Finance and accounting operations startup FloQast Inc. wants to enhance its platform with more artificial intelligence capabilities after closing on a $100 million late-stage funding round.

Announced today, the Series E round was led by existing backer ICONIQ Growth and saw participation from new investors such as BDT & MSD Partners and World Innovation Lab, plus Meritech Capital and Sapphire Ventures. The funding brings FloQast’s valuation to more than $1.6 billion, making it one of the most valuable private companies in the financial software industry.

The startup has built software that unifies accounting operations from across various business departments into a single FinOps platform, with enhanced workflows that it says enable accountants to work faster and get things done more quickly, with greater accuracy. It claims the platform makes it easy to get things done, with various tools for tracking the progress of individual teams, cross-team collaboration and reporting.

It also injects a heavy dose of AI-powered automation, simplifying tasks such as labor-intensive tasks such as reconciliations, documentation requests and other workflows that impact on month-end closes, financial reporting and payroll operations.

Perhaps its biggest advantage is that FloQast’s founders and creators were certified public accountants themselves, so they have a better understanding of the need to balance reliability, innovation and accuracy.

The company makes some impressive claims, saying it can help reduce time-to-close at the end of the month by 26% for the average company. It does this by identifying bottlenecks in the process, and using the automation capabilities to speed things up. It also claims to improve accounting accuracy by 39%, with time to reconciliation reduced by 31% on average.

FloQast co-founder and Chief Executive Mike Whitmire said the company’s platform can be a catalyst that accelerates financial transformation by automating routine tasks, enhancing accuracy and minimizing compliance risks. “This funding round will help that transformation become a reality for even more teams around the world,” he said.

The startup was founded back in 2013 and its platform is now used by more than 2,600 accounting teams globally, including companies such as Zoom Video Communications Inc., Snowflake Inc. and the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team. Recently, it managed to achieve a key milestone by recording $100 million in annual recurring revenue.

This growth has prompted FloQast to expand its presence globally, opening new offices in Australia and Germany. Meanwhile, its global workforce has grown to more than 600 employees.

FloQast said the funding from today’s round will be used to support a number of goals, including the ongoing research and development of new technologies to enhance its platform, with a focus on integrating more powerful AI capabilities. It will also continue its aggressive global expansion as part of a drive to extend its market reach.

ICONIQ Growth General Partner Roy Luo cited FloQast’s impressive momentum and its strategic vision for future growth.

Image: FloQast