Crypto tax startup gets backing from Haun Ventures

TaxBit Inc., a provider of cryptocurrency tax and accounting software, plans to announce Tuesday that Haun Ventures is a strategic investor in the startup — even as digital currencies face increasing regulatory pressure. 

TaxBit joins a wave of early investments by Haun Ventures, a venture capital firm launched in March by former federal prosecutor Katie Haun. Haun founded the firm after leaving Andreessen Horowitz as a general partner and raising $1.5 billion for the new project. Haun Ventures has already backed nonfungible token platform Autograph, NFT marketplace OpenSea, blockchain startup Aptos and crypto lender Moonwell.   

Founded in 2018, Salt Lake City-based TaxBit raised $130 million at a more than $1.3 billion valuation in August. Venture firms IVP, Insight Partners, Tiger Global Management, Paradigm and 9Yards participated in the Series B round. 

Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg

TaxBit offers software that makes it easier for users to report capital gains and losses on their crypto investments to the Internal Revenue Service. The company also works with crypto businesses to make crypto tax reporting easier for their customers, and provides data analysis to government agencies.

Chief Executive Officer Austin Woodward said in an interview that Haun’s experience in working with the government would be valuable for the startup. TaxBit, which works with both public and private sector clients as well as individual customers, announced the opening of a new office in Washington in February. 

“Katie and her team have really leaned in there as well,” Woodward said. “They have a big D.C. public sector presence.”

The CEO called 2022 “the year of regulation” for the crypto industry. The stunning crash of the TerraUSD stablecoin has spurred lawmakers to call for more crypto guardrails. The meltdown has also helped tank crypto prices — Bitcoin dipped below $30,000 on Monday and was down about 25% over the past 30 days. 

Woodward said that crypto has seen bear markets before and that he isn’t worried about TaxBit. “We have a lot of cash, even to weather any economic downturns that we currently may be in,” he said.