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Taxxwiz
Techstars '23Birmingham, US · Founded 2015 · 4 employees on LinkedIn · 2 known investors
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Tax preparation and filing service that connects individual taxpayers and small business owners with vetted tax professionals for personalized return preparation and optimization.
Also known as SmartWiz · TaxxWiz
Investors · 2
How we know: Innovation Depot's portfolio page · Not right? Tell us
How we know: the Techstars portfolio · open dataset · Top 3000 Accelerator Startups (no YC) 2026-08 · Not right? Tell us
Company profile
researched Sep 2026TaxxWiz, later renamed SmartWiz, is a Birmingham, Alabama-based financial technology company that develops tax preparation software for tax professionals serving individuals and small businesses. The platform consolidates client document collection, communication and return preparation onto a single online system, with the stated aim of reducing a process the company describes as taking roughly four hours in a traditional tax office to about 20 minutes.
The product was designed to replace the emailing, scanning and faxing of documents between preparers and clients, using artificial intelligence and integrations with other business and money-management applications to limit client errors and back-and-forth communication. The company states it completed a roughly two-year approval process to become one of only 15 IRS-approved software programs.
Founding story
The concept originated in 2018 when Tevin Harrell (Auburn University Engineering '16), who ran a tax preparation business out of his father's basement, recruited fellow Auburn students to help prepare taxes. The group of five included four Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity brothers and Bria Johnson, an Auburn basketball player pursuing an MBA in Information Systems at the Harbert College of Business, who took charge of growth. Frustrated by existing tax processing systems and the clipboard-and-fax workflow of traditional tax offices, they set out to build a virtual alternative and developed a prototype platform for tax professionals named TaxxWiz. Co-founders Harrell, Olumuyiwa Aladebumoye and Jordan Ward came from Auburn's Samuel Ginn College of Engineering, and Justin Robinson from the College of Sciences and Mathematics.
Traction
The company reported a successful beta model prior to 2023 and used its $50,000 Alabama Launchpad award to onboard additional tax professionals ahead of tax season. Founder Tevin Harrell was among 23 Google Black Founders Fund recipients across the U.S.
Latest developments
In July 2023 SmartWiz received a $150,000 equity-free Google for Startups Black Founders Fund prize, accompanied by sales and fundraising training, Google mentors for technical support and development, mental health coaching, and up to $100,000 in Google Cloud credits.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history
Market position
A Birmingham-based fintech startup positioned against incumbent tax processing systems, backed by Alabama Launchpad, the Black Ambition Prize competition, Techstars Los Angeles and the Google for Startups Black Founders Fund.
Technology
An online tax preparation platform for tax professionals that applies artificial intelligence and integrates with other business and money management applications, consolidating document collection, client communication and return completion into one system. The company states the software is one of only 15 IRS-approved software programs and that a novice user can learn it in about a week.
Go-to-market
Small, independent "mom and pop" tax professionals, whom the company says complete 90% of U.S. tax returns, as well as the individual taxpayers and small business clients those preparers serve.
Geography
Headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, with a temporary 2023 accelerator residency in Los Angeles; the product is aimed at U.S. taxpayers and preparers nationwide.
History
The company traces its start to 2015 and its software concept to a 2018 student effort at Auburn University. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic increased demand as tax professionals sought virtual workflows, and the team pursued a roughly two-year process to obtain IRS software approval. In August 2022 the company won $50,000 from Alabama Launchpad, and that fall it was selected to compete in the Black Ambition Prize competition founded by Pharrell Williams. In spring 2023 the five founders relocated temporarily to Los Angeles for a three-month Techstars Los Angeles Accelerator residency, during which they began shifting the product beyond its beta model. In July 2023 the company, by then operating as SmartWiz, received a $150,000 equity-free prize from the Google for Startups Black Founders Fund.
Compiled by commissioned research from 5 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Related companies · 1
Companies working in the same space as Taxxwiz.
Timeline · 5
launches, deals, and filingsSmartWiz received a $150,000 equity-free prize from the Google for Startups Black Founders Fund, plus sales and fundraising training, Google mentors, mental health coaching and up to $100,000 in Google Cloud credits. Founder Tevin Harrell was among 23 recipients across the U.S.
$150K source ↗
In spring 2023 the five founders relocated to a Los Angeles rental house for a three-month Techstars Los Angeles Accelerator residency.
The company, formerly known as TaxxWiz, operates as SmartWiz.
The company was awarded $50,000 in early seed money from Alabama Launchpad, along with mentorship from Alabama entrepreneurs; the funds were used to onboard more tax professionals ahead of tax season.
$50K source ↗
In fall 2022 the company was selected for the Black Ambition Prize competition, a non-profit founded by Pharrell Williams that invests capital in startups founded by Black and Hispanic entrepreneurs.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
▸Research sources · 5
primary sources listed
- Black Ambition | TaxxWizblackambitionprize.com · web
5 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Taxxwiz do?
- Birmingham, Alabama fintech building virtual tax preparation software for tax professionals, rebranded from TaxxWiz to SmartWiz.
- Who are Taxxwiz's investors?
- Taxxwiz's investors include Innovation Depot, Techstars.
- Where is Taxxwiz headquartered?
- Taxxwiz is headquartered in Birmingham, US.