The co-founder of a European accounting software company acquired for €320 million is back with another bet on the industry. This time, he's trying to change how accounting firms make money.
Ravical, founded by former Silverfin executive Joris Van Der Gucht, has raised $17 million in seed funding led by MMC Ventures. Existing investors Lakestar and Pitchdrive participated alongside new investor Shapers, bringing the company's total funding to $25 million.
Based in Ghent and London, Ravical builds AI software for accounting and tax firms. Its platform is already used by more than 100 practices across Europe, with plans to expand into the United States.
The business is addressing a problem familiar to professional services firms: revenue growth typically requires hiring more people.
A tax adviser can only manage so many clients. Complex cases often depend on the expertise of a handful of experienced employees, leaving firms struggling to expand their services without adding expensive specialist staff.
Ravical wants to make that expertise available throughout an organization.
Its software connects to accounting records, customer relationship management systems and internal databases. Firms can then build AI workflows around their own procedures, technical knowledge and client information.
Rather than giving every employee a separate chatbot, the platform allows a firm's specialists to establish processes that colleagues can use across hundreds or thousands of clients.
One application involves reviewing a client's financial position and identifying tax-planning opportunities that an overworked adviser might otherwise miss.
Another allows junior employees to prepare complex work using processes designed by experienced professionals, who retain responsibility for reviewing the results.
The commercial argument is that accounting firms could generate more advisory revenue from their existing customers without increasing staff at the same rate.
Ravical points to Gascoynes, a UK accounting firm that reports a 49% year-over-year increase in tax-planning fees after adopting its platform. The company says most of that growth came from existing customers.
That's an individual customer-reported result, not evidence that the same increase can be expected across every deployment.
Van Der Gucht knows the industry well. Before Ravical, he co-founded Silverfin, a cloud accounting platform acquired by Norwegian software group Visma in 2023 for a reported €320 million.
He started Ravical in 2025 with Ken Bastiaensen, its CTO, and Benjamin Vandermarliere, its chief product officer.
Their next opportunity may come from an unexpected source: private equity.
Investment firms have been buying and combining accounting practices across Europe and the United States, creating larger businesses that often operate on incompatible systems.
In an interview with City AM, Van Der Gucht explained that Ravical wants to become the software layer connecting those acquired firms, allowing them to standardize workflows and share expertise.
That positioning could give the company a role beyond automating individual accounting tasks.
Legal technology offers a useful comparison. AI startups such as Harvey and Legora have attracted substantial investment by helping law firms incorporate AI into research, drafting and client work.
Accounting has seen fewer breakout companies built around the same opportunity.
But the sector presents different challenges. Financial information is highly sensitive, tax rules vary between jurisdictions, and incorrect advice can create substantial consequences for clients.
Any system handling professional accounting work must make its calculations and recommendations reviewable by qualified practitioners.
Ravical says human oversight remains part of its workflow.
The new funding will support expansion across the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany before a broader international rollout.
The company has not disclosed its valuation or revenue.
For Ravical, the central question is whether accounting firms will adopt AI as a collection of tools that make individual employees more productive, or as shared infrastructure that changes how the entire practice operates.
Van Der Gucht is betting on the latter.
Sources: Ravical announcement · City AM · Vestbee · Trends