By Riley Kaminer
In the last two years, 17% of accountants and auditors – 300,000 professionals – left their jobs. 75% of CPAs had reached retirement age by 2020, and an above average number of them decided to leave the profession. The Wall Street Journal notes that there is a dwindling number of college students entering the field.
It is in this context that Miami-based Taxfyle has found major success. The startup has developed a series of apps and APIs to connect individuals, businesses, and accounting firms with the accountants to help with their tax needs.
Just over a year ago, Taxfyle raised a Series B round led by IDC Ventures and Fuel Venture Capital. Since then, the company reports that it grew by 75% last year and is on track for a 100% growth rate in 2023. The company has 140 employees overall, half of whom are based in Coconut Grove, where Taxfyle has just moved into a 10,000 square foot office.
Co-founder and CEO Richard Laviña told Refresh Miami that Taxfyle has leveraged the series B to build out their sales team and open their APIs. This has enabled Taxfyle to partner with companies such as Rocket Lawyer, to provide tax services alongside their other offerings.
“You no longer have to call a brick and mortar CPA that you don’t know, whose quality you don’t know,” explained Laviña, noting that this could cause a poor user experience for the end clients. He added that many alternative accounting offerings have suboptimal platforms, making doing taxes even more of a headache.
Taxfyle, which Laviña co-founded along with Will Sahatdjian (CTO) and Michael Mouriz (COO) in 2015, primarily works with CPA firms who send their overflow work to the startup. Then, one of the more than 3,700 licensed CPAs will undertake the job. Taxfyle thinks of itself as the “Uber of taxes,” alleviating staffing burdens during tax season and beyond.
Speaking of tax season, Laviña asserted that this year was their most successful thus far. “It was our best not only in terms of growth but also in terms of delivery time,” he said. “The more at bats you get as a startup, the more exponentially your product tends to improve.”
When it comes to Miami’s tech ecosystem, Laviña says that although we may not have as many deals getting done as a more established hub like San Francisco, our city’s trajectory is “the total opposite” to legacy areas.
“Irrespective of where the market is right now, you should brace yourself for it to pick up and get back to where it was before in terms of speed,” he advised.
One particularly bright spot for Laviña is our local talent ecosystem. “Our pool of talent is much bigger than when we incorporated in 2015 – it’s night and day.” Equally, he said that it is easier than ever to lure top talent to the 305.
READ MORE IN REFRESH MIAMI:
- Jaclyn Baumgarten to lead US expansion of IDC Ventures as Miami’s managing partner
- Playing the loyalty points game? Look no further than Rewardsweb
- Taxfyle raises $20M Series B round, plans to grow its team by 100+
- NovoPayment nabs $19M Series A to supercharge growth of digital banking platform
- Clarity Value helps government agencies modernize services online, raises $2.5M in funding
SUPPORT LOCAL NEWS: Refresh Miami is proud to keep our news articles paywall free and accessible to all. If you enjoy our content, please consider supporting us by becoming a paid subscriber or making a donation.
- AI, climatetech and healthtech reign supreme on Day 1 of eMerge Americas’ 10th anniversary - April 18, 2024
- Brought together by tech, kept together by culture: Miami’s protagonistic role in LatAm’s startup story - April 15, 2024
- New World Angels launches Innovation Fund to write pre-seed checks - April 12, 2024