A group of college friends in Alabama are revolutionizing the way people complete their taxes.
Tevin Harrell, Olumuyiwa Aladebumoye, Bre Johnson, Jordan Ward, and Justin Robinson all met at Auburn University. They teamed up together in 2016 to create the software, TaxxWiz, a platform to improve access and efficiency through tax preparation.
Four out of five of the friends pledged into the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity together, and that’s when the friendship formed. “We learned how to work together in the fraternity and treated it like a business,” said co-founder Olumuyiwa Aladebumoye.
TaxxWiz recently rebranded as SmartWiz to expand their business to tax professionals. It’s the first-ever all-in-one tax software that offers services for individuals and tax preparers. Tax firms will have the opportunity to buy the software and keep track of all of their clients documents within the app.
The innovative product has recently captured the attention of Google through the company’s Startups Black Founders Fund, and has been granted $150,000. The award grants business resources and money to help Black entrepreneurs to scale their business. This will directly impact how millions of Americans file their taxes.
“They are investing not by just giving a cash investment, but also helping minority founders excel by giving all the access possible, giving all the resources possible in order to have a thriving business and skip over the loopholes that most minority business owners have to go through,” said founder Tevin Harrell.
SmartWiz is one of 46 American companies to receive funding from Google. The money is equity-free, and SmartWiz will also receive sales and fundraising training, technical support from Google mentors, up to $100,000 in Google Cloud credits, mental health coaching from a team of Black and Latino therapists and participation in the fund’s interactive community.
Under TaxxWiz, the company transformed how people completed their yearly taxes by utilizing a personal tax professional that you’ll be able to access year round. Since rebranding as SmartWiz, the company is aiming to help people with both their financial and accounting needs as well through the software. The platform also works for digital accounting firms that optimizes accounting, tax management, legal and consulting services.
SmartWiz was approved by the Internal Revenue Service last year, and the company also recently spent three months in Los Angeles as part of a TechStars cohort.
Harrell noted, “It’s harder to get into TechStars than Harvard.”
The group of founders said this is just the beginning for them. Their goal is to have one of the largest businesses in Birmingham.
