Pilot.com

Company research

Public company, workplace, funding, and market signals

Updated Aug 2, 2026

Overview

Pilot.com is a privately held, San Francisco-based fintech/accounting-services company that provides an outsourced financial back office for startups and small businesses. It combines proprietary software and AI with U.S.-based finance professionals to deliver bookkeeping, tax preparation, financial reporting, and fractional CFO/advisory services. Founded in 2017 by three MIT computer-science friends, it later expanded its technology into AI Accountant and Meridian for accounting firms.

Primary product

Tech-enabled outsourced bookkeeping and financial-back-office services, supplemented by tax preparation, CFO/advisory services, dashboards, financial reports, and AI accounting products.

Founded

2017

Headquarters

San Francisco, California, United States

Team size

Approximately 300–416; third-party estimates vary and are not an official company disclosure.

Work style

Flexible

Industry

Financial services / fintech

Sub-industry

Tech-enabled accounting, bookkeeping, tax, CFO services, and AI accounting software

Offices

San Francisco, California (353 Sacramento St., Suite 1900; FIDI)

Nashville, Tennessee (818 18th Ave, Suite 102; Music Row)

Business model

Subscription bookkeeping and accounting services

Annual tax-preparation subscriptions and add-ons

Monthly fractional CFO/advisory retainers

Outsourced finance/operations services

B2B SaaS licensing for the Meridian AI platform

Funding

Stage

Late-stage venture-backed private company / fintech unicorn

Total raised

$218.3M

Latest round

Series C extension · Mar 2021

Latest amount

$100M

Venture Round

Jan 2022

Series C extension

Mar 2021 · Bezos Expeditions; Whale Rock Capital Management

$100M

Series C

Jan 2021 · Sequoia Capital

$60M

Series B extension

Jul 2020

$3M

Series B

Apr 2019 · Index Ventures

$40M

Series A

Mar 2018 · Index Ventures

$15M

Seed

Jan 2017

$3.3M

People & investors

Leadership

Jessica McKellar

Co-founder and CEO

Waseem Daher

Co-founder and Executive Chair

Jeff Arnold

Co-founder and COO (historically reported; current title not independently confirmed)

Investors

Work & culture

Pilot emphasizes ownership, focus, quality, impact, trust, teamwork, collaboration, and justice. Its stated operating model combines software with a human touch and U.S.-based finance expertise. Public employee-review sources are mixed and mention management concerns and multiple layoff rounds; those reviews are anecdotal rather than company-wide measures.

Work style

Flexible

Compensation

Public engineering postings showed target base compensation of approximately $133,000–$240,000 in most remote locations and $166,000–$267,000 in San Francisco/New York, plus potential equity, 401(k), health benefits, and other benefits. Sponsorship policy was not established from the available evidence.

Benefits

Flexible vacation/time-off policy

Federal holidays observed

Health benefits

401(k) plan

Wellness benefits including One Medical, Calm, Carrot Pro, and Fetch

100% paid parental leave for 12 weeks

Equity eligibility for full-time employees

Employee development and happiness programs

Product & market

Pricing

Published subscription and retainer pricing. Bookkeeping includes Essentials at $99/month and a Core plan starting at $0/month billed annually for zero monthly expenses, with pricing scaling by expense volume and complexity. Tax is generally an annual add-on; CFO services are monthly retainers starting at approximately $1,750/month. Custom plans are quoted.

Differentiators

—Combination of proprietary software/AI and dedicated human finance professionals rather than self-serve software alone
—Startup-focused accrual bookkeeping and investor-ready financial reporting
—Integrated bookkeeping, tax, CFO/advisory, and back-office services
—U.S.-based finance/advisory team
—Operational data from thousands of businesses and more than 187,000 months of books used to develop Meridian
—Meridian aims to complete the accounting close end-to-end and return review-ready financials to accounting firms
—Reportedly more than 80% of business historically came from referrals and organic interest

Technology

Python

JavaScript

TypeScript

Vue.js

AWS

Terraform

Docker

Amazon ECS

AWS CodeDeploy

PostgreSQL

Honeycomb

QuickBooks Online

Xero

NetSuite

Stripe

Snowflake

Fivetran

Salesforce

Carta

Customers

Startups from pre-revenue through $30M+ revenue

High-growth technology startups

E-commerce and consumer/retail businesses

Professional-services firms

Nonprofits and other small and medium-sized businesses

OpenAI

Lattice

Airtable

Scale AI

Passage AI

Competitors

Bench

QuickBooks Live

Botkeeper

Digits

ScaleFactor

Bookkeeper360

Local CPA/accounting firms

Scale & contact

Estimated revenue

Approximately $43M–$65M annually, based on third-party estimates; Pilot does not publicly disclose audited revenue.

Estimated monthly visits

170K

info@pilot.com +1 415-745-8101

Signals & risks

Layoff

Sep 2022

Third-party layoff reporting says Pilot conducted a round affecting approximately 25 employees.

Source

Layoff

Jun 2023

Third-party reporting says Pilot laid off approximately 45 employees, or 13% of its workforce; it described this as a difficult economic environment and reported severance support.

Source

Other

Oct 2023

Employee-review sources describe two 2023 layoff rounds and management/strategy concerns. These are anecdotal reports, not independently audited company disclosures.

Source

Latest news

Pilot Launches Meridian, The AI Platform That Fully Closes the Books for Accounting Firms

GlobeNewswire / Pilot · Jun 2026

Pilot launched Meridian, an AI platform for accounting firms that completes month-end close end-to-end and produces review-ready financials; it supports QuickBooks Online and also works with Xero and NetSuite.

Pilot touts Meridian, says AI comparable to seasoned accountant

Accounting Today · Jun 2026

Independent trade coverage described Meridian's automation of onboarding, transaction processing, reconciliation, reporting, and close controls, while noting Pilot's claim that the system performs like a seasoned staff accountant.

Pilot Launches $250,000 Growth Fund to Support Small and Medium-Sized Businesses

GlobeNewswire / Pilot · Feb 2026

Pilot announced a $250,000 grant fund for 18 small-business owners, including one $50,000 grant, two $25,000 grants, and fifteen $10,000 grants, plus one year of free Pilot bookkeeping for recipients.

Pilot just launched a free trial so any business can see its finances

Pilot Blog · Feb 2026

Pilot introduced a free trial that shows businesses income, expenses, profit, loss, and cash flow in one place, and lets users connect bank and card accounts.

Pilot launches fully autonomous AI bookkeeper

Accounting Today · Feb 2026

Pilot announced AI Accountant, positioned as a virtual worker capable of running bookkeeping and financial reporting end-to-end, initially focused on bookkeeping.

Jobs and careers at Pilot.com

12 jobs at Pilot.com

IT Systems Lead

On-site

Information Technology

San Francisco, California; San Francisco, California, United States

1w ago

On-site

Full-time