Capital Confirmation

About Capital Confirmation

Now part of Thomson Reuters, Confirmation is a financial technology company that provides a secure digital platform for verifying financial data. Founded in 2000 as Capital Confirmation, Inc., the company pioneered the electronic audit confirmation process, shifting the industry from a manual, paper-based system to a streamlined online solution. Its clients include audit firms, banks, law firms, and credit managers who use the platform to manage and respond to audit confirmation requests.

The company was founded by Brian Fox, a CPA who conceptualized the idea for electronic confirmations while working in audit and mergers and acquisitions at Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Fox used his father's life insurance as seed capital to start the business, facing early challenges like the dot-com bubble burst and the aftermath of 9/11, which caused initial funding to evaporate. The company was co-led by Chairman and CEO Chris Schellhorn. After an initial period of struggle, the company became profitable in 2009 and expanded significantly.

The core of the business is its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform, Confirmation.com, a patented system that acts as a centralized clearinghouse for the audit confirmation process. The platform validates all parties in the transaction, ensuring that requests are sent to the correct, authorized recipients, which minimizes the risk of fraud and interception. It supports over 80 different types of confirmations, including asset, liability, accounts receivable/payable, and legal confirmations. The business model is usage-based, where auditors pay for the confirmations they send, with no licensing or sign-up fees. By digitizing the workflow, the platform reduces the confirmation process from weeks to days, or even hours.

In October 2016, Great Hill Partners made a $60 million minority investment in the company. This was followed by the acquisition of Capital Confirmation by Thomson Reuters, which was announced in June 2019 and closed in July 2019. The acquisition was part of Thomson Reuters' strategy to expand its cloud-based offerings for tax, accounting, and audit professionals and integrate Confirmation into its Cloud Audit Suite. Brian Fox joined Thomson Reuters in an executive role following the acquisition.