Enterprise startup Incentify estimates that companies are missing out on up to $1.2 trillion in incentives — and it just raised a new round of funding to help businesses find tax benefits using AI.
The startup today announced a $9.5 million Series A funding round led by Innovent Capital Group, an early-stage fund and venture studio. Consulting firm Ryan LLC and Gary Gilbert, who co-founded RocketMortgage and co-owns the Cleveland Cavaliers, also participated in the round.
Founded in 2019, Los Angeles-based Incentify offers software that helps companies manage their tax credits and incentives (C&I). The startup uses AI to find applicable benefits based on a company’s background and location, and it manages the application process and timeline for a company’s entire C&I portfolio.
Incentify previously raised $4.25 million in 2020, and its clients include KPMG, Amazon, Cargill, and investor Ryan LLC.
Incentify CEO Laurence Sotsky said that adding AI to the platform — namely, Incentify’s Explore tool, which is where companies get personalized tax incentives — has helped the startup supercharge its business.
“To create Explore, we compiled every federal, state, and local grant, credit, abatement, and incentive into a massive data warehouse,” he said. “We then trained our AI model on this vast dataset, enabling us to deliver unparalleled insights and rich content to our customers.”
Sotksy added that Incentify’s business model was a tough sell for some VCs during the fundraising process. In addition to traditional SaaS revenue, Incentify also earns a fee when it connects customers with a network of advisor partners that it maintains.
“Interestingly, the larger the VC, the harder it seemed for them to fit us into their investment thesis,” Sotksy said.
Investors are anticipating that 2025 will be the year of specialization when it comes to AI startups, and the tax and accounting space is no exception: startups like Finally, which offers AI bookkeeping, and AccountsIQ, which is building accounting tech in Ireland, both raised funding last year.
In the tax credit space, Incentify’s competitors include MainStreet, which finds tax credits for startups and small businesses and has raised over $100 million from VCs, including Moxxie Ventures, Alumni Ventures, and Gradient Ventures.
Here’s an exclusive look at the 20-slide pitch deck Incentify used to raise its $9.5 million Series A funding round.
