SINGAPORE -- Multiplier Holdings, a technology company building AI-native professional services firms, publicly launched with $27.5 million in Seed and Series A funding. The Series A round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with participation from Ribbit Capital (led the Seed), EDBI, and SV Angel. Multiplier is helping to overcome the AI adoption hurdle by acquiring specialized professional services firms and integrating custom AI automation to deliver better results for clients, drive efficiency and fuel growth.

Globally, the professional services market is valued at over $6 trillion, and is projected to grow significantly in the coming years (e.g., tax advisory services are forecasted to grow at 11.2% CAGR). Tax, accounting, specialized advisory and other high-stakes professional services firms face more demand than they can supply with a declining workforce, alongside high labor costs and legacy technologies.

Multiplier acquires ambitious boutique services firms, onboards them to its AI-driven practice management platform, and then iteratively and diligently works with the firms’ domain experts to uplevel the client experience and improve the scalability of the business.

“Vertical SaaS might not be the best path to modernize an industry. Building an AI-native professional services platform from the ground up creates the most technological leverage and captures more incentive alignment between domain and technology experts than traditional SaaS,” said Justin Overdorff, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. “The Multiplier approach—an AI-first software company acquiring existing service firms to compete directly in the services business by using proprietary technology—allows us to elevate the client and staff experience in a radical way. As it scales, Multiplier can become the preferred buyer in these categories by underwriting the largest and most repeatable post-acquisition improvements to the business while ensuring firm owners and staff participate in the upside.”

Multiplier partners with the firms it owns to directly embed its technology, iteratively developing new features and offering hands-on technical support as a long-term owner, working alongside the firm’s staff to create customized AI-driven solutions to fit the exact needs of each specialized firm. This approach enables Multiplier to build customizable solutions to automate critical but time-consuming tasks and free up time to deliver better outcomes for clients.

“We believe the market will reward players who compete on technology-enabled client service through an integrated platform of people and tech. While our portfolio firms maintain operational independence, we align incentives across all stakeholders—from Multiplier leadership to firm leaders and staff—creating hybrid technology firms with exceptional client service, automation, and quality that traditional firms using off-the-shelf AI solutions simply cannot match,” said Noah Pepper, CEO of Multiplier Holdings and former Stripe executive.

The model is working. Within the first eight months since starting their tech build-out, Multiplier's AI-powered platform helped Citrine International Tax multiply cash flows by approximately 2.5 times and eliminate large swaths of highly manual work. A significant portion of this lift was shared back with the staff of the firm in the form of performance bonuses while delivering enhanced service to clients.

“When Noah approached us, we saw Multiplier as a unique opportunity to become part of a technology firm and deliver a truly differentiated level of client service- all while growing the business together,” said Gregory Trotman, founder of Citrine International Tax. “The Multiplier team immersed themselves in our workflows, built a custom end-to-end technology platform and worked with our staff to streamline everything from client onboarding to billing, resulting in a huge lift in productivity.”

Clients are noticing the impact of the technology too: “Citrine has been a major upgrade compared to prior firms we used. Emily, our advisor at Citrine, is more responsive and easier to work with, and the tools she’s using help us gain clarity and confidence about where our return is in the workflow - and rapidly confirm when things have been submitted to the authorities,” said Keith Robinson, an American technology investor and former C-level executive living in London who became a Citrine client in the last year.