Aiming to provide cash advances on tax credits for startups, AI-driven firm Boast.ai has secured a $100m credit facility from Brevet Capital.
Boast.ai, which automates R&D tax credit-based financing for startups, plans to use the money to further develop its platform and expand its startup portfolio.
This credit facility will enable Boast.ai to lend money to firms so they don’t have to wait for the tax credits and in return, the company would pay back the credits with interest – which would be a single fee encompassing everything. This figure will still be lower than taking a loan and hiring an accounting firm to compile all the tax data, the firm said.
One of the main pain point of startups is monitoring R&D tax credits manually which can get time-consuming and laborious. Companies incurring R&D costs don’t see benefits for as long as 16 months and delays in credits can be extremely challenging for early-stage businesses, Boast.ai said.
Boast.ai’s software automates the processes of data collection using tech tools like JIRA and GitHub and a company’s financial tools like QuickBooks and Gusto. Using its algorithms to cluster this data, it identifies, categorises and tracks eligible projects that could qualify for a tax credit and estimates how much time was spent in R&D.
The new funding comes after a recent $23m Series A funding round in December last year led by Radian Capital. This brought the company’s total funding to circa $120m since its founding in 2012.
The firm claimed that it worked with over 1,000 companies to recover R&D costs from the US and Canadian governments, adding that it plans to reach 5,000 startup clients in the next few months.
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