New York-based Harness Wealth, which began as a wealth adviser to new entrepreneurs, has pivoted to tax advisory business and raised $17 million in a Series A extension round from investors, including Three Fish Capital, Jackson Square Ventures and Northwestern Mutual Ventures. The company, founded in 2018, has previously raised $19 million, according to Crunchbase.
Three Fish Capital, a venture arm of the family of Motorola founders Paul and Joseph Galvin, led the round, TechCrunch said, adding that other backers included Paul Edgerley, former co-head of Bain Capital; Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff; Alleycorp’s Kevin Ryan; Compass founder Ori Allon; Angi’s Oisin Hanrahan; and Edith Cooper, member of the board at PepsiCo and Amazon.
Harness founder and CEO David Snider, a Harvard Business School graduate, said the company was expanding into a tax advisory to take advantage of a market gap after a decade of remarkable growth in fintech. Much of the fintech innovation occurred in areas outside of tax, he contended.
“At Harness, we recognized this as a unique opportunity to build a solution that combined expert tax advisory services with an improved digital experience. With the new comprehensive tax advisory platform, we aim to redefine the way that advisors serve their clients,” Snider said.
Snider previously served as an executive-in-residence at Bain Capital, and as the chief operating officer/chief financial officer of wealth manager Compass, where he took the company past a billion-dollar valuation.
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Together with the funding, Harness unveiled a tax advisory solutions platform that it said brings together “advanced software, an in-house client concierge team, curated high-value client introductions, and a professional community, all in one place.”
Harness for Advisors, designed for collaborative use by tax advisors and their customers, would save time and effort in assembling information required for tax planning. It can also handle payments and track filing. One tax advisor, Sam Boehr, said: “I don’t have to chase clients for information anymore. The concierge and the tech tools take the administrative work off my plate, empowering me to operate more efficiently.”
According to TechCrunch, Harness claims a 10-fold rise in clients and a 1,588% growth in gross revenue since its last funding round in 2021. Also, its client base includes not just startup founders, but also pro athletes, “an artist whose works are in MoMA, an Amazon board member and an ‘iconic’ journalist.”
