Multiplier raises $35M to challenge the Big Four with AI-run accounting firms
What's the deal? Multiplier HoldingsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has raised a $35 million Series B to build a rival to the Big Four accounting firms, in a round that values the Singapore-based startup at $300 million. The General PartnershipDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → led the deal, with participation from existing backers Ribbit Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners. That brings Multiplier's total capital raised to roughly $62.5 million.
What's the endgame? Founded in 2022 by former Stripe executive Noah Pepper, Multiplier acquires premium tax and accounting firms and builds AI tools around how they work. The acquired businesses keep their names, leadership, and clients while sharing infrastructure and a global network. Multiplier is structured as a permanent holding company, not a short-term acquisition vehicle.
The M&A engine: Multiplier has acquired eight firms to date, five of them in the past year, with four more under signed term sheets. Its first deal, UK boutique Citrine International TaxDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, increased cash flows about 2.5 times in the eight months after acquisition, with some gains paid to staff as bonuses. The target list: DeloitteDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Ernst & YoungDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, KPMGDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and PricewaterhouseCoopersDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →.
Key hire: Multiplier has appointed Allen Shim, former chief financial officer of Slack, as president and CFO. Shim helped steer Slack's 2019 IPO and its nearly $28 billion sale to Salesforce in 2021. He will oversee finance, operations, and partnerships, and help build out the company's new San Francisco office.
What's the pitch? "An AI's answer is worth zero until a professional puts their name on it," Pepper said. He argues that services firms are thriving but overwhelmed by client demand and labour shortages, and that AI expands capacity rather than replacing experts.
Why the model? Because Multiplier owns the firms where its tools are deployed, its 30-plus technologists have direct access to workflows, data, and client relationships. That addresses adoption barriers that have long limited software use in professional services, the company says.
The signal: The round sits in the 60th percentile by size — solid, not headline-grabbing, but backing a bet that AI's value in professional services lies in owning the firms, not selling them software. As Kline, the partner who led the deal, put it: doing it "in something like accounting and tax services, it's kind of a no-brainer."
Read more: The Wall Street Journal · Business Wire
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
