Beanstalk, an online SaaS-based tax platform for small-to-medium sized businesses and their advisors, announced today that it has raised $2 million in seed funding led by leading venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA), with participation from EPIC Ventures, Deep Fork Capital, and former Wall Street executive and investor Jim Engebretsen. Beanstalk will use the funds to continue building out its core tax technology and to fund its substantial growth in 2014 and beyond.

Beanstalk is a comprehensive platform that provides secure document storage, date tracking, and organized note and discussion archives. Founder and CEO Kurt Avarell, a former tax attorney turned tech entrepreneur, experienced first-hand the problems with complicated and less effective tax software options before creating his own solution. 'Beanstalk is about making taxes really simple for small business owners and their advisors,' said Avarell. 'We are fundamentally rethinking how taxes work and how small businesses interact with their tax advisors.'

Beanstalk targets a massive market that is currently filled with inefficiencies. Nearly 23 million small business owners across the United States spend as much as three weeks each year preparing, managing, and paying federal and state taxes. This is a costly tax burden in both time and expense for small business owners -- who would prefer to spend less time managing their taxes and more time building their business.

'Small business tax prep is a $6B market that is eager for disruption,' said Chetan Puttagunta, Partner at NEA. 'Beanstalk provides an extensive aggregate of tools for client management that benefit both tax pros and small business owners. We were extremely impressed by their organic customer traction, and look forward to partnering with them to amplify their existing success.'

Since launching a limited beta in March 2014, Beanstalk has been growing rapidly among accountants who are eager to add transparency to their clients' tax situations. By using Beanstalk, accountants and their clients can save time and money, a winning combination.

Connect with Beanstalk

Facebook: www.facebook.com/BeanstalkTax
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/beanstalk-tax
Twitter: www.twitter.com/BeanstalkTaxes

About Beanstalk

Beanstalk is a simple, SaaS-based tax platform that gives small businesses and their advisors a single place to manage their tax compliance ' completely online, in an elegant online dashboard. Launched in beta in March 2014, hundreds of taxpayers have already used Beanstalk with their tax advisors. Beanstalk is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. For more information, visit www.beanstalkhq.com.

About NEA

New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA) is a leading venture capital firm focused on helping entrepreneurs build transformational businesses across multiple stages, sectors and geographies. With approximately $13 billion in committed capital, NEA invests in information technology, healthcare and energy technology companies at all stages in a company's lifecycle, from seed stage through IPO. The firm's long track record of successful investing includes more than 175 portfolio company IPOs and more than 300 acquisitions. For additional information, visit www.nea.com.

About EPIC Ventures

EPIC Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm located in Salt Lake City, Utah. Founded in 1994, EPIC Ventures' mission is to find and support great entrepreneurs regardless of location. The firm focuses primarily on Series A investments across the IT stack, from SaaS to networking technologies.

About Deep Fork Capital

Deep Fork Capital is a San Francisco- and New York City-based early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing globally in entrepreneurs who are building disruptive technology-driven companies in the Consumerized Internet. Founded, funded and operated by entrepreneurs, Deep Fork Capital partners are familiar with the challenges and opportunities of launching and building a new business; as such, the firm seeks to collaborate actively with the entrepreneur throughout the lifecycle of their business. For additional information, visit www.deepforkcapital.com.