Speaking to TechCrunch, co-CEO Molly Liu said the U.S. accounting industry is shrinking and many remaining accountants lack the AI skills that enterprises now require. At the same time, she noted, some U.S. companies are hesitant to hire global talent due to complexities in management or perceptions of quality.
"There's been a new wave of tremendous talent, a really high bar that is equal or even better than the U.S.," Liu said of the global workforce.
MAVI handles cross-border contracts, legal compliance, and payroll, focusing on full-time, long-term placements at mid-level and senior levels that augment in-house finance teams. Liu, who previously worked at Ramp, Lyft, and Dropbox, said her experience showed that automation tools alone cannot fix all accounting problems.
"AI will automate away many entry-level roles in finance and accounting, which will further exacerbate the talent shortage at the mid-level experience level," she said, because fewer entry-level workers will grow into those roles over time.
Liu described an AI-proficient accountant as someone with strong finance fundamentals who can direct AI tools, apply judgment to catch errors, integrate large language models into workflows, and use the latest AI-native enterprise resource planning systems. She contrasted this with a traditional accountant who has the fundamentals but only a basic understanding of incorporating AI.
Last year, MAVI raised a $4 million seed round led by Harlem Capital, which was not disclosed until Monday. The company now reports more than 3,000 accounting professionals on its platform and counts personal care company Athena Club among its enterprise clients.
"We have a very strong point of view as to what the future of the finance team looks like," Liu said. "The work for us is focusing on that high-skill talent and that new layer of judgment that is paramount to all finance teams."