- Pilot — the largest provider of back-office services for startups and small businesses in the US — announced recently that it has closed a $60 million Series C
Pilot — the largest provider of back-office services for startups and small businesses in the US — announced recently that it has closed a $60 million Series C led by Sequoia Capital, doubling its total funding to $120 million including investments from Index Ventures and Stripe. And the additional raise enables Pilot to expand the depth of back office services that remove distractions and help companies focus on success in a challenging business environment.
The funding announcement comes as Pilot builds increasing momentum in its mission for bringing big-company finance superpowers to SMBs. And Pilot has spent the last year focused on empowering SMBs to overcome traditional challenges by providing access to new capabilities previously only available to enterprises with large finance teams. Through Pilot, SMBs are able to:
1.) Maximize financial outcomes and growth – SMBs typically don’t have access to a seasoned CFO and a team of financial analysts to drive critical financial decisions. And Pilot CFO Services fills the void and builds financial strategies and plans that accelerate growth, increase cash flow, and improve profitability – from customer growth planning to sales efficiency optimization.
2.) Track and control spending – Controllers at large enterprises analyze and report on spending patterns, but most SMBs lack this function. Pilot provides monthly variance analysis for all its bookkeeping customers, ultimately empowering SMBs to make better budgeting and spending decisions.
3.) Access small business tax credits – Many companies miss out on special federal and state tax credits available specifically to small businesses, including a R&D payroll credit of up to $250,000. Pilot has helped small businesses identify and obtain millions of dollars of additional tax credits towards hiring and expansion.
Last year, Pilot booked over $3 billion in bookkeeping transactions for its customers, which range from pre-revenue startups to established companies generating more than $30M of revenue a year.
Launched by three-time co-founders Waseem Daher, Jeff Arnold, and Jessica McKellar, Pilot was created to solve problems they’d faced themselves while building their two previous companies.
KEY QUOTES:
“Our first job out of college was owning a business in Boston. After a long week of sales, customer support and product development, I would be left with a pile of manual, tedious accounting work to do. We founded Pilot to be the solution we wanted for our business. Through our partnership with Sequoia,” he added, “we will be able to make the solution of a better back office a reality for more companies than ever.”
— Waseem Daher, co-founder and CEO of Pilot
“Back office operations like bookkeeping can be painful, expensive and time-consuming, especially for small businesses. Pilot combines intelligent software with a concierge approach to deliver a painless and even delightful back office experience. Pilot is doing for the back office what AWS did for computing – making it easy, scalable, and on demand.”
— Pat Grady, partner at Sequoia
“The Pilot team has been our partner from our earliest days, from before we had revenue to post-series D. They’ve helped us scale, and allowed us to focus on our business instead of spending time worrying about our books.”
— A client that has raised more than $75 million in funding
