Taxnova secures £732k pre-seed to automate R&D claims with AI and integrations
This article covers Taxnova, a fintech startup, which has raised £732k ($1m) in a pre-seed funding round and launched a platform using software integrations and AI to automate R&D tax claims for technology startups. The development aims to streamline evidence collection and produce audit-ready documentation to support technology startups and finance teams navigating increasingly scrutinised R&D claims.
Taxnova, a fintech startup, has raised £732k ($1m) in a pre-seed funding round as it launches a platform that uses software integrations and AI to automate R&D tax claims for technology companies. The funding accompanies Taxnova joining the a16z Speedrun accelerator, a completed pilot with a Top 5 R&D tax advisory firm, and early traction across dozens of customers — a timely proposition given rising scrutiny of R&D claims.
Why it matters
R&D tax relief is a major incentive for companies investing in innovation, but the process of preparing claims is often slow and labour intensive. UK businesses claimed £7.6 billion in R&D tax relief in 2023 to 2024, while the US federal government issues more than £23.4 billion ($32bn) in R&D tax credits each year. At the same time, HMRC enquiry rates have increased substantially, moving from about 0.5 percent to roughly 20 percent since 2022. Taxnova positions itself as a data-first response to that challenge, arguing that around 75 percent of the work involved in R&D claims is data collection rather than tax judgement.
Inside the product
Taxnova connects to common engineering and collaboration tools — including GitHub, Jira, Linear, Slack, and Notion — to capture evidence of qualifying activity without pulling engineers away from development. The platform:
- identifies qualifying R&D projects from existing workflows
- generates technical narratives that explain the innovation clearly
- calculates eligible R&D percentages for direct costs automatically
- produces audit-ready documentation with full evidence trails
The company says the system can split data by jurisdiction to help multinational teams maintain consistent claims across the UK, the US and other territories. During beta, Taxnova has helped dozens of companies prepare and submit claims while maintaining the involvement of external tax advisors rather than replacing them.
Steven Kleinegesse, Director of Research at causaLens, said:
That’s already closing in on 80 percent of our work.
Who are the investors?
Taxnova raised £732k ($1m) in this round from a16z Speedrun, s16vc, Karaoke Club and a group of more than 20 operators from leading technology companies. The backing combines accelerator support from a16z Speedrun with capital from early-stage investors and operator angels, signalling both product-market validation from practitioners and interest from investor networks. The presence of operator investors suggests practical buy-in from engineering and product teams who will be end users of the tooling.
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Founder perspective
The product grew out of a hands-on problem the team encountered while preparing a claim at Gett. The founder, drawing on experience across finance, consulting and product management, found the standard process involved manual searches through Slack threads, Jira tickets and internal documents — a disruptive exercise that pulled engineers off core work. That practical pain point informed the decision to try automating evidence collection and narrative generation using the data companies already produce.
Taxnova also reports a successful pilot with a Top 5 R&D tax advisory firm, which helped validate the audit-readiness of its outputs during real claims.
The bigger picture
Automating the data-gathering and documentation elements of R&D claims responds to two concurrent trends: rising enforcement and the increasing volume of operational data produced by engineering teams. For startups and finance teams, tools that reduce compliance friction and produce defensible evidence will likely attract attention as regulators demand clearer audit trails.
This deal and the startup’s approach reflect growing interest from fintech investors in infrastructure that lowers administrative overhead for tech firms. As government incentives remain an important lever for innovation, firms that can simplify the mechanics of claiming those incentives are well placed to capture demand across the UK and Europe.
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