ComplYant has raised $6.2M in total across 2 funding rounds.
ComplYant's investors include Act One Ventures, Craft Ventures, King Goh, Matrix, Moving Capital, Pareto Holdings, Plug & Play Ventures, Quiet Capital, Josh Mohrer, Techstars.
ComplYant was a Los Angeles-based fintech startup founded in 2019 that built software to help small business owners and solo entrepreneurs manage tax compliance from a single dashboard, including income tax, sales tax, business licenses, annual reports, deadline tracking, budgeting, and tax education.[1][2][3] It targeted the 31 million U.S. small businesses struggling with fragmented tax processes, saving thousands of customers over 70,000 hours and $4 million in late fees annually at its peak, with services starting at $9.99/month.[1][2][5] The company raised over $10 million in venture funding, including a $5.5 million seed round in 2022 led by Craft Ventures with participation from Mucker Capital, Slauson & Co., and Techstars, but abruptly shut down in 2023 amid challenges like lack of product-market fit and fewer than 50 paying users.[1][2][5]
ComplYant was founded in 2019 by Shiloh Johnson, a former CPA and accountant with no prior tech experience, who bootstrapped the company while running her tax practice.[1][2] Johnson self-taught coding via Codecademy before hiring contractors, driven by her firsthand observations of small business owners overwhelmed by tax deadlines, late fees, and complex compliance.[1][2] Key early milestones included participation in LA accelerators: Grid110's inaugural South L.A. cohort in 2020, MuckerLab, and Techstars LA in 2021, which provided launch support and pre-seed funding from Mucker Capital and Slauson & Co.[1][2] Johnson, one of few Black women founders raising over $1 million in VC that year, grew it to $28,000 monthly recurring revenue within eight months using her $50,000 personal investment.[1][5]
ComplYant rode the fintech democratization wave post-2019, targeting small business tax pain points amid rising entrepreneurship during COVID-19, when fragmented compliance led to billions in penalties.[1][2] Timing aligned with accelerators amplifying underrepresented founders in LA's startup scene, highlighting trends in accessible SaaS for the "long tail" of 31 million U.S. small businesses ignored by enterprise tools.[2][3] It influenced the ecosystem by proving minority-led ventures could attract top VC (e.g., Craft Ventures praising industry-founder fit), but its 2023 shutdown underscored market forces like intense competition from low-tech features and pricing sensitivity, exposing risks in fintech without strong product-market fit.[5]
ComplYant exemplified gritty, founder-driven fintech ambition but faltered on scaling traction, shutting down abruptly in 2023 with employees unpaid for months and no severance, leaving a cautionary tale for early-stage compliance startups.[5] Founder Shiloh Johnson may pivot given her expertise, potentially reemerging in tax tech or advisory. Shaping trends include AI-driven automation eclipsing manual tools, stricter VC scrutiny on revenue post-2022 downturns, and growing demand for inclusive fintech—ComplYant highlighted small business needs but showed execution gaps in a crowded market. Its legacy: inspiring diverse founders while underscoring that domain knowledge alone can't outpace product evolution.
ComplYant has raised $6.2M across 2 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $6.0M Seed in February 2022.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 1, 2022 | $6.0M Seed | Act One Ventures, Craft Ventures, King Goh, Matrix, Moving Capital, Pareto Holdings, Plug & Play Ventures, Quiet Capital, Josh Mohrer | |
| Jul 1, 2021 | $170K Seed | Techstars |