Accounting startup Osome gets US$16m in Series A funding

OSOME, which helps small and medium enterprises (SMEs) digitise accounting and compliance, has raised US$16 million in Series A funding from Target Global, AltaIR Capital, Phystech Ventures, S16VC and Monk's Hill Ventures' Ong Peng Tsin, who joined as an angel investor.

This brings the startup's total fundraise to US$24.5 million.

Osome provides online accounting services for SMEs, especially those involved in e-commerce. Accountants take over the business' documents and convert them into numbers, tax filings and reports, aiming to simplify accounting and bookkeeping service for online sellers.

The startup plans to dive deeper in the e-commerce industry and launch more specific products and apps.

The company also helps with business set-up and provides corporate secretary services. For example, Osome checks compliance, tracks deadlines, files documents and answers questions via a round-the-clock chat platform, the company said.

According to Osome, revenue more than doubled year on year, while annual recurring revenue was US$9.5 million. It added that it has over 6,000 customers in Singapore, Hong Kong and the UK.

"I've done business with small and medium e-commerce companies in 10 countries and see the same inefficiencies in manual accounting across all of them," said Aleks Shamis, co-founder of S16VC.

"It is a real problem that will definitely be solved and Osome is, technologically and traction-wise, among the few companies in the world that are ahead of the curve in getting there."