Ivix receives $13M in funding to help fight tax evasion
Ivix, a technology company that aims to help international tax authorities catch large-scale tax evasion, has scored $13 million in seed funding.
The company develops technology that automatically analyzes public data sources to identify tax evasion.
Its board of advisors includes Fred Goldberg, a former IRS commissioner, IRS chief counsel and assistant Treasury secretary for tax policy who now works with the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; along with Don Fort, the former chief of the IRS’s Criminal Investigation division who is now director of investigations at the law firm Kostelanetz & Fink; and Eric Hylton, former commissioner of the IRS’s Small Business/Self-Employed division, who is now national director of compliance at alliantgroup.
A pair of current PwC executives are also advising the company: Kevin Brown, leader of the PwC U.S. tax controversy team, and Beth Tucker, managing director of tax controversy and regulatory services at PwC. Avishai Shahar, a senior counsel at Davis Polk is also on the board.
The Israeli company said Wednesday the seed funding round was led by Team8 Capital, with participation from Citi Ventures, Cardumen Capital and private investors.
As tax authorities around the world work more closely together to combat tax evasion, they are turning to technologies like data analytics to uncover patterns using automated tools that give investigators promising leads to pursue in cryptocurrency and banking information (see story). But even public sources of information such as social media posts can provide investigators with tell-tale leads.
“Ivix is filling a necessary gap in tax administration data collection and analytics,” Fort said in a statement Wednesday. “Using public information to specifically home in on the shadow economy is an essential element of using data analytics to combat tax non-compliance at the federal, state, local and international level. The flexibility and adaptability of this product will likely yield a quick return on investment.”
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“Ivix is a leader among those paving the way forward, empowering tax authorities with tools to help battle tax fraud and promote compliance,” Goldberg said in a statement.
“Our ability to scale combined with our accuracy rate that exceeds 98% is transforming authorities’ ability to deter tax evasion, increase compliance and level the playing field,” Ivix CEO Matan Fattal said in a statement.
Fattal was previously co-founder and CEO of Silverfort, a cybersecurity company, and began his career in the 8200 elite cyber unit of the Israel Defense Forces, while Ivix chief product officer Doron Passov was previously a senior product manager at Gita Technologies, where he built cybertech products.
Ivix graduated from the AI for Good acceleration program led by Microsoft for Startups in Israel and Tech for Good, a $165 million effort by Microsoft to help ventures advance AI technology for positive social transformation. Ivix plans to continue to work closely with the Microsoft Global Startups Team as a partner.