An intelligent bookkeeping startup has raised £3.3m in funding to accelerate its growth across the North of England.
Dublin-headquartered Outmin’s technology automates bookkeeping tasks, freeing up finance professionals to spend more time on higher-value activities.
The company was co-founded by Ross Hunt and David Kelleher and will expand its presence in the North West, with plans to significantly increase its headcount.
It will also invest in enhancing its AI capabilities and strengthening partnerships with accounting firms, helping them to increase efficiency, margins, and scale with existing headcount.
The firm raised the funding in a round led by Praetura Ventures, with investment coming from Praetura’s EIS Growth Fund and NPIF II – Praetura Equity Finance, which is managed by Praetura Ventures as part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II, with other investors participating.
Outmin’s zero-touch solution aims to empower accounting and finance professionals with fully reconciled, data science-quality financial data.
More than 350 businesses are utilising the platform and the company has established partnerships with 12 accounting practices.
Businesses report saving more than 200 hours annually on bookkeeping, while some partner firms report as much as £8,000 in additional revenue per client onboarded to Outmin by reallocating existing staff to higher-value tasks.
The business has also announced the appointment of Feargal O’Rourke, former managing partner of PwC Ireland, as chairman of the board.
O’Rourke will support the management team as they scale Outmin and continue to address challenges in accounting, such as talent shortages and inefficiencies.
CEO Ross Hunt said: “This funding marks an exciting new phase for Outmin that will enable us to grow our presence in the UK and bring automated bookkeeping to more businesses and accounting firms.
“The North West is a hotbed of activity, with incredibly exciting advancements happening across the AI landscape, and we’re looking forward to playing a bigger part within that ecosystem while supporting companies and accounting firms up and down the country with our intelligent solutions.”
Peter Carway, investment director at Praetura Ventures, added: “Outmin is a perfect business case for advanced AI deployment. By automating complex but repetitive bookkeeping tasks, accounting practices can redeploy their resources onto higher revenue generating advisory work.
“This is a huge area of interest and investment, with growing momentum in the financial sector across the UK, Europe and US. Outmin are expanding their team across the Northwest due to the abundance of talent and resources available here.
“We’re looking forward to working closely with the team as they continue to scale their product and UK customer base.”
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