Clark raises $11M to launch autonomous AI employees that perform audits for CPA firms

New York-based AI startup Clark has raised $11 million in seed funding and launched Clerks, autonomous AI employees that can carry out audit work for accounting firms without waiting for instructions at every step. The funding round was led by Touring Capital, bringing the company’s total reported funding to $16 million.

The launch marks another push to bring AI agents into professional services, where much of the work still involves reviewing documents, checking financial records, and following up with clients. Clark wants to automate those tasks, freeing certified public accountants to focus on financial risks, potential fraud, and decisions that require human judgment.

Founded by CEO Enes Witwit and formerly known as uiAgent, Clark is building AI software for audit and assurance firms. Its new Clerks product goes beyond answering questions or generating reports. Each AI employee can take responsibility for an assigned audit engagement, review financial documents, conduct tests, prepare workpapers, and request missing information directly from clients.

If a client fails to provide a required document, the AI follows up and resumes the work once the information arrives. That approach could reduce one of auditing’s biggest administrative burdens: the constant back-and-forth needed to collect evidence and complete reviews.

The company says more than 35 CPA firms already use its technology, including CliftonLarsonAllen, Aprio, Kreischer Miller, and Sensiba.

AI agents move from assisting auditors to doing the work

Clark’s technology runs on Material Intelligence, its AI operating system that combines document processing, autonomous AI agents, and a memory system that retains information across audit tasks.

The goal is to give AI employees enough context to continue assignments independently, flag issues that require attention, and provide supporting evidence for human reviewers.

Licensed CPAs remain responsible for professional judgments, reviewing completed work, and signing audit opinions. Clark says it offers customers an accuracy guarantee and a peer-review guarantee, although it did not disclose the financial terms and limitations of those commitments in its announcement.

The timing reflects growing pressure on accounting firms to adopt AI as the technology changes how financial information is created, processed, and verified.

Reuters reported in June 2025 that Thrive Capital-backed Crete Professionals Alliance planned to spend more than $500 million acquiring accounting firms and introducing AI tools developed with OpenAI. One Crete-affiliated firm reported saving hundreds of staff hours each month through automated audit testing and related work.

The challenge extends beyond productivity. AI is giving fraudsters new ways to deceive businesses and individuals. In July, WIRED reported on research showing that AI chatbots could outperform human scammers at establishing trust during simulated fraud attempts. The findings raise questions about how organizations will verify information in an environment where convincing digital deception is becoming easier to produce.

Clark believes the answer is to move away from periodic audits toward continuous financial verification. Traditional audits often examine transactions months after they occur. The startup wants its technology to check records as new information becomes available, potentially identifying suspicious activity before losses become harder to recover.

“For as long as people have kept accounts, someone has had to check them. Today that checking happens once a year, long after the decisions it was meant to inform,” Witwit said.

“Our Clerks don’t sleep. They stay on the engagement, chase what’s missing, and keep the work moving between the moments an auditor looks at it. Today they work alongside auditors. We are building toward fully autonomous audit employees, and toward an economy whose claims are verified as they happen, so fraud and waste are caught while the money is still there.”

The funding round included returning investors Marathon Management Partners, Rerail, and Sofeon Ventures. Clark plans to use the capital to hire across engineering, product, and sales, expand into additional audit engagements, and develop continuous monitoring capabilities.

The broader question is whether autonomous AI can deliver audit work that meets professional standards without creating new risks around errors, accountability, and misplaced trust.

For Clark, the opportunity is bigger than making annual audits faster. It is betting that financial verification can become a continuous process rather than something businesses revisit once a year.