Even without an accounting background, anyone who’s glanced at a 10-K or 10-Q knows that preparing financial statements is a complex and tedious process. Traditional platforms like Workiva and Donnelley Financial Solutions aim to streamline reporting, but longtime accountants Mary Antony and Kelsey Gootnick found themselves frustrated by persistent manual hurdles.

The duo first met seven years ago at Flexport, where Gootnick was the company’s controller and Antony served as assistant controller. Even after moving on to roles at Miro, Hopin, and Thrive Global, the pair repeatedly encountered the same pain points: spreadsheets patched together, Word documents exchanged via email, and hours lost to formatting and verification.

“The way financial statements come together, it’s just patched together in a lot of spreadsheets, moved into a bunch of Word documents, emailed back and forth between people,” Antony told TechCrunch.

Launching InScope

In 2023, Antony and Gootnick launched InScope, an AI-powered financial reporting platform designed to automate much of the manual work involved in preparing financial statements. The startup recently raised $14.5 million in Series A funding, led by Norwest, with participation from Storm Ventures and existing investors Better Tomorrow Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

While InScope does not yet fully automate the creation of income statements and balance sheets, it handles a wide range of repetitive tasks—from verifying math to ensuring consistent formatting. According to Antony, simple fixes like aligning dollar signs and commas can save accountants up to 20% of their time.

Over the past 12 months, InScope has grown its customer base fivefold, securing notable accounting firms such as CohnReznick, which ranks among the top 15 nationally.

The Road Ahead

Full automation of financial reporting remains the ultimate goal, though Antony acknowledges that accountants—by nature a risk-averse profession—may take time to embrace it.

Norwest partner Sean Jacobsohn said he invested in InScope after hearing from multiple clients that the platform significantly improves efficiency.

“It’s a very complex space, and you need to be able to have been in the shoes of the buyer before,” he said, highlighting why Antony and Gootnick’s hands-on experience in accounting makes InScope unique.

Antony added that while accountants rarely launch startups, her and Gootnick’s experience in high-growth environments helped them cultivate the entrepreneurial instincts necessary to tackle such a specialized and challenging market.