Most CPAs didn’t go to school to become part-time data-entry clerks. But that’s exactly where the industry landed, chained to scanned PDFs, K-1s that read like legal riddles, and “AI-powered” tools that require more onboarding than a 747. Enter Abacus AI Inc., the Sugarman brothers’ full-send answer to the profession’s silent crisis.
The backstory? Classic Silicon Valley irony. Cody Sugarman and Brandon Sugarman, Stanford alums turned builders at Stripe, Airtable, Google, and DocuSign, got slapped with a 7216 consent form from their own accountant. Translation: your tax data’s going overseas, good luck. Most people shrug. These two launched a company.
And today, Abacus AI Inc. just raised a $6.6M seed round led by Menlo Ventures, with strong backup from Pear VC, Recall Capital, and Original Capital. No flashy slogans. No Web3 detours. Just cold, technical execution, and the market noticed.
Let’s talk traction: In under 18 months, they’ve onboarded 14 CPA firms, including two in the Top 100. They’ve processed over 120,000 K-1 pages this tax season alone. More than 250% YoY revenue growth out the gate. And they’re doing it with only 19 full-timers split between San Francisco and a New York City engineering hub. This isn’t “move fast and break things.” This is move smart, build trust, and ship features that actually get used.
The product’s got depth. An Excel-native AI assistant that slips right into your firm’s workflow, no new UI, no nonsense. It extracts, classifies, reconciles, and posts tax data in minutes. From scanned PDFs to proper Excel journal entries, all wrapped in SOC2 Type II compliance, AES256 encryption, and GovCloud hosting for firms who don’t play with security. Even the IRS would raise an eyebrow, in a good way.
What makes this even more interesting? The tech stack’s got muscle: PyTorch, LangChain, retrieval-augmented generation for referencing prior returns, and a self-learning feedback loop that improves with every review. If you’re in the business of billable hours, this is how you buy your time back.
Let’s not forget the broader backdrop. The U.S. tax and assurance market is sitting on $125B in annual spend, and half the current CPA workforce is expected to retire in the next decade. This isn’t a niche; it’s a generational handoff. And Abacus AI Inc. is building the bridge between what the profession was and what it needs to become.
Major congrats to Cody Sugarman and Brandon Sugarman. You didn’t just spot a gap, you built into it with precision. To the partners at Menlo Ventures, Pear VC, Recall Capital, and Original Capital, you backed a sharp team solving a very real, very big problem. This isn’t hype. It’s horsepower.
The next era of tax tech won’t be offshore. It’ll be agentic, auditable, and accelerated. The only numbers that matter now are the ones Abacus is running.
