At General Catalyst, we often say 'creation is at our core'. The firm is renowned for several of our successful early hatches—including KAYAK, Livongo, Commure and Homeward Health. We view our creation strategy and our Catalyst Advisors as essential elements in our success.
When we met Sasha Orloff, an experienced founder and CEO, we saw a partner to reimagine the stagnant accounting software landscape and create something new. This is an area that has lacked significant innovation for over 20 years. Without access to real-time data, startups are left in the dark when it comes to making timely business decisions. Accounting’s steep learning curve also poses a challenge to startup founders. Furthermore, accountants and auditors in the United States have left the field in droves, causing a 17 percent decrease in the past two years, often due to retirement or flocking to industries like fintech. This magnifies the need for next generation accounting software so startups can be confident in their financial decisions, develop their business acumen, and scale responsibly.
Enter Puzzle: an API-enabled accounting software with a real-time data financial platform, built for startups. With this tool, founders and CFOs are empowered with balance sheet transparency and insights into accounting for business growth. We believe Puzzle is the missing piece in the modern finance stack that will not only advance the fintech industry, but also have the downstream effect of helping startups realize their full potential and bring more innovative products and services to the world.
Today, at General Catalyst we are excited to announce that we are leading Puzzle’s $15M Series A and co-creating tools that empower startups to make optimal financial decisions for their business. With this funding, Puzzle has plans to grow its team and attract customers and partners. The team also includes founders, accountants, accountants-turned-engineers, finance leaders, tax experts, auditors, designers, and experienced product builders, representing a wide range of perspectives that have built Puzzle to be a category-defining accounting software.
Accounting is a language—and learning any new language can be difficult—but with Puzzle, a founder without an accounting background can quickly onboard themselves to get a clear financial picture of their company. Its intuitive and automated design combines a smart general ledger with a real-time financial data platform. Puzzle goes beyond static reports—its platform enables founders and their finance team to dive deeper into the numbers and dynamically explore why, creating an environment that is ripe for learning and collaboration, something we believe you can’t get with legacy accounting software. From a startup’s inception, it has access to in-depth financial statements, startup metrics, trend analysis, fundraising, taxes, audits, and more. The long-term perspective is further embedded in the platform’s design with immutable financial records that scale as the company grows.
Founders need to think beyond building great products and services—they must also possess business acumen to position their company for long-term success. We believe Puzzle’s capabilities will help startups amplify the positive value their products and services deliver to society. General Catalyst is proud to be on this Creation journey with Puzzle to equip startups with a tool that helps to complete their long-term financial picture.
