Filed Tackles Accounting Labor Crisis With $17 Million

Sometimes the most important business insights come from the most casual conversations. For Filed co-founder Leroy Kerry, that moment came when a CPA asked an offhand question: “How would my team in India use this?”

That simple question sent Kerry and his team on a journey from Midwest strip mall accounting offices to offshore processing floors in India, ultimately leading to Filed’s $17.2 million pre-seed and seed funding round announced today.

The New York-based  startup, backed by Northzone, Neo, Raine, Day One Ventures, and others, has built what it calls an “AI tax preparer” designed to slot into existing accounting workflows rather than replace them entirely.

The Problem That Started It All

Kerry’s path to Filed began with frustration. An accountant couldn’t onboard his previous business due to staffing issues, a story that’s become depressingly common across the accounting industry. Small firms turn away clients not because they lack expertise, but because they lack bodies to do the work.

“We started building software, thinking better tooling would solve the problem,” Kerry explains. But that casual question from a CPA changed everything.

The Founded team wasn’t content with assumptions. In 2024, they embedded themselves inside accounting firms across the Midwest, from single-person storefronts to multi-office operations. What they found was a industry stuck in time: paper drop-offs, fax machines, endless phone queues, and teams stretched thin using tools that hadn’t evolved with the work.

The India Revelation

But it was the trip to India that crystallized Filed’s approach. Kerry and co-founder Atul Ramachadran formerly of McKinsey and PayPal sat with dozens of offshore teams to understand how tax work actually flows between onshore and offshore operations.

“What we found wasn’t a tooling issue. It was a labor issue,” Kerry says. “Much of the work was repetitive, rules-based, and ideal for automation.”

This wasn’t about replacing human expertise, it was about automating the grunt work that consumes so much time that experts can’t actually do expert-level work.

Already Processing Real Returns

Filed isn’t launching with promises and demos. The company has been live for four months, processing tens of thousands of returns through Q1 2025, right in the thick of tax season when accounting firms are under maximum pressure.

The results speak to the practical nature of the company’s approach. Firms using the platform reduced turnaround times from a week to overnight. Review cycles dropped by 30 to 50 percent. One partner summed up the impact: “What used to be our ceiling is now our starting point.”

The platform integrates directly with major tax software including CCH Axcess, UltraTax, Lacerte, and Drake, a crucial detail that shows Filed understands accounting firms aren’t about to rip out their core systems for a startup’s promises.

Not Your Typical AI Pitch

In an era of AI hype, Filed’s positioning is notably restrained. The company describes its technology as automating “the most time-consuming parts of tax prep”—organizing documents, validating returns, and flagging anomalies based on logic teams already use.

“Filed is not a black-box solution,” the company emphasizes. “It mirrors your workflows and reflects your standards.”

This approach reflects the reality of working with accounting firms, where precision matters more than innovation for innovation’s sake. The team includes veterans from KPMG and Deloitte alongside tech-scale experience from Spotify and Visa, a combination that seems designed to bridge the gap between understanding accounting workflows and building scalable technology.

The Flexibility Play

Filed’s strategy acknowledges a nuanced reality about modern accounting operations. Some firms want to keep work onshore and use AI to eliminate busywork. Others want to scale offshore teams with better automation. Filed says it supports both approaches.

“You can keep work onshore and let AI handle the busywork. Or you can scale your offshore team with automation that supports your exact process. Either way, you stay in control,” according to the company.

This flexibility reflects the diverse ways accounting firms have adapted to capacity constraints over the past decade. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, and Filed seems to have designed around that reality rather than against it.

What’s Next

With $17.2 million in funding, Filed plans to expand beyond tax preparation into the full return lifecycle from prep, review, document management, client collaboration, to audit readiness.

The company’s timing is notable. After years of capacity constraints and an industry-wide talent shortage, accounting firms are increasingly open to solutions that can help them serve more clients without hiring sprees that may not be sustainable.

Filed’s approach born from field research rather than Silicon Valley assumptions suggests the company understands that earning trust in this industry requires precision over flash. Whether that translates to broader market adoption remains to be seen, but the early traction during actual tax season suggests they’re onto something real.

For an industry that’s been promised technological transformation for years, Filed’s practical, integration-focused approach might be exactly what actually sticks.