Meet the AI company retiring your CPA so he can still see you face to face this tax season

Slava Orekoff, co-founder and CEO of Numica, spends his time engaging with accountants in New Jersey who are considering leaving their practices. Many, he observes, want to stop managing a business rather than stop serving clients.

“You have your server down, you have an escalation coming in, your bill didn’t go through with the vendor, you have all these problems with hiring,” Orekoff told Fortune. “Maybe they were excited when they started building their business 25 years ago or 35 years ago. After a while, the things did not excite you anymore.”

Numica, a New York startup, announced Thursday it secured $21 million in combined equity and debt funding from Roosh X, the investment arm of Ukrainian tech group Roosh, and London-based Flashpoint. The company acquires small accounting firms from retiring owners, maintaining their staff and client relationships while integrating its proprietary AI software into daily operations. Numica plans to use most of the new capital for further acquisitions.

The firm, founded in 2025, launched its internal AI platform, Numica Ledger, in May 2026. This system automates tasks such as billing, bookkeeping, tax filing, and client communication. Numica reports its software covered about 75% of a firm’s workflows in its first year, allowing human accountants to focus on unusual cases and client interactions. A certified public accountant (CPA) still reviews and signs all final work. The company claims margins at its first acquired practice in New York rose from 37% to 52% within two months, with projections to reach 70%.

As of Thursday, Numica has acquired seven practices and serves approximately 6,000 clients across New York, New Jersey, Florida, Texas, and California. These clients include restaurants, trucking companies, real estate firms, and healthcare practices. Numica closed its latest deal Monday and expects another next week. The company identifies potential firms using AI tools to monitor broker listings and online marketplaces, often learning of new listings within five minutes. Referrals from accountants who have already sold their practices now represent its largest source of new deals.

The accounting profession faces a structural workforce shortage. About three-quarters of CPAs are nearing retirement age, and many multi-owner firms reported succession challenges in 2020. While the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 115,300 annual openings for accountants and auditors through 2035, the supply of new graduates has not consistently met this demand. U.S. schools awarded 55,152 bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting in the 2023–24 school year, a 6.6% decrease from the previous year and a 20-year low. However, undergraduate accounting enrollment has shown recent increases, with a 12% rise in Fall 2024 and an 8.9% increase in four-year undergraduate programs in Spring 2026, marking the third consecutive annual increase.

The adoption of AI in accounting is widespread, with 98% of professionals reporting its use. Firms leverage AI to automate routine data entry, reconciliation, and reporting, freeing accountants for higher-value advisory services. Numica’s model aligns with this shift, aiming for human accountants to focus on client relationships, trust, and judgment, while AI handles compliance and data processing.

Numica informs clients when their firm is sold, but typically does not disclose that AI performs much of the underlying work. Orekoff questions whether clients care if a calculator or Excel was used for calculations. As of mid-2026, the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct does not include an AI-specific disclosure rule, though it emphasizes integrity, objectivity, due care, and client confidentiality. Firms often address AI use within engagement letters.

Orekoff, who started writing accounting software at 17, spent over a decade at SAP before co-founding Numica. His co-founder, Victor Lysenko, previously built Osome, an accounting and corporate services business that served over 12,000 clients in the UK, Singapore, and Hong Kong before his exit in 2025.

Orekoff believes the future of the industry lies in accountants spending more time directly with clients. “I’ve never heard of someone dreaming to become a person moving numbers from one spreadsheet to another,” he said. Numica positions itself as an operator that integrates technology, capital, and talent into acquired practices, preserving client relationships and developing existing staff.