Fintech Benford raises £4.3m led by Firstminute Capital and Global Founders Capital
This article covers Benford, a fintech startup that has raised £4.3m in a pre-seed funding round to build an end-to-end financial audit firm combining a regulated audit practice with a proprietary platform. The development aims to modernise mid-market audit services and support mid-market clients and finance teams as Benford grows its London and Oslo teams and expands into Sweden and wider European markets.
Benford, a fintech startup, has raised £4.3m in a pre-seed funding round to build an end-to-end financial audit firm that combines a regulated audit practice with a proprietary platform. The funding will be used to grow its London and Oslo teams and push into Sweden and wider European markets, signalling investor interest in modernising mid-market audit services.
Why it matters
European audit capacity at the small and mid-market end is under pressure: the largest firms are pulling back, consolidators are acquiring practices faster than they can modernise, local firms often lack the resources to rebuild technology stacks, and the profession is shrinking as experienced auditors retire. That combination has driven up fees while client experience has reportedly deteriorated.
Benford’s approach — holding the audit licence, employing qualified auditors and building the software that runs routine work — aims to tackle both sides of that problem. If the model reduces the internal hours companies spend facilitating audits and improves traceability, it could reshape how audits are delivered for mid-market clients across the region.
Inside the product
Benford runs as a registered audit firm in Norway and says its proprietary engine, AuditOS, is live and running client audits today. AuditOS connects directly to a company’s ERP, subledgers, invoicing systems, bank feeds and other operational systems to assemble what Benford calls a single audit brain.
Every test runs against that audit brain; inputs are logged, traced to their source and assigned to a named auditor. The platform presents follow-ups in a single collaborative interface intended to reduce the time finance teams spend supporting audits. Work is scoped per engagement and carried forward year to year so subsequent audits start from the previous audit’s outputs rather than from scratch.
Who are the investors?
The £4.3m round was led by firstminute capital and Global Founders Capital, with participation from Sondo and a group of software and accounting founders: Øystein Moan, Peter ter Maaten, Arthur Waller, Quentin de Metz, Alexandre Prot and Arild Spandow.
In the announcement, Michael Stothard, Partner at firstminute capital, said:
For twenty years, innovation in audit has meant selling tools to auditors, and most audits are still done the old way. Audit is a huge, structurally overlooked market that nobody has tried to rebuild from first principles. The Big Four are pulling back from the mid-market, and the technology to do this properly has only just arrived. Mads, Thibault and Andreas are the rare team that can both build the software and handle the execution of a full end-to-end service in a complex industry. That combination is exactly what it takes to build the next generation of audit.
In the announcement, David Sainteff, Partner at Global Founders Capital, said:
No process is better suited to automation than audit’s groundwork, and few are less automated. It is the clients who pay the price, both in fees and in the internal hours spent facilitating a process that software should be doing.
The investor line-up blends institutional venture capital with operational founders and accountants, reflecting a bet on teams that can combine product development with regulated service delivery. The capital is earmarked for expanding the London and Oslo offices and hiring across audit and engineering functions as Benford prepares to enter Sweden and other European markets.
If you're researching potential backers in this space:
- Explore our list of fintech venture capital firms in the UK
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Founder perspective
Benford was founded by Mads Bogen Øye, Thibault Mallion and Andreas Rystad, alumni of Palantir, Goldman Sachs and One Peak. The team has grown from three founders to around twenty people, operating from London and Oslo.
In the announcement, Thibault Mallion, Co-founder & Co-CEO at Benford, said:
Audit is one of the few services where the customer experience has got worse every year while the bill has gone up. We are not changing what an audit is. We are changing how it is delivered.
In the announcement, Mads Bogen Øye, Co-founder & Co-CEO at Benford, said:
Every attempt to modernise audit has been aimed at the auditor's desk. The firm around it was left untouched.
The founders frame Benford as vertically integrated: the firm scopes engagements, rules on exceptions and signs audit opinions while building the platform that automates routine work.
The bigger picture
Benford’s raise joins a small but growing group of companies attempting to rebuild professional services using software-first models. For mid-market clients, the potential upside is lower total cost and better audit traceability; for the audit profession, it presents an alternative route to modernisation at a time when incumbents are reassessing their mid-market strategy.
The company’s UK presence — a London office alongside its Norwegian registration — and plans to expand into Sweden and beyond tie this story to broader trends in European fintech and professional services innovation. If Benford can combine regulated delivery with scalable software, it will be one to watch as regulators, clients and investors push for more transparent, efficient audit processes across the region.
They've invested in Benford
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| Investors | Investment Focus | Startup Investments | Round Size | Connect |
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