Numeral raises $100M to expand AI-powered sales tax and indirect tax compliance globally

Speaker 2: No answer. Alright. We'll get to it next time. Next.

Speaker 1: Thanks so much for coming on the show.

Speaker 2: Great update.

Speaker 1: Great We'll talk to you soon. Goodbye. Let me tell you about CrowdStrike. Your business is AI. Their business is securing it. CrowdStrike secures AI and stops breaches. We got Sam Ross from New World, the co founder and CEO in the Sorry waiting for keeping you waiting. Sam, how are you doing? Welcome

Speaker 2: to the well. Big dog.

Speaker 1: We got a fresh gong now. Jordy already broke one, I think because he was celebrating that it's only ninety two days till Christmas.

Speaker 2: That's But

Speaker 1: we got some bigger news than that, a number that's bigger than ninety two.

Speaker 2: Most boring

Speaker 1: most you raised.

Speaker 2: The most boring AI company in the world, which Woah. Which Woah. No. No. They ran that as an ad.

Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. That's That's our campaign.

Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. And you guys trigger a bunch of dollars. Guys trigger a bunch of people Oh,

Speaker 1: you triggered me? Triggers. I don't find it boring at all.

Speaker 2: Anyways, let's talk about the round. Yeah. Let's talk How much

Speaker 1: did you raise?

Speaker 9: We raised $100,000,000 with the award.

Speaker 1: Insight partners, you got Salesforce Ventures. You're being careful if you shake hands with Marc Benioff in the wrong place. You don't want to get frame mugged. That's a big risk.

Speaker 9: Know he's already mugged you guys. So I Jordy more than you, I guess. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1: Both of us. Absolutely brutal. What unlocked the round? What was the most exciting thing that Insight latched onto? Is it just top line growth? Are are the margins better than what we're seeing in other companies? Like, what was the thing that they were like, okay. Let let's back up the truck.

Speaker 9: Yeah. Well, we sold sales tax, RSI. Beyond that, I think, you know, ultimately, this is this business is you know, the it sales tax is not going anywhere. In it's growing in California starting in January. All businesses selling software have to collect and remit tax on software. So this is a growing trend where

Speaker 8: Sure.

Speaker 9: As the world as AI takes a bigger share of the economy, there's gonna be more and more of the tax dollars are gonna be taxing things like AI. Mhmm. On top of that, think you look at the world of accounting and really our space is like tax advisory Mhmm. And AI has not penetrated that space as much as areas like law, and so there's a, you know, there's some really large potential there to build a really large business, and so I think, you know, we've we've been building this business for about three years. We've had, you know, phenomenal growth, and I think just, know, with a great engineering team and great customers, that's what gets the the investors excited.

Speaker 1: Here we go. What are the most valuable growth channels for you? Are you able to sell through tax accounting firms and then the accountants tell their clients how you should be using new Or do you go direct to the CEO of the biggest software companies?

Speaker 9: Say you gotta use new law. What are you thinking? Yeah. Look, we do all of the above. More and more, partnerships with firms is is getting important for us Okay. Especially as you move upmarket and these complex businesses really trust their advisors. Sure. I've always been someone who has before this, was running e commerce businesses, so I I love the world of growth and so, you know, a lot of direct sales as well. All all the things you'd imagine that, most, SaaS companies are doing, a lot a lot of marketing.

Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2: Sorry. Go for it.

Speaker 1: I was just wondering about a $100,000,000. Are you staffing up? Are you hiring a lot of salespeople? Are you just gonna run even bigger ad campaigns? Like, how are you seeing deploying this capital?

Speaker 9: Yeah. I think for this money, it's primarily focused on r and d. Sure. So, again, there's a lot to be building in this space around, you know, building things in the tax advisory space for firms, for companies directly, and I think the space is heating up. You see companies like sponsor ramp building in the space as well, and so it's a it's a you know, I don't I don't see them as competitive. Like, this is a big space with a lot of different sub verticals. Mhmm. We're really focused right now on, like, the indirect tax space, so things like sales tax, VAT, we file in 80 plus countries. And so there's a lot of low level grunt work that gets done by armies of tax, you know, tax workers throughout the globe, and that's when we get excited about going and and making their lives easier so people can be more strategic.

Speaker 1: Last question, and it's a choose your own adventure. You can answer either of these questions. You don't have to answer both. One, what's your PEDOM? Two, what's the biggest fish you've ever caught?

Speaker 9: Oh. PEDOM. That that's that's based on time. We already we already solved we already solved RSI, Sales Tax RSI. Okay.

Speaker 2: And you guys are fine.

Speaker 1: And we're fine. I'm living in a future We could tell the tale. So it's pdoom zero, a vote of I love to see it. Well, congrats on the new round. Thanks so much for hopping on the show.

Speaker 2: We're gonna close out the show with you. We did have a hard stop. Sorry for the little running late on the schedule. But I wanted to close out the show with you.

Speaker 1: Well, then I gotta tell him about Shopify. Shopify is the commerce platform that grows with your business and lets you sell in seconds online, in store, on mobile, on social, on marketplace And

Speaker 2: And now with AI agents. Sam, I wanted to throw a flash bang with you Okay. As as an early partner of the show and friends. I'm to throw it and then we'll sign off and congrats to the whole numeral team on on an awesome milestone.

Speaker 1: Yes.

Speaker 9: You. I wanted to also give a shout to our customer, Lucy.

Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. That's right. Yeah. That's what I know. Thank you. Don't have it here.

Speaker 9: Important. Aurora water filters, another customer of ours. So, you know

Speaker 1: The Shopify numeral ecosystem is cooking. It's powerful. Everyone's working together.

Speaker 2: Let's hit it. Well,

Speaker 1: thank you for tuning in to TBPN. We'll see you tomorrow. Goodbye.