MYOB co-founder Craig Winkler among early investors, as Practice Ignition (Advisory for Accountants) raises $650,000 seed funding

Gavin Lower for Smart StartUp writes:  Practice Ignition, an Australian firm that helps accountants to streamline their interaction with clients, has raised $650,000 in seed funding from investors including MYOB co-founder and early Xero investor Craig Winkler.

The new funding will go towards expanding the company’s development team and business team.

“Our aim is that all accountants across Australia can use our platform by the end of fiscal 2014,” founder Guy Pearson, told StartupSmart.

Other investors include New Zealand-based software developer Trineo, several accountants, and Xero’s vice president of payroll, Stuart McLeod.

Pearson, a former accountant, is also behind cloud-based services advisor Interactive Accounting.

He says the investors who’ve injected funds into Practice Ignition, which was formed in 2012, were people he’d met through his previous venture.

“Pitch to people that know your industry or find someone that likes your solution,” he advises fellow entrepreneurs.

“That might be 100 cups of coffee later.”

The seed funding was in exchange for around 22% equity in the firm, valuing it at $2.5 million.

More than 400 accounting practices in 20 countries around the world are currently using Practice Ignition’s platform to on-board new clients, the company says in a statement.

The platform automates the creation and acceptance of legal engagement documents and provides tools to collaborate with clients, as well as giving firms the ability to offer real-time quotes and turn traditional websites into a service-based check-out system.

Craig Winkler said in a statement that he invested in Practice Ignition because its cloud platform enables accountancy practices to scale up their businesses by automating workflow, invoice and payment tasks.

“Practice Ignition re-invents and streamlines the collaboration between advisor and clients, while dramatically reducing administration costs for accountants,” he said.