Kick - AI-Powered Accounting Software

Done-For-You Era Accounting

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This week’s Startup feature is kick.co. Kick is the automated bookkeeping software that does the hard work for you.

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Company & Team Introduction

Kick is the next-generation AI-powered accounting platform designed to streamline bookkeeping for businesses of all sizes. Founded in 2021 by Conrad Wadowski (CEO) and Adrian Ślipko (Tech Lead), Kick's mission is to create a self-driving back office where much of the accounting process is automated via AI. This enables businesses to spend more on building better products and growing their operations rather than spending time dealing with complex and repetitive financial tasks. Prior to founding Kick, Conrad co-founded the EdTech platform Teachable, which was acquired by Hotmart for $250M in 2020, and Adrian served as CTO of Ladder.io, a leading marketing tech company. Their diverse blend of entrepreneurial and technical experience positions Kick to disrupt the traditional accounting space. Headquartered in San Francisco, California, Kick has scaled its team to approximately 29 employees as it continues to innovate in the accounting vertical.

Product Overview

Kick is an AI-powered accounting platform designed to simplify bookkeeping for businesses of all sizes. By leveraging artificial intelligence, Kick automates many of the complex and time-consuming tasks associated with financial management, freeing up businesses to focus on growth and innovation. The platform is built with a focus on usability, providing a “self-driving” back office that handles everything from transaction categorization to tax preparation.

Kick’s Key Features include:

  • Automated Transaction Categorization: Kick’s AI automatically categorizes and records all transactions, ensuring that businesses always have up-to-date financial records without manual intervention.

  • Expense Management: Kick tracks expenses and provides detailed reports, helping businesses identify cost-saving opportunities and maintain financial control.

  • Financial Reporting: Kick generates crucial financial reports like Profit & Loss statements and Balance Sheets, allowing businesses to track performance and meet regulatory requirements without additional effort.

  • Multi-Entity Support: Businesses with multiple branches or entities can manage all their financial data in one platform, streamlining accounting across different units.

  • Tax Readiness: Kick automates the preparation of tax documents, reducing the risk of errors and saving businesses time during tax season.

  • Custom Revenue Tracking: Users can set up custom revenue streams, allowing them to track their income in detail, which is particularly valuable for businesses with varied revenue sources.

Total Addressable Market

The market for accounting software, including AI-driven solutions like those offered by companies such as Kick is absolutely massive. Globally, the accounting software industry is projected to expand from an already huge ~$19.74 billion opportunity in 2024 to ~$30.66 billion by 2029, compounding at a 9.2% growth rate through the period. The vertical growth is driven by several factors, including the increasing adoption of cloud-based solutions, AI and automation capabilities, and an increased emphasis on efficient financial management, particularly among small and medium-sized businesses.

Business Model & The Numbers

Kick is taking a very different approach from traditional players in the space, offering a freemium subscription-based model with an annual business expense limit of 25k. The free plan helps fuel their self-service growth engine and allows businesses to actually try Kick’s software at no cost, which is particularly important when incumbents such as Quickbooks and Xero have such a trusted brand but typically offer more rigid pricing tiers and no way to try before you buy, alienating new, smaller businesses from the start. Another key differentiator in Kick’s business model is that plans are based primarily on annual business expense limits, which aligns its pricing model with the success of its customers.

Traction

Recent market pull has been strong for Kick, with the company seeing a staggering 50%+ MoM growth for the past 3 months. The company also now serves over 1000 accountants and businesses on their platform. Among its growing user base are notable entrepreneurs and content creators who have switched from traditional solutions, including Shaan Puri, Marina Mogilko, Shelby Church, and Chris Hutchins. These individuals, all with significant online followings, have raved about Kick, praising its user-friendly interface and AI-powered automation, leading to significant gains in productivity.

Competitors

The accounting software market is highly competitive and dominated by well-established players like QuickBooks and Xero. These incumbents have long catered to SMBs, but their rigid seat-based pricing and complex interfaces often make them inaccessible to smaller businesses looking for more flexible and affordable solutions. Kick differentiates itself by capitalizing on two key trends: AI-powered automation and the "consumerization of the enterprise." Its AI-driven platform simplifies bookkeeping tasks for SMBs, making financial management more efficient and reducing the manual effort typically required by users.

Kick’s unique pricing model, based on annual business expenses rather than user seats, aligns its growth with that of its customers, offering more predictability and scalability compared to traditional solutions. This model, combined with its freemium offering that allows businesses to test the platform before committing, positions Kick as a modern, flexible, and cost-effective alternative to legacy providers.

Funding

Since being founded in 2021, Kick has raised 2 rounds of funding so far. In June 2021, Kick announced they had raised a $3M Pre-Seed round to build out their initial product. Capital was raised from a blend of Venture Firms such as Roadrunner Ventures, Davidovs Venture Collective, Coughdrop Capital, and Bossa Invest, in addition to notable angel investors such as Ankur Nagpal (Founder, Teachable), Hugo Amsellem (VP of M&A, JellySmack), Nitesh Banta (Co-Founder/CEO, B12), Terrance Rohan (MD, Otherwise Fund), and Youcef Es-Skouri (Director of Product, Dropbox). Kick recently announced a subsequent round, raising $9M from an elite list of early-stage investors. The round was co-led by Ian Hathaway from OpenAI’s startup fund and Marc Bhargava from General Catalyst, with participation from 50+ other angel investors and operators, including prominent names such as Lachy Groom (ex-Head of Issuing, Stripe), Scott Belsky (CSO, Adobe), Sahil Lavingia (Founder, Gumroad), Michael Vaughn (ex-COO, Venmo), and Eric Glyman (Co-Founder, Ramp).

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