Double’s $6.5M Bet: AI That Augments Accountants, Not Automates Them

NEW YORK, NY – December 11, 2025 – In a move that signals strong investor confidence in human-centric artificial intelligence, accounting platform Double has secured a $6.5 million Series A funding round. The investment, led by Album Ventures with participation from Y Combinator and Lattice CEO Jack Altman, brings the company’s total capital raised to over $12.5 million. While the funding itself is noteworthy, the story it tells is far more significant: a strategic bet that the future of accounting isn't about replacing professionals, but about amplifying their expertise.

For years, the accounting profession has been caught between the promise of revolutionary automation and the reality of tedious, manual work. Many firms remain mired in version-controlled spreadsheets and endless email chains to manage the critical month-end close process. Double, which recently rebranded from Keeper, aims to break this cycle. The company has developed a unified workspace that centralizes client data, automates repetitive tasks, and streamlines workflows, positioning itself not as a replacement for accountants, but as a force multiplier for their judgment and skills.

The Investor Thesis: Betting on Empowerment

The decision by Album Ventures and other high-profile investors to lead this funding round is a powerful endorsement of Double's philosophy. In a landscape crowded with tech solutions promising to automate jobs away, Double’s focus on augmentation has resonated deeply. This is reflected in the company’s impressive growth metrics, including a 150% net-dollar retention rate—a figure indicating that existing customers are significantly increasing their spending—and adoption by over 4,000 accounting and bookkeeping firms across North America.

These numbers suggest a powerful product-market fit, validating the idea that accountants are eager for tools that enhance, rather than threaten, their roles. “Double is reshaping the future of accounting software by building with, not against, the professionals who power it,” said Sid Krommenhoek at Album Ventures. “Their focus on augmenting accountants — not automating them away — has resonated deeply with firms who have long been underserved by legacy systems.”

Investors are not just buying into a software product; they are investing in a vision for the future of professional services. The high retention and rapid expansion demonstrate that Double is solving a persistent and costly pain point. As Krommenhoek noted, “Double’s growth is remarkable because it solves one of the most persistent pain points in finance: manual, fragmented close processes. We believe Double will become the operating system for modern accounting firms.” This vision of becoming the central hub for modern accounting practices is what attracts significant capital, signaling a belief that the platform can achieve foundational status within the industry.

A Solution for an Industry Under Pressure

Double's funding arrives at a critical juncture for the accounting profession. The industry is grappling with a severe and worsening talent crisis. A combination of factors—including declining university enrollments in accounting programs, a wave of baby boomer retirements, and stiff competition from other fields like finance and tech—has created a significant labor shortage. Firms are struggling to attract and retain the skilled professionals needed to manage an increasingly complex regulatory and business environment.

This pressure makes efficiency not just a goal, but a necessity for survival. This is the landscape in which Double and its competitors, such as Karbon and Financial Cents, operate. While each platform offers its own approach to practice management and workflow automation, the underlying need is the same: to do more with less. Firms need technology that can handle the repetitive, time-consuming tasks, freeing up their limited human talent to focus on high-value advisory work that clients demand and that makes the profession more attractive.

By automating checks, flagging potential errors in financial data, and centralizing client communication, platforms like Double directly address these operational bottlenecks. The goal is to transform the month-end close from a frantic, multi-week scramble into a streamlined, predictable process. This allows firms to scale their services and serve more clients without a linear increase in headcount, providing a crucial lifeline in a talent-strapped market.

AI as a Collaborative Partner

At the heart of Double's strategy is its approach to artificial intelligence. While the term 'AI' often conjures images of autonomous agents rendering human roles obsolete, Double frames it as a collaborative tool designed to work alongside the accountant. This philosophy is embedded throughout its platform, which offers AI-enhanced workflows for tasks like bank feed coding, journal entries, and generating financial summaries.

“Accounting is the heartbeat of every business, but accountants are still held back by tools built for an earlier era,” said Ben Stein, co-founder and CEO of Double. “With Double, we’re helping firms focus on the high-value work that truly matters — judgment, insight, and client relationships – while automating the rest.”

This isn't about handing over control to a black box algorithm. Instead, the platform’s AI is designed to surface potential issues and automate mundane data categorization, which an accountant then reviews and approves. For example, the system can automatically flag transactions that may have been miscoded or identify vendors who require a 1099 form but are missing a W-9. The platform then facilitates the follow-up, but the final judgment remains with the human expert. This human-in-the-loop system builds trust and ensures accuracy, mitigating one of the primary concerns many professionals have about generative AI: the risk of inaccurate or irrelevant output.

By building its AI on a foundation of software designed for how people actually work, Double bridges the gap between today's processes and tomorrow's technology. It acknowledges that even as AI capabilities expand, the nuanced judgment and ethical oversight of a skilled professional will remain indispensable, especially when dealing with the financial health of a business.

Redefining the Value of Financial Data

The impact of this technological shift extends far beyond the accounting firm's back office. For businesses across manufacturing, retail, and logistics, the speed and accuracy of financial data are critical components of a resilient supply chain. When the month-end close process is accelerated from weeks to days, business leaders gain a much faster, near-real-time view of their financial position. This agility allows for more informed and timely decisions regarding inventory levels, cash flow management, and capital expenditures.

Furthermore, by freeing accountants from the drudgery of manual reconciliation and data entry, these platforms empower them to evolve into the strategic advisors that businesses desperately need. An accountant with more time can analyze performance trends, provide forward-looking forecasts, and offer insights that connect financial data to operational strategy. They transition from being scorekeepers to becoming key players in strategic planning.

This evolution is rewriting the relationship between businesses and their financial partners. The new capital infusion will allow Double to accelerate this transformation, with plans to expand its product development and invest further in AI-powered features. As technology continues to handle the rote tasks, the true value of the accounting profession is being redefined, shifting firmly toward human insight, strategic guidance, and the expert judgment that no algorithm can replicate.