Ian Crosby, a founder whose previous startup, Bench Accounting, notably ceased operations in 2024 before being acquired for its assets, is embarking on a new entrepreneurial journey. His latest venture, Synthetic, aims to revolutionize bookkeeping by developing a fully autonomous AI system capable of generating accrual-based financial statements without any direct human input.

While Synthetic’s product remains in its conceptual and design stages, and Crosby himself acknowledges the ambitious nature of his vision given current technological limits, the startup has successfully secured $10 million in a seed funding round. This significant investment was spearheaded by Khosla Ventures, with additional participation from Basis Set Ventures and Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke.

Many investors might shy away from a founder with a recent business failure and a technologically challenging concept. However, Khosla Ventures partner Jon Chu explained a different approach, stating a tendency to engage with controversial situations. Chu believes that such scenarios often involve narratives influenced by groupthink rather than objective truth, drawing parallels to Parker Conrad’s journey from Zenefits to the highly successful Rippling. He emphasized a belief in individuals’ capacity for growth, underpinning his confidence in Crosby and Synthetic.

Crosby maintains that his departure from Bench in 2021, three months after declining a $250 million acquisition offer from Brex, preceded the company’s insolvency. He asserts that the board disagreed with his strategic direction amid financial challenges, and his executive team reportedly found his leadership style difficult. Following his time at Bench, Crosby founded another accounting startup, Teal, at Shopify, which was acquired by Mercury just 18 months later. He is now focused on creating a purely AI-driven bookkeeping service, distinct from models that rely on human accountants, stating a commitment to releasing only a fully autonomous product.