The AI-powered marketplace matching businesses with the finance and accounting experts they actually need - from a bookkeeper for the month to a fractional CFO for the raise.
Hundreds of thousands of accountants have left the profession. Paro's wager is that the work does not disappear with them - it just needs a faster way to find the right hands.
Paro is a Chicago-based marketplace for finance and accounting work. Businesses and accounting firms come to it with a need - a set of books to close, a forecast to build, a fundraise to model - and Paro's matching engine pairs them with a vetted independent professional who can do the job. Clients pay for the expertise they use, not for a full-time seat they may not fill.
The company was founded in 2015 by Michael Burdick and Dan Wywrot, both of whom had spent time inside large accounting firms. Burdick has said the idea traces back to his first job out of college at Deloitte, where he came to see the economics of the traditional firm model as hard to justify - rigid structures, narrow career paths, and talented people billed out on work they had little say over.
The alternative Paro built is a two-sided marketplace. On one side sit finance and accounting professionals - bookkeepers, controllers, CPAs, FP&A analysts and CFOs - who want to choose their projects and work on their own terms. On the other sit the companies and firms that need them. Paro's job is to make the match, and to make it quickly.
Under CEO Anita Samojednik, who took the top role in 2021 after serving as chief operating officer, that matching has leaned hard into artificial intelligence. The company reports pairing clients with the top 2% of its network roughly 20 times faster than traditional recruiting, with a 95% first-time match success rate across more than 60 industries and 250 skill sets.
The goal is to become the go-to resource for finance and accounting solutions across businesses of all sizes.
Overextended finance teams, growing startups, and accounting firms short on hands - the common thread is more work than qualified people.
Startups and mid-sized companies often need CFO-level thinking before they can justify a full-time CFO. Paro fills that gap with fractional experts for fundraising support, financial modeling and cash-flow planning.
Firms hit seasonal spikes and complex engagements they cannot always staff. Paro supplies vetted professionals for staff augmentation - and, increasingly, technology advice.
For the experts themselves, Paro's pitch is autonomy and income predictability - projects they choose, matched by an algorithm that brings the work to them.
Named clients tell the pattern in miniature. A fractional CFO helped the startup Keyo establish financial processes and pricing to support its funding rounds. At the Territorial Bank of American Samoa, a Paro bookkeeping team and fractional CFO helped drive the bank's first unqualified audit and a profitable year. The accounting firm Smith, Sullivan & Brown used staff augmentation to take on complex nonprofit audits it might otherwise have turned away.
One focus - finance and accounting - delivered across the range from routine to strategic.
On-demand CFO expertise for fundraising, financial modeling, cash-flow management and KPI planning without a full-time hire.
Budgeting, forecasting, financial modeling and KPI dashboards built for companies in growth mode.
Full-charge bookkeeping, account reconciliation, financial reporting and controller support from vetted pros.
Corporate tax filing, tax preparation, GAAP compliance and internal audit support.
ERP implementation, transaction advisory and finance systems design for teams modernizing operations.
Architecture recommendations, fractional tech strategy and AI implementation guidance for accounting firms.
Generalist freelance platforms match anyone to anything. Paro decided to do one thing - finance and accounting - and match it well.
Where Upwork and Fiverr span every category and the Big 4 sell full-service engagements at firm rates, Paro sits deliberately in between: specialized talent, vetted for finance, matched by AI, and engaged fractionally. The company describes its network as the top 2% of applicants, and leans on tools it calls the Impact Engine and Growth Simulator to power forecasting and matching.
Paro runs as a B2B marketplace. Clients pay for the finance and accounting services they use; experts work on flexible, project-based terms. The business grows in two directions at once - higher average spend per client, and higher productivity per freelancer.
That flywheel showed up in the numbers around the Series C: the company reported that revenue had roughly tripled over two years as it operationalized AI, and that average client spend had doubled. Some freelancers on the platform were on track to bill more than $1 million a year through it.
The appeal for buyers is the absence of fixed overhead. A company that needs ten hours of CFO time a month is not forced into a full salary and benefits load to get it. The appeal for the supply side is predictability - Paro's algorithm brings work to professionals rather than making them chase it.
It is a model built for a specific moment: a finance labor market where demand outstrips the number of available, qualified people, and where remote, fractional work has become normal rather than exceptional.
Total funding to date is reported at roughly $67-69 million. The 2023 Series C was described as an up-round with clean terms - notable in a market where many startups were raising flat or down. Proceeds were earmarked for platform development, customer expansion and, in the company's words, "doubling down on AI."
Michael Burdick and Dan Wywrot launch a marketplace connecting skilled finance professionals with companies needing on-demand support.
Steve Case's Revolution Ventures leads the round to scale the finance talent marketplace.
The former COO takes the top role and pushes the company deeper into AI-driven matching.
Top Tier Capital Partners leads a round to build the enterprise platform for finance and accounting services.
Paro broadens its offering with technology and AI implementation services aimed at CPA firms.
Co-founder Michael Burdick is profiled in Forbes on founding Paro and redefining the CFO role.
Paro is a two-sided marketplace that allows finance and accounting professionals to work on their own terms.
The goal is to become the go-to resource for finance and accounting solutions across businesses of all sizes.
The expertise Paro sells is not generic. It is finance and accounting, deep and vetted, spanning fractional CFO strategy, FP&A, bookkeeping, tax and compliance, and business-process transformation - matched to the specific shape of a client's industry and problem.
Between the full-service firm and the open freelance platform - a specialized, AI-matched middle.
Full-service, high-touch, and priced accordingly. Paro offers fractional access to comparable expertise.
Upwork, Fiverr and Toptal match across every category. Paro narrows to finance and vets accordingly.
A field of CFO-on-demand services. Paro's edge is scale and proprietary AI matching.