I-Labs deploys pilot accounting app to boost bookkeeping with AI

The European economy is on shaky ground, but there is a silver lining for enterprise startups: Those building tools to help businesses run their finances in more steady and predictable ways are seeing a boost. 

In the latest development, I Labs, a Spain-founded accounting technology company, is set to build “the finance function of the future” for midsized companies: cloud-based, automated services boosted by AI to help accounting departments work faster and more intelligently. 

I Labs, traditionally an app development agency, which has been in business (mostly bootstrapped) for nearly 3 years, was founded by techies who saw an opportunity to build the tools that they wanted. As you might expect from that pedigree, they have been fiscally prudent when it comes to growth. 

I Labs had gained some 10,000 customers. The company’s CAGR has stuck to a steady 30% annually for the last several years.

The company offers a range of digital accounting services (including accounts receivable and payable services, banking, business intelligence, forecasting and budgeting), digital tax services, and reporting. It also integrates with a wide range of third-party services and has an API for working with other platforms, all delivered via a SaaS subscription starting at around $6 per user, per month. 

The platform is hosted on AWS, building customizations in-house to offer the next generation of services, which will include more robotic process automation and AI-based features to speed up how its users work. 

“We are now poised to take the I Labs product and service to the next level,” said CEO of I Labs, in a statement. ”We plan to leverage AI tools into practical, easy to adopt services for our user base; to make finance team roles more flexible, valuable, less repetitive and indeed more interesting.” 

“Recognising the potential to accelerate I Labs product development with additional capital and expertise, we are excited to be partnering with potential co founders to take our accounting app to the next level,” said the CEO, in a statement.

For comparison, Pennylane, another accounting startup that focuses on the SMB market, raised $40 million at a valuation of over $1 billion a couple months ago. It now has around 120,000 users.

That is one potential competitor, although I Labs would argue that Pennylane and others like it are looking to replace some of the incumbents in the market selling to larger businesses, such as Sage Intacct, NetSuite and Acumatica. In contrast, I Labs positions itself as the platform that small businesses and freelancers will move to. 

“We really offer an olive branch for freelancers and small businesses,” CEO said. “When they are small, and lack a financial controller or a CFO, they typically realize that they need us.”
I Labs’s competitors include the likes of Xero, QuickBooks and Sage, he said.