Teal

Teal provides accounting infrastructure designed for vertical SaaS businesses and SMB platforms, enabling them to embed accounting features directly into their own user experiences. The company was founded in Vancouver in 2023 by Ian Crosby and Adam Saint, who previously co-founded Bench Accounting. Crosby's experience also includes serving as the Head of Financial Services at Shopify, while Saint has a background in design and user experience, also at Shopify and Quora. This venture reunites the founders with the goal of creating a “Stripe for accounting,” an idea born from Crosby's realization that accounting functionalities needed to be deeply integrated within the vertical software that small businesses use daily.

The company's business model is centered on providing the underlying infrastructure—including APIs and modular front-end code—that allows its clients to launch their own branded accounting suites. This enables the end-users, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), to manage their finances, gain insights into real-time cash flow, analyze profitability, and handle tax filing without leaving their core business platform. For its clients, which include companies like Dripos for coffee shops and Flychain for healthcare providers, Teal's solution is designed to increase customer engagement and create new revenue streams. The platform can be implemented in a matter of weeks and offers integrations with external data sources like Plaid.

In May 2024, Teal secured $8 million in a seed funding round led by Torch Capital, with participation from General Advance, Basis Set Ventures, and Dash Fund. Shortly after, in September 2024, the fintech startup was acquired by San Francisco-based Mercury, a business banking service. As part of the acquisition, the Teal team, including founders Crosby and Saint, joined Mercury to continue developing accounting products, with Crosby taking on the role of Head of Accounting Products. This acquisition aims to leverage Teal's technology and expertise to enhance Mercury's financial service offerings for ambitious companies.

Keywords: embedded accounting, vertical SaaS, fintech infrastructure, SMB accounting, accounting API, bookkeeping automation, Ian Crosby, Adam Saint, embedded finance, Mercury, financial services platform, accounting-as-a-service, white-label accounting, Bench Accounting, SaaS financial tools, SMB financial hub, Torch Capital, Plaid integration, expense management, cash flow analysis