Instead
“Can an AI agent replace the entire tax preparation workflow — research, planning, filing, defense — and collapse the software+labor cost of tax work into a single per-credit price?”
Founded2023
HQSan Francisco, California, United States
Latest roundPE Growth
IndustryVertical SaaS / Tax (AI tax agent)
The story
Instead is an AI-native tax platform founded in 2023, positioned as a replacement for legacy tax prep software (CCH Axcess, UltraTax, Lacerte, Drake, ProConnect). The company relates to the earlier Corvee tax-planning product (Corvee, LLC terms of service still hosted on instead.com), suggesting Instead is either a rebrand or evolution of Corvee toward an agentic AI product. Its unique moat is regulatory: full IRS + 48-state e-file approvals across five entity types.
Last 12 months
Product timeline
2023
Instead founded as AI agent for tax planning and filing.· pivot
2026
Received IRS approval to e-file 1040, 1120, 1120-S, 1065, and 1041; first company in decades to receive such approval.· banking
2026
Launched Multi-Entity Agent linking 1040s, S Corps, Partnerships, and Trusts.· banking
Regulated entities
1
regulatory licence held by Instead
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
The stack
1 layer disclosed in Instead’s embedded-finance stack
Accounting
Google DriveOneDriveBox
Accounting gap: minor