Spotlight

What if your firm’s sharpest hire never slept, never slipped, and understood every line of the tax code?

Quick Pitch: Bluebook is building AI agents that help accounting firms do complex research, reconciliations, and month-end closings in a fraction of the time—so teams can scale advisory, not headcount.

The Problem

• Talent Shortage: 75% of CPAs will retire in the next 15 years. New talent isn’t filling the gap. Firms are stretched.

• Rising Complexity: Tax rules, global standards, and compliance demands keep changing. Accountants are drowning in nuance.

• Productivity Pressure: Firms need tools to do more with less.

• Generic AI Falls Short: ChatGPT isn’t built for finance. No audit trails, no regulatory grounding.

• Legacy Software Lags: Traditional tools automate tasks, not thinking. Advisory work still drains hours.

Snapshot

• Industry: AI-powered accounting software/Fintech

• Headquarters: Stockholm, Sweden

• Year Founded: 2024

• Traction: 20+ pilots, working with 8 of top 10 Swedish accounting firms

Founder Profiles

• Philip Andersson, Co-Founder, CEO: Ex-Viaplay, Epidemic Sound, and Mindler. Started building companies at 17. Product-first with deep tech chops.

• Jonathan Andersson, Co-Founder, COO: Former accountant and FinTech GTM leader at Quartr and Bambora. Knows the customer inside-out.

• Filip Stål, Co-Founder, CTO: Physicist turned AI engineer. Built machine learning systems across Stockholm’s startup scene.

Funding

• Total Funding: Raised ($3M pre-seed)

• Lead Investor: EQT Ventures

• Other Investors: Y Combinator, Huey Lin (Affirm), Laura Modiano (OpenAI), Carles Reina (Eleven Labs)

Revenue Engine

• SaaS for Firms: Subscription-based platform for accounting firms

• Product-Led Growth: Start with the research co-pilot, expand into full advisory automation

• Expansion Strategy: Targeting top firms across the Nordics and broader Europe

What Users Love

• Research 30% faster with verified answers and citations for tax, VAT, and compliance

• Process transactions 10x more efficiently

• Scales junior staff to handle complex client work

• Clear audit trails for compliance

• Built specifically for accounting—no fine-tuning needed

Playing Field

• Traditional Accounting Software: Rule-based, limited adaptability

• Generic LLMs: Powerful but lack reliability for regulated domains.

• U.S. Competitors: Materia, Jeffbase — still early.

• Nordic Players: Lari (Sweden), Némina Tech (Denmark) — less traction.

Why It Matters

The $670B accounting industry is at a breaking point. Talent is aging out, rules are getting more complex, and firms are under pressure to do more with less. The shift to automation isn't just happening—it's accelerating, fast. Tools that combine speed, accuracy, and domain intelligence are now critical.

What Sets Them Apart

• Vertical AI: Tailored for accounting workflows, not just automation.

• Compliance-First Approach: Grounding responses in verified sources.

• Execution Speed: Pilots secured within months; high client conversion.

• Vision Beyond Bookkeeping: From research to reconciliation to AI-native advisory.

Breakdown

Bulls Case 📈 

• Clear product-market fit + Massive $80B addressable market

• Fast adoption among top-tier firms

• Strong founding team with AI, GTM, and domain expertise

• Unique dataset and domain knowledge will compound over time

Bears Case 📉 

• Expansion beyond Nordics will test scalability

• Need to maintain trust and accuracy in a highly regulated space

• Competing against both startups and incumbents in an evolving landscape

• Dependence on regulatory environments

Verdict

Bluebook's AI-native approach delivers efficiency multipliers for accounting firms—helping lean teams handle more clients with greater accuracy and speed.

The founding team’s mix of accounting experience and AI expertise gives them a rare advantage: building tools that fit directly into how firms already operate.

Sustained success depends on expanding beyond the initial research co-pilot use case, building long-term trust, and entering markets beyond the Nordics with new regulatory and operational demands.

Metric to Watch: Client retention as usage moves from research into full workflow automation.

The Startup Pulse

• Nimblemind.ai – Chicago-based AI platform for healthcare data raised $2.5M. Bread & Butter led, joined by Great Oaks, Spring Time, and Techstars.

• Graphite – NYC-based code review platform closed $52M Series B. Accel led the round with backing from Shopify, Figma, a16z, and others.

• Multiply Mortgage– Denver startup offering employee mortgage benefits raised $23.5M Series A. Kleiner Perkins led; BoxGroup, Mischief, Workshop, and A* participated.

Written by Ashher

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