Silverfin founder's Ravical raises $17m seed from MMC to give accounting firms shared AI workflows

Ravical, the Ghent-based AI startup that sells software to accounting and tax firms, has closed a $17m seed round led by MMC Ventures. The deal lifts its total funding to $25m less than two years after the company was founded, and it gives the founder of Silverfin a second run at software for accountants, this time built around AI.

Existing investors Lakestar and Pitchdrive joined the round, as did Shapers, which is new to the cap table. UK reports put the round at more than £12m. The company says over 100 accounting firms across Europe now run its platform.

A narrower bet than the pre-seed

The seed comes on top of a €7.3m pre-seed that Lakestar led in May 2025. At that point Ravical described its product as AI "virtual employees" for a broad set of professional services, from tax and legal to accounting and insurance. It said then that it had ten pilots running with firms of different sizes.

Seventeen months on, the pitch is tighter. Accounting and tax practices are the core market, though the company still offers tools for insurance brokers. What Ravical sells now is a way to record how a firm's most senior people assess a file and advise a client, and to turn that into a common workflow its AI applies to every client on the books. Partners and managers can then see risks and openings across the whole portfolio, rather than one engagement at a time.

The argument is about where AI adoption happens. Many firms let staff pick their own assistants, which helps the person using them but leaves the practice no more consistent than before. Ravical wants the method to belong to the firm.

"When every employee uses their own assistant in their own way, the individual gets better, but the firm doesn't," said Joris Van Der Gucht, co-founder and CEO.

Growth without the matching headcount

The company's case rests on a labour problem that accounting firms across Europe know well. Demand for their compliance and advisory work keeps rising, while fewer graduates choose the profession and experienced staff are hard to hire and keep. If every new block of clients needs new accountants, growth stalls on recruitment.

There is pressure from the other side too. A survey Ravical ran found that 70% of small and medium-sized businesses in the UK act on advice from AI tools without checking with their accountant first. For firms, that means clients are already getting quick answers elsewhere, and the value of human expertise has to show up in the service.

Van Der Gucht knows the customer. He co-founded Silverfin, the cloud platform for accountants that Norwegian software group Visma bought in a deal reported at €320m in 2023. He started Ravical in 2025 with Ken Bastiaensen, now chief technology officer, and Benjamin Vandermarliere, the chief product officer. The company also has an office in London.

Why MMC is betting on accounting

MMC's thesis draws a line from legal AI, where specialists such as Harvey and Legora have raised large rounds by selling to law firms. Mina Samaan, a general partner at the fund, said most of the AI startups the fund has met in accounting go after a single task or workflow, whereas Ravical is trying to work at the level of the whole firm.

"Accounting hasn't had its Harvey or Legora moment yet," Samaan said.

That comparison sets a high bar. It also frames the competition: Ravical is positioning itself against single-task tools rather than against the general assistants that staff already use, and it is asking firms to change how the whole practice works, not one desk at a time.

For European investors, the round is another sign that vertical AI for regulated professions is drawing early money on the continent, and that founders with a prior exit in the same sector can raise quickly. Ravical went from founding to a $25m war chest in under two years.

Where the $17m goes

The company plans to spend the new money on product development and a bigger team. Geographically, the focus stays on its four main markets: the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. After that, Ravical wants to move into more European countries and to launch in the United States.

The US step is the one to watch, since American firms work under different tax rules from the European practices Ravical has served so far. The company has not said when the US launch will happen or how many people it plans to hire, and it has not disclosed revenue or the size of its customers.