Curve’s £120m exit, TaxPad’s return and Expensify’s hybrid AI agent

The Taxfiler founders are back with TaxPad, a new compliance suite for smaller firms, but will accountants trust them after the sale to Iris? Ryan and Indi discuss the market’s cautious reaction and whether a commitment to not sell is enough .

This week's accounting tech news:

Fintech Exits: Lloyds Banking Group acquires Curve for £120m—less than half of what the fintech raised—marking a sobering reality for valuations. Meanwhile, US spend management platform Ramp hits a massive $32bn valuation.

AI Agents: Expensify releases a "hybrid contextual AI expense agent" that works across the platform .

Compliance & Audit: TaxCalc launches biometric ID checks for Companies House verification , and Caseware brings group audit functionality to the cloud .

New Tools: TaxNav launches a simple bridging tool for landlords, Solver integrates with Microsoft Fabric, and BrightPay Cloud introduces a new app for employees.

Finally, John Toon speaks with Peter Hucker from Xledger about the friction in the audit process . They discuss how giving auditors read-only access and using automation for month-end accruals can solve the annual audit pain for mid-market finance teams.

Timestamp 00:00 Welcome to Digi-Tools in Accrual World!

App News 02:47 Taxfiler founders return with TaxPad 08:16 TaxCalc launches biometric ID checks 11:02 Expensify releases hybrid AI expense agent 14:14 Caseware brings group audit functionality to the cloud 15:51 Lloyds Banking Group acquires fintech Curve for £120m 20:01 Solver announces new data integration with Microsoft Fabric 21:47 TaxNav launches simple MTD bridging tool for landlords 22:49 Ramp hits $32bn valuation in latest funding round 27:00 BrightPay Cloud introduces new manager and employee app

28:46 The Problem With Audit... 38:57 Rate and Subscribe!