NYC AI Tax Startup Hits $1.15B Valuation
An NYC-based AI agent startup focused on tax, audit, and automation has closed a $100M Series B, pushing its valuation to $1.15 billion. The round was led by Accel, GV, and Khosla, and the company is immediately hiring for 19 open roles, including seven engineering spots, to scale its work with top accounting firms.
The AI-native accounting automation startup is Basis, which recently secured a $100 million Series B at a $1.15 billion valuation. This funding round was led by Accel, with notable participation from GV, Khosla Ventures, and former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein. The company’s AI agents are designed to automate complete accounting workflows, including tax, audit, and bookkeeping for major firms. Basis has already gained significant traction, with approximately 30% of the top 25 accounting firms in the U.S. using its platform. The company’s technology is addressing a critical talent shortage in the accounting industry, which currently has over 300,000 open positions in the United States. This new capital infusion is intended to expand its engineering team to further develop its AI capabilities. For engineers looking to build similar AI agent applications, several frameworks are popular. LangChain is a flexible, open-source option for creating custom workflows, while CrewAI excels at orchestrating multiple agents. AutoGen is another open-source choice focused on multi-agent collaboration and conversation-driven interactions. For those prioritizing enterprise-level features and faster development cycles, Vellum offers a unified builder and SDK with built-in governance. The NYC startup scene is a major hub for AI investment, with over 300 venture capital firms in the city. In 2025, AI companies accounted for 22% of the $42.3 billion raised across more than 1,800 deals in New York. Investors in the city tend to favor enterprise AI with clear revenue models over consumer-focused AI, with average seed rounds for AI startups ranging from $2.5M to $4M. Indie hackers and bootstrappers offer a different path into the startup world. Pieter Levels of NomadList and AJ of Carrd are prominent examples of founders who built profitable businesses without venture funding. Many successful indie hackers, like Arvid Kahl of FeedbackPanda, advocate for starting with a problem you personally experience—a "scratch your own itch" approach—to ensure you're building a solution for a real-world need. Vertical SaaS, which targets specific industry needs, is a rapidly growing sector. Industries like healthcare, manufacturing, and legal services are ripe for disruption with tailored software that addresses unique workflows and compliance requirements. AI is enhancing these platforms by automating complex, industry-specific tasks and providing deeper data insights. Early-stage AI investment is currently focused on solving the problems created by scaling AI itself. Key areas of funding include security platforms for autonomous agents, AI-driven tools to accelerate scientific research, and solutions for managing the risks of AI-assisted coding. Startups that create infrastructure and automation tools for AI are attracting significant attention from investors.
