Filed, a tech startup co-founded by Leroy Kerry and Atul Ramachandran, has successfully raised $17.2 million in funding to automate the tax preparation process using artificial intelligence (AI). The company aims to address the challenges faced by the tax industry, particularly as many certified public accountants (CPAs) approach retirement while fewer students enter the profession.
Filed CEO Leroy Kerry sees a groundbreaking future ahead for how businesses will manage their tax workflows. He stressed that the firm’s AI technology is unique for its integration with software systems already in use. This exclusive feature prevents clients from having to completely revamp their existing tech architectures. Providing an innovative funding mechanism, this approach will enable small tax offices to modernize and automate operations. They can transition from legacy approaches such as paper and faxing without upending their existing workflows.
Kerry’s path to entrepreneurship started in South London, growing up in public housing with a single mother. It was his ambition that first brought him to the United States. There, he hoped to get the experience needed to found his own company after working as a chief of staff in high-growth companies in the U.K. and Sweden. Looking back on his nascent career, Kerry remarked, “I had no conception that being a CEO was attainable. Only a year into his career, he was already leading a team and working with the city’s budding startups as clients.
During their own visits to Colorado and Arizona, Kerry and Ramachandran became acutely aware of inefficiencies present in small tax offices. This realization inspired the creation of Filed. They realized that all too often firms were behind the curve on embracing what today’s technology had to offer and still lived in a paper-based world.
Kerry emphasized the significance of their work, asserting that “the industry has been waiting for its AI moment, and we’re just getting started.” He thinks the product vision of their offering stretches well beyond filling out tax returns. To that end, it aspires to position itself as the de facto AI infrastructure for the whole tax industry. “Our long-term vision extends beyond return preparation to become the foundational AI infrastructure for the entire tax industry – transforming everything from client collaboration to document management and audit preparation,” he explained.
Kerry’s time in the tech world has opened his eyes to constructive ways to approach those challenges. When we pressed him, he noted “Those years were formative in teaching me how to build through chaos and remain vigorously customer obsessed.” His dedication to customer-centric development is on display in Filed’s design, with a strong focus on user experience and effectiveness.
As Filed prepares for expansion following its recent funding round, Kerry continues looking at the challenges facing the tax industry. She understands that overcoming these challenges will be key to winning. He asserted that this industry is facing a true existential crisis. This has only been exacerbated as more and more experienced professionals retire with no new blood to take their place. “This tax industry is in real crisis,” he said succinctly, driving home the seriousness of the moment.
On what he’s accomplished and what he hopes to achieve, Kerry offered a moment of introspection about how far he’s come from humble beginnings. He described how disheartened he felt about the rarity of people like him in tech leadership positions. These days, he says he’s living full circle. This feeling of fulfillment inspires his creative quest to shake up an industry that is in many ways overdue for transformation.