Circit, the audit confirmations and Open Banking platform, today announced it has completed a €6.5M Series A funding round.
The investment is co-led by financial technology specialist investors Aquiline Technology Growth (ATG) and MiddleGame Ventures (MGV).
Circit helps auditors to verify company assets and liabilities in real-time, and at source. The platform is the first of its kind to be directly regulated for Open Banking under the PSD2 regulation, removing paper processes and outdated systems to deliver time saving for all stakeholders in the audit process, as well as reducing the risk of corporate fraud in global markets.
Founded in 2017, Circit standardised electronic audit confirmations in many of the biggest accounting firms and created a network of validated banks, lawyers, large corporates and SMEs who joined the platform to communicate with auditors during their complete search of a company’s banking arrangements and potential legal liabilities held on its balance sheet.
Circit will use the funds to continue expanding its offering to users on all sides of the platform, and to invest in accelerating the inherent network effects that have been created by global organisations joining as customers.
“We've developed ground-breaking technology in an industry that is going through its biggest reform in decades," said David Heath, CEO of Circit. "Rather than wait for regulators to prescribe the change, we proactively re-imagined and designed a platform that gives auditors a new way of obtaining independent audit evidence that both reduces risk and cuts verification time from weeks to minutes. The platform frees up auditors from manual and time-consuming processes, providing automation for third-party confirmations, as well as verified insights on bank and digital asset transactions. Our aim is to help auditors become highly skilled in addressing the future risks facing businesses and the economy."
Circit’s customers include the big four accounting firms, and 19 of the top 20 accounting networks in most European countries. The company is announcing plans to broaden its UK and Ireland operations, doubling headcount from 35 to 70 over the next 12 months, and continuing its expansion into several new international markets.
Jeff Greenberg, Chairman and CEO of Aquiline Capital Partners, said, “The Circit team has built a high-quality and scalable platform at a time when audit processes and third-party confirmations are more important than ever. We are confident that the company is positioned for strong growth in the years ahead and are excited to support its further development.”
Commenting on the funding round, Patrick Pinschmidt, General Partner for MGV stated: “Circit is addressing a persistent pain point by digitizing the audit confirmation process. But we see broader use cases for the company’s pioneering technology. The combination of open banking tools and the integration of financial institutions and corporates into Circit’s solution will lower costs and improve transparency as the company helps digitize a cross-section of workflows for a global customer base.”
Giovanni Nani (ATG) and Patrick Pinschmidt (MGV) will join the Board of Circit to help scale the company’s international expansion.