Boast.ai closes $23M in funding to help startups recover R&D tax credits

Every year, the U.S. and Canadian governments provide businesses with more than $15 billion in R&D credits, but the application process is cumbersome, time-consuming, and leaves applicants at risk of costly audits. Enter Boast, a San Francisco-based fintech startup that’s using AI to streamline and automate the process for applying and claiming R&D innovation tax incentives. Since its inception, Boast has secured more than $200M in R&D government tax credits for nearly 1,000 startups.

Today, Boast announced that it has closed a $23M Series A funding round by Radian Capital, a growth-stage fund specializing in enterprise software. With the new capital infusion, Boast.ai will further develop its AI-powered platform to better serve its nearly 1,000 customers, launch new products to help companies leverage their eligibility for innovation incentives, and accelerate expansion into new markets.

Founded in 2011 by Alex Popa and Lloyed Lobo, Boast helps companies in the U.S. and Canada recover their R&D costs from the government by combining engineers and accountants with artificial intelligence. Some of the tax programs they work with include US R&D Tax Credits, Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED), and Interactive Digital Media Tax Credits (IDMTC).

Boast has built a unified system of record for R&D that gathers data from companies’ existing technical and financial systems to identify, categorize, and time-track eligible projects. The result: an intuitive, streamlined process that puts all necessary documentation at your fingertips, leading to a faster, easier process with larger refunds and lower audit risk — all at a better total value than traditional service vendors.

“R&D is the engine of the modern economy, and innovative companies should be able to access the tax credits they’re entitled to,” said Alex Popa, co-founder and CEO of Boast.ai. “We’ve spent almost a decade honing our craft to help customers get more money, faster and with less risk, compared to any other solution in the market. We empower companies from startups to large enterprises to quantify the value of their R&D efforts, then leverage that asset through a successful R&D tax credit application which allows them to grow their business without unnecessary outside capital.”

Boast.ai’s team has extensive expertise in the technology and tax-credit space. Popa previously managed the R&D tax practice for large accounting firms, while co-founder and President Lloyed Lobo formerly ran product and growth for a number of venture-backed tech startups.

“Boast’s mission is to help innovative companies become successful,” said Lobo. “While we support that mission through our product, we also co-founded and built a community of over 60,000 entrepreneurs and technology professionals called TractionConf.io to take that mission further. Over the last seven years we’ve brought leaders from the fastest growing companies to share advice via weekly webinars, regular dinners and meetups, and an annual conference, with the proceeds benefiting the local communities where we do business.”

“Since its launch, Boast.ai has been doubling growth year over year, securing over $150M in R&D tax credits for customers without raising external capital. That’s exactly the kind of financial discipline and savvy execution our firm looks to support,” says Radian Capital partner Jordan Bettman. “With this infusion of new capital behind a game-changing enterprise software solution, Boast.ai is poised to revolutionize the way businesses fund their growth and cement its position as the unified system of record for R&D data.”