Floqast

Market position

FloQast reported more than 2,600 accounting teams as customers in April 2024 and states on its website that it is trusted by 3,500+ global companies. It held the top ranking on the G2 Report for Financial Close Management for five consecutive quarters as of April 2024 and led G2's Winter 2024 report for Financial Close Software, ranked ahead of 25 competitors. It was named to G2's 2023 Best Software Awards for Global Software Companies list, the Deloitte Fast 500, the Inc. 5000, and Newsweek's 1000 Excellence Index. Wikipedia identifies BlackLine Systems, Numeric and Workiva as its main competitors.

The company's stated positioning is "by accountants, for accountants," with 80% of front-line employees described as former accountants. It emphasizes auditable and explainable AI in which every decision is traceable and exportable and no output posts to the books without human approval, supported by ISO 42001 certification and SOC 2 Type II compliance. Broad ERP and tool integrations and the FloQademy training program are additional stated differentiators.

Technology

SaaS application for close management that connects checklists and tie-outs to Excel workbooks and to customers' ERP systems to automate reconciliations. In 2019 the company introduced FloQast AutoRec, which uses artificial intelligence to automate reconciliations. Current offerings include AI agents that run user-defined processes each close cycle, matching reconciliations, flagging exceptions and drafting journal entries with human review. FloQast holds a certified integration with SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Public Edition, and is available on the SAP Store; it is ISO 42001 certified and SOC 2 Type II compliant.

Go-to-market

Direct enterprise sales supported by demo requests, quote requests and case studies on the website; content and education marketing via FloQademy free CPE/CPD courses and the annual TakeControl user conference (fifth edition held in the year prior to April 2024); an integration/partner ecosystem including SAP Store availability; and an all-new brand strategy unveiled in the year prior to April 2024.

Corporate accounting, financial control and finance teams, including enterprise accounting departments. Named customers include Twilio, the Los Angeles Lakers, Zoom, Snowflake, HubSpot, SoundCloud and Gong.

Geography

Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, with a second office opened in Columbus, Ohio in 2017 and an office in Sherman Oaks. FloQast expanded into Australia and New Zealand with an office in Sydney and extended into the DACH region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland); it was recognized as a Great Place to Work in both the US and UK, and its website serves global customers.

History

Founded in 2013 by CPAs and former corporate accountants Mike Whitmire and Chris Sluty together with software engineer Cullen Zandstra. The founders built a minimum viable product and were accepted into the Amplify.LA accelerator. The company raised a $1.3 million seed round in November 2014 led by Amplify.LA and Toba Capital, a $6.5 million Series A in early 2016 (led by Polaris), and a $25 million Series B led by Insight Partners in June 2017. In January 2017 it received a G2 Crowd award for Best Software for Finance Teams, and in February 2017 announced a second office in Columbus, Ohio; later in 2017 it moved to a 20,000-square-foot office in Sherman Oaks. In 2018 it appeared on CFO's Tech Companies to Watch list. In July 2021 FloQast raised a $110 million Series D at a $1.2 billion valuation led by Meritech Capital, and in April 2024 closed a $100 million Series E led by ICONIQ Growth at a $1.6 billion post-money valuation.

Risks & controversies

No controversies are described in the available sources. The company cites industry-level pressures it seeks to address, including 75% of CPAs set to retire in the next decade, an accounting talent shortage of 160,000 and fewer students entering the profession.