Layer has built powerful, intuitive financial tools that combine smart design with embedded distribution. This, coupled with our shared vision to serve small businesses is what drove us to lead Layer’s $6.6M seed funding round.
Small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) account for nearly half of U.S. GDP. They exist in all shapes and sizes – and as a result, there is a wide range of needs among these companies when it comes to how they manage their finances. As time has gone on, the legacy SMB-focused accounting platforms (e.g., QuickBooks, Xero) have moved upmarket and have drifted away from delivering quick time-to-value and ease-of-use. These are things that businesses at the smaller end of the SMB spectrum care deeply about.
And yet, small businesses’ need for good accounting solutions hasn’t gone away. Research shows that 82% of small businesses fail due to inadequate cash flow management. Many lack the time and resources to deploy complex accounting software. Without an adequate understanding of the numbers, it’s immensely difficult for them to spot growth opportunities or address problems.
Enter Layer. Layer has developed exactly what small businesses want in an accounting solution: fast implementation, no-effort integration with key financial data, a beautiful yet powerful user interface, and an AI-powered bookkeeping solution that delivers human-level value at a fraction of the cost of a traditional bookkeeper. Layer’s founders, Justin Meretab and Daniel O’Neel, learned how to build magical financial products that cater to small businesses and individual users during their time at Square and Wealthfront. They understand exactly what to build for this important part of the U.S. economy.
Layer is embedded within vertical SaaS platforms that small businesses use to run their operations. By using this approach, Layer makes it easy to turn on accounting and bookkeeping, pre-populated with all of a company’s financial data, with just a few clicks. This lowers the barrier to entry for small businesses to get started with Layer. Further, it provides vertical SaaS platforms with important additional functionality that makes their offerings more compelling.
Our partnership with Layer is aligned with two themes that we’ve invested in for some time. The first is vertical SaaS. We’ve backed the likes of Veeva, Doximity, and Blend – companies that prove that industry-focused software can deliver unique value that horizontal platforms cannot. The second is SMB software. Here, we’ve partnered with companies such as Bill and Gusto – which demonstrate that small businesses benefit when software is built just for them.
With over 30,000 small businesses on board, Layer’s momentum speaks both to the amazing product the company has built and unmet market demand. We’re thrilled to be their partners as they build toward becoming the leading accounting and bookkeeping solution for small businesses. Welcome to the Emergence family, Justin and Dan!
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