SparkReceipt, a Tampere-based pre-accounting software provider, raised a funding round from Trind Ventures with support from the European Union under the InvestEU Fund and Business Finland to accelerate their international expansion.
The Most Boring Business of 2025
How stupid is this? Paper, as an invention, was largely driven by the fact that keeping records on clay tablets was awful. Two thousand years later, not much has improved. There’s still no decent accounting software for the hundreds of millions of small business owners globally.
Coming from Finland—a promised land of accounting, where structured e-invoices seamlessly transfer between systems—SparkReceipt has learned that, on a global scale, most small businesses still manage their books on paper or, at best, in Excel. There are hundreds, or even thousands, of business expense trackers built in the last decade, but to be honest, most of them suck. SparkReceipt is the best-rated pre-accounting software for micro businesses used in almost 100 countries.
It was crazy to see the appetite toward SparkReceipt from VCs. So many reached out, begging to invest. But it makes sense—there is momentum in AI accounting for micro-businesses, or maybe it was the rockstar team.
Joel Ojala, Co-Founder of SparkReceipt
With my own background in the most boring industries like accounting, legal, and tax, I am always excited to see BoringTech startups transforming these industries. Knowing the team from the past and what they can deliver and seeing the strong early customer traction, I trust SparkReceipt will change the way millions of entrepreneurs handle their accounting, freeing their time for building their businesses.
Reima Linnanvirta, Partner at Trind Ventures
How Has That Happened?
The first wave of so-called “automated” pre-accounting kicked off about a decade ago, and today’s big names in the space were locked in their positions back then. But it was mostly smoke and mirrors. Behind the scenes, offshore teams were slogging through OCR and manually checking data, which meant a single receipt or invoice could take hours to process. They built giant merchant databases and crossed their fingers that basic word matching would get the job done. Eventually, machine learning made things a bit better—but now, with LLMs, that entire era looks prehistoric.
We founders think that since accounting is not the sexiest industry, the brightest minds choose to do something else. But as the old saying goes, the more boring the industry and customer segment, the bigger the opportunity. Building pre-accounting software for micro-businesses on a global scale will tap that box. Now, with LLMs, AI agents, and a massive decrease in the cost of AI tasks, we can automate all tasks for small business owners and accountants globally. As a proof, today, we already have customers from almost 100 countries, most from the US and Canada, and we have been cash flow positive for some time already.
Antti Laitinen, Co-Founder of SparkReceipt
Almost a Cult-Leader Reputation and growing +30% MoM
SparkReceipt has almost a cult-leader reputation amongst their customers, and they are highly amazed at what we have been able to do with such a small team and in such a short period. Today, a considerable number of customers come through referrals. The founders are super excited to challenge the current well-established public companies and relic players of the industry.
It is painful to see how costly it is for small business owners to take care of their legal obligations related to accounting. For some, the cost is lost mental health when all materials are lost and years worth of undone bookkeeping is waiting, and the tax authorities are knocking on the door. Based on SparkReceipt’s track record and experience, we can say with confidence that we are going to change that. The investment will help us to do a few key hires and accelerate the development and customer acquisition even further. (Please contact me or Antti if you are looking for a new adventure in your professional life.)
Joel Ojala, Co-Founder of SparkReceipt
But What About the Team?
SparkReceipt Mastermind Antti Laitinen has a background in building games, which helps craft a user experience beyond today’s boring accounting software. As a longtime freelance developer, he knows the problem firsthand.
Joel Ojala is not having his first rodeo—a repeat founder with a decade in fintech, working with clients like Visa, Mastercard, Worldline, and Nordea. He built and sold a similar business in 2019, which speeds things up this time—we get to avoid so many pitfalls.
Joel invited Sampsa Vainio as the third co-founder to complete the team. With a decade of experience in all forms of digital marketing, he knows how to scale. Joel and Sampsa go way back, having worked together on multiple projects over the years.
Are you building another BoringTech startup with a cult-like following? If yes, we would love to hear about it.