t leave a bad taste in my mouth in terms of customer experience,” Adams said he wrote In a LinkedIn post. “This led me to investigate and ask: Why do the top 10 accounting firms have such a bad track record? Why did they make it so difficult to pay them? Why is there so much friction in this process?”

So, despite feeling “pretty burned out” after selling Digitize.AI, as Adams describes it, he called Morell and the two began brainstorming what would become Aiwyn.

Aiwyn has about 80 employees today and is on track to generate $8 million in revenue by 2023, according to Adams. The company serves 130 of the top 500 accounting firms.

This is a profitable position.

according to According to Verified Market Research, the accounting practice management software sector was valued at $1.29 billion in 2024 and could reach $2.36 billion by 2031. 93 percent of accountants believe that accounting firms that make greater use of technology are more likely to survive periods of high inflation. and interest rates, for each request.

Aiwyn is developing what it describes as a “comprehensive” accounting practice management platform, as well as a tax-focused application. To fund these efforts, the company recently closed a $113 million funding round led by KKR and Bessemer Venture Partners.

The round brought Aiwyn’s total revenue to $127 million.

“Aiwyn is committed to empowering CPA firms to elevate their operations and client relationships,” said Adams. “With this investment, we are poised to redefine how firms manage their operations from CRM to the general ledger while setting a new benchmark for customer experiences.”