Quanta is Automating Accounting Out of Existence

For decades, accounting has been one of the most rigorous and time-consuming back-office activities in business. Finance teams have long been forced to rely on legacy technologies, sluggish reconciliation processes, and out-of-date reporting cycles, which result in analysing stale data weeks after a financial period ends. While AI has generated headlines in fields such as robotics and automation, one of its most significant yet underappreciated uses is emerging in an industry with little innovation which is accountancy.

Quanta, a startup built by finance and engineering veterans, is taking on this challenge. The company has raised a $4.7 million seed round led by Accel, with participation from Designer Fund, Elad Gil, Basecase, Comma Capital, Operator Collective, Founders You Should Know, Homebrew, and others. Quanta aims to eliminate the inefficiencies of traditional accounting by leveraging AI and proprietary software to automate routine bookkeeping tasks while enhancing financial accuracy and real-time reporting. Now, the company is making its platform broadly available to software businesses after a successful beta period.

A Frustration with Accounting Software

Helen Hastings, the founder and CEO of Quanta, built financial systems at Affirm during a time of rapid company growth. From constructing internal accounting ledgers to designing scalable financial infrastructure, Hastings saw firsthand the bottlenecks created by outdated accounting software. “The manual work required to produce data has resulted in a once-per-month reporting cadence that holds businesses back,” she said. “Quanta’s vision is to automate all repetitive aspects of accounting so finance teams need only focus on creative work: defining the business model, selecting the appropriate policies, and asking the right questions that will push their business forward.”

Instead of simply layering AI on top of traditional bookkeeping methods, Quanta developed its own proprietary general ledger, fully integrated into an AI-powered accounting engine. This enables the platform to automate data population, validation, and interpretation tasks that have historically required significant human intervention. Unlike other AI-powered accounting startups that attempted to automate human bookkeepers, Quanta’s model is designed to eliminate the need for routine bookkeeping work altogether.

Speed, Accuracy, and Financial Insight

Quanta’s approach stands apart from outsourced bookkeeping services by prioritizing automation. Many businesses today still wait weeks to receive even a draft of their financials, making timely decision-making nearly impossible. Quanta eliminates this lag with real-time updates, allowing finance teams to work with accurate financial data as often as needed.

Key features of Quanta include:

• Real-Time Accounting: Traditional accounting close cycles are lengthy and often outdated by the time reports are available. Quanta integrates directly with banking systems and financial tools like Brex, Mercury, Stripe, Gusto, and Ramp, ensuring real-time data availability.
• Automated Accuracy Checks: AI-driven validation ensures all accounting entries comply with set policies. Quanta runs over 40 automated checks and reconciliations daily to prevent errors and discrepancies.
• Advanced Revenue Recognition & Accruals: With a Stripe integration and contract ingestion system, Quanta automatically builds revenue recognition schedules and accruals, removing the manual work required in most accounting workflows.
• High-Value Expert Support: While competitors often rely on large teams of outsourced bookkeepers, Quanta’s automation allows customers to work directly with financial experts who focus on strategic insights rather than data entry. Customers have direct access to these experts via Slack for real-time support.

Chris Burgner, Head of Finance & Analytics at Equals, emphasized the impact of Quanta’s approach: “Quanta is the fastest outsourced accounting service. The efficiency gains since partnering with Quanta have been remarkable. They’ve helped us reduce our closing time by 85%, giving us visibility into our business faster.”

Venture capital interest in AI-powered accounting solutions has been on the rise, with companies like Numeric and Kick receiving funding in recent years. However, many past attempts at AI-driven accounting failed due to the reliance on human bookkeepers for critical processes. Hastings believes Quanta will avoid this pitfall by ensuring its automated system can fully perform accounting functions before expanding its customer base. The company initially only accepted customers whose financial operations were fully compatible with its automation model, allowing the platform to prove its efficacy without human intervention.

With this funding round, Quanta aims to expand its reach beyond early-stage software companies to larger businesses, including those with multiple corporate entities. Hastings envisions a future where accounting teams no longer spend their days on manual data entry and reconciliations, but instead focus entirely on shaping financial strategy and making informed business decisions.

Women-Led Startups in Finance and AI is Rare

Quanta’s success also represents a rare milestone for female-founded companies in the venture-backed fintech space. According to PitchBook data, female-only founded startups received just 2% of total VC funding in 2024. Hastings recalls being told by a college instructor that she did not fit the mold of a founder, a comment that only fueled her determination. With Quanta’s success, she hopes to inspire more women to pursue leadership roles in fintech and AI-driven enterprises.

Accounting remains an essential yet expensive function for businesses, consuming anywhere from 1% to 6% of a company’s total gross revenue. The reliance on manual labor and slow reporting cycles has made accounting a significant operational burden. A recent survey found that 39% of accountants spend more than half their day on manual tasks, highlighting the urgent need for automation.

While AI adoption in finance has largely focused on areas like fraud detection and trading, Quanta is proving that AI-driven accounting can be just as transformative. As Quanta scales, its mission remains clear, which is to automate everything that does not require human judgment, allowing finance teams to focus on the creative and strategic aspects of their work. 

Summing up the significance of this moment, Amit Kumar, partner at Accel, said, “The accounting industry is at a critical juncture where new solutions are required to meet modern demands. AI breakthroughs and the consolidation of financial data in modern cloud services create a unique opportunity for innovation, and Quanta is perfectly positioned to harness it. Helen and the Quanta team are building a system that represents a radical departure from the status quo, delivering a new model of real-time delivery and unparalleled accuracy.”