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Pilot.com

“Can an AI-native outsourced back office become the default finance function for every SMB and startup in the US?”

Founded2016
HQSan Francisco, CA (with Nashville office)
FoundersWaseem Daher, Jessica McKellar, Jeff Arnold
Total raised$212.1M
Latest roundSeries C
IndustryVertical SaaS / Accounting
The story

Founded 2016 as a modern outsourced bookkeeping service on top of QuickBooks Online, aimed at YC-style startups. Expanded from bookkeeping into tax, R&D credits, stock administration, and fractional CFO/COO services — becoming the largest startup-focused accounting firm in the US. In 2025 pivoted upmarket and toward AI, launching Meridian as an 'AI operating system for accounting firms', integrating OpenAI and Anthropic as core subprocessors.

Last 12 months
2025
2026-07
Product timeline
2016
Pilot founded by MIT-alum trio Waseem Daher, Jessica McKellar, and Jeff Arnold (third company together after Ksplice/Oracle and Zulip/Dropbox).· pivot
2017
Launched bookkeeping-as-a-service for startups, running on top of QuickBooks Online.· banking
2019
General availability of Pilot bookkeeping; blog announces mission to build best bookkeeping service.· banking
2022
Series C funding disclosed (per LinkedIn record of $212M total).· ipo
2025
Launched Meridian — an AI operating system for accounting firms — repositioning as an AI-native back-office platform.· pivot
The stack
4 layers disclosed in Pilot.com’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
Stripe
Card network
in the full report
Open banking
in the full report
Accounting
in the full report
Accounting gap: none
3 more providers across 3 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.