Cortea raises €12M to transform audit quality with AI
The funding will accelerate Cortea's mission to bring AI-powered Audit Quality Agents to firms worldwide, helping auditors deliver higher-quality work more efficiently and at greater scale.
Today, we're excited to share that Cortea has raised €12 million in seed funding led by Dawn Capital, with participation from Cherry Ventures, Mosaic Ventures, and angel investors including Larry Bradley, former Global Head of Audit at KPMG.
This milestone is about more than funding. It's a reflection of a broader shift taking place across the audit profession.
AI is rapidly moving from experimentation into real audit workflows. Firms are exploring how it can support everything from document review and financial statement analysis to reporting and quality assurance. At the same time, they face growing regulatory scrutiny, increasing reporting complexity, and ongoing capacity constraints.
The opportunity is clear and so is the challenge: How can audit firms embrace AI while maintaining the quality, consistency, and professional judgement that audits demand?
At Cortea, we believe this will be one of the defining questions for the profession over the next decade.
That's why we're building the quality layer for AI-powered audits.
Our mission is simple: help audit firms use AI with confidence.
Introducing Cortea's Audit Quality Agents
Today, we're also announcing the launch of our first Audit Quality Agents.
Developed in collaboration with leading audit firms across the UK and Europe, these agents review audit reports, financial statements, disclosure notes, and supporting workpapers before sign-off. They cross-check figures, disclosures, and documentation to identify inconsistencies, missing information, filing discrepancies, and potential compliance issues in minutes rather than hours.
Importantly, they are designed to work alongside existing audit systems and workflows, not replace them.
The agents surface findings for auditor review, helping teams focus more time on professional judgement and higher-value analysis while maintaining full control over the audit process.
Helping audit firms improve audit quality at scale
Over the most recent audit season, Cortea's technology helped review more than 4,000 audit reports.
Across reviewed engagements, the agentsidentified issues requiring attention before sign-off and helped auditors save several days of manual review work per engagement.
These results reinforce what we've believed from the beginning: the future of audit isn't about replacing auditors with AI.
It's about giving auditors better tools to deliver higher-quality audits more efficiently.
As AI becomes more deeply embedded in audit workflows, firms need technology that increases capacity while strengthening quality. That's the role we believe Cortea can play.
Why audit firms need a new approach to AI
For many firms, the conversation is no longer about whether AI belongs in audit. The conversation has shifted to how it can be adopted responsibly.
In a profession built on trust, efficiency alone isn't enough. AI-generated outputs must be transparent, reviewable, and capable of withstanding scrutiny. Firms need confidence that technology is strengthening audit quality, not introducing new risks.
As Larry Bradley, former Global Head of Audit at KPMG and an investor in Cortea, puts it:
“In audit and assurance, trust is everything. If AI cannot improve quality, transparency and professional judgement, it has no place in the audit process. Cortea is different because it is built for how audit firms actually operate. Cortea integrates AI into the audit process in a way that is controlled, traceable and practical.”
We couldn't agree more.
From day one, we've focused on helping firms unlock the benefits of AI without compromising the principles that make audits trustworthy in the first place.
Building the future of AI for audit firms
We believe the audit profession is about to undergo one of the most significant transformations in its history.
AI will change how audits are performed. But successful adoption won't be measured by how much AI firms deploy. It will be measured by whether firms can combine the efficiency of AI with the rigour, oversight, and trust that the profession demands.
That's the future we're building towards.
We're grateful to our customers, partners, investors, and team for helping us reach this milestone.
And we're just getting started.