‘We’re here for the very long term’, says SavvyWise founder

SavvyWise wants to be part of the answer, he said, by giving them back time, reducing risk, increasing profitability (and thereby salaries) and letting accountants focus on advisory work.

The provider’s mission is to reduce the compliance burden at scale, allowing businesses to focus efforts on improving products, services and innovation. Such an objective may well be critical in the near future, following the unveiling of the 2026 budget.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ latest budget, Pflaum said, is not tax reform.

"It's extra taxes and extra compliance burdens added to a system already costing the economy around $50 billion a year”.

“This is precisely why SavvyWise exists. To help accountants reduce the compliance burden at scale with faster, better and more affordable tax advice for everyday Australians (and help firms achieve higher profit margins and reward accountants with higher salaries).”

As a former director of an accounting firm, he knows the struggles accountants face.

“I know the chronic staff shortages and increasing compliance burdens like Payday Super and AML/CTF obligations. I’ve lived the problem of inefficient systems and know how to make real improvements to everyday workflows. This is why I've stepped up to support the whole accounting industry,” he said.

“SavvyWise restricts AI to a ring-fenced set of authoritative sources inclusive of legislation, ATO materials, tax rulings and exclusive expert commentary. This decision came directly from my years as a CPA. I knew what authoritative information accountants need and what the liability looks like if we got it wrong.”

To this end, he is committed to the provider being 'by accountants, for accountants'.

“It’s about truly understanding the needs of Australian accountants, and we’re here to support accountants, never replace them!”

Earlier this year, SavvyWise completed a seed round in excess of $600,000 at a $10 million valuation. By April, it had strategic alliances with firms like Aspen Corp, Flowers Eddy CPA, and Sorrento Strategic Accounting, valuing it at $20 million. And, this month, it raised a pre-crowdfunding round from existing shareholders and accountants at a $27.5 million pre-money valuation. “In less than 10 days into the Expression of Interest phase of our crowdfunding”, Pflaum said.

“We’ve received registered interest of over $2 million”.

Looking ahead to the rest of 2026, the provider will introduce in-demand features, such as structure diagrams and tax planning tools, launch New Zealand Tax Research capability, expand exclusive expert commentary to fully cover Federal taxes, and look to onboard a “significant number” of Top 100 AFR Listed Accounting Firms.

This is not to say there aren’t challenges ahead, namely, the adoption curve.

“While some accountants are early adopters, many are still stuck using legacy research tools that cost $10,000–$20,000 a year. A lot of this is due to accountants being so busy with compliance deadlines that they just can’t commit the headspace to change,” Pflaum said.

“It’s not uncommon to hear that a firm wants to sign up to SavvyWise but they’ve asked to put this off until July so they can get through this time of year.”

That said, Pflaum sees tremendous opportunity to mirror the journeys of legal AI behemoths Harvey and Legora, which are now valued at $15 billion and $7.5 billion, respectively.

“The Australian market alone is enormous. There's more than 37,000 firms, over 200,000 accountants and a compliance burden that's already costing the economy around $50 billion a year (before the 2026 Budget changes are even factored in),” he said.

Savvywise has launched new features, including its Embedded Firm Knowledge, to enable firms to upload their tax training manuals and templates of advice to be transformed into AI-optimised data, and has commissioned a leading tax lawyer to write an exclusive body of expert tax commentary covering all aspects of Federal taxes, which will be purpose-built for AI.

Pflaum said he is excited to bring accountants along for the journey, having strategically decided to pursue equity crowdfunding to ensure as many accountants as possible can financially benefit from SavvyWise, alongside the benefits they receive as users.

“We’ve timed the crowdfunding now so that eligible investors may also access the 20 per cent ESIC tax refund and tax-free capital gains for up to ten years,” he said.

“Having accounting firms like Flowers Eddy CPA, Aspen Corp and Sorrento Strategic Accounting come in as investors and co-development partners is so rewarding because we’re helping the accounting industry together. Rather than taking VC money that seeks to extract returns from our profession, SavvyWise's 'accountants first' mission ensures we serve the profession, especially at this crucial time with massive technological advancements.”

“It’s been a joy to help accountants to date and we’re here for the very long term to help the Australian accounting industry I love”.