The United States is considered one of the most entrepreneurial countries in the world. However, SMBs – the backbone of a healthy economy – must handle significant bureaucratic burdens that stall their growth.

This is why we are excited to partner with Vera (formerly Vance), an AI back-office service for startups and SMBs, that handles business obligations like a top-tier admin and ops manager. Founded by serial entrepreneur Simon Holland, the New York City company’s mission is to eliminate the admin burden for America’s 33 million small and medium businesses (SMBs).

By leveraging advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies, Vera aims to automate 95% of tedious, time-consuming back-office tasks, enabling Admin and Ops Managers to effectively put the back office on autopilot so they can focus on growing their core business, specifically more differentiated tasks or customer-focused priorities. 

The team that includes Richard Davies, CTO; Clementine Clough, Head of Partnerships and Community; and James Devlin, Head of Growth will tackle the most challenging part of back-office business administration first: managing government obligations.

Simon Holland, Founder and CEO of Vera highlights:

“It should be so much simpler to run a business. We want to liberate startups and SMBs from admin burdens so they can focus on achieving their true potential.

“It’s hard to succeed as a small business. As a multi-time founder, I know firsthand how painful administrative and government obligations can be. They’re a constant distraction, and neglecting them can be costly.” 

Vera connects a company’s existing back-office tools—PEO, HRIS, and Accounting—and compares up-to-date business data with over 200 fragmented government sources to inform them about their mandatory government obligations. Additionally, two core features, “Ask Vera” and “Quick Actions,” enable companies to get support with queries about requirements, retrieve key data from company documents, and proactively keep them on track with government deadlines, thus avoiding fines.

On why we backed Vera, our Managing Partner Carlos Espinal comments:

“We are delighted to partner up with Vera and support their mission of empowering SMBs across the US to focus on their core business rather than tedious admin work. Simon’s experience as a multi-time founder, paired with a strong vision and proprietary technology are the kind of bold, innovative play we get excited about.”

We are excited to participate in Vance’s $1.5 million oversubscribed pre-seed funding round led by ViIlage Global, alongside Anamcara, Foreword, Visionary Ventures, and angel investors.

The new funds will be used to onboard small businesses across the United States and develop a proprietary recommendation engine that informs them of their obligations, while AI agents perform administrative tasks. 

Sign up for early access here. 

For more information, visit hirevera.com.