Kevin Spain

GP @emergencecap. BBQ lover.

[Yazan El-Baba @YazanElBaba]

very well done framing from the one and only @kabirsial

[Kevin Spain @kevinspain]

Thanks @BusinessInsider for including me and my colleague @jakesaper on the list robotics investors to know. We’re proud to be working with @physical_int, @BedrockRobotics, and @DroneDeploy — and are excited to partner with more amazing physical world founders!

[Jeff Tangney @JeffTangney]

Exciting news today!

Doximity is now on desktop.

And the Clinical AI Suite just hit 150 health systems and 8 of the top 20 hospitals in the country.

[Kevin Spain @kevinspain]

Incredibly impressive progress. Congrats to the entire @physical_int team on this release! @adnan_esm @brian_ichter @chelseabfinn @hausman_k @lachygroom @QuanVng

[Sergey Levine @svlevine]

We finished evaluating π0.7, our new model at Physical Intelligence. What I'm most excited about with π0.7 is that it's starting to show some surprising emergent compositional generalization, being able to both perform complex tasks and learn new tasks just from instructions.

[Saoud Rizwan @sdrzn]

I’m excited to announce a $32M raise for @cline (Seed + A), led by @emergencecap & @PaceCap. Cline started as a hackathon project a year ago, and is now a community of 2.7M developers who value the power and transparency that come from bold decisions in how we build the product:

[Layer Financial @layer_financial]

Today we're announcing our $6.6M seed led by @emergencecap with participation from our existing investors @btv_vc.

Our mission is to give American small and medium businesses a step-change improvement in accounting and bookkeeping, embedded within their software platforms.

[Kevin Spain @kevinspain]

Right back at you @pitdesi!

[Sheel Mohnot @pitdesi]

Our portco @layer_financial just raised a $6.6M seed round led by our friends at Emergence.

Over the years, we’ve spent a bunch of time thinking about how to disrupt Quickbooks (if such a thing was possible), so I thought I'd share our thinking here.

QuickBooks owns small-business accounting in the US and would be a $100B business on its own. It’s in every accountant’s toolbox, with thousands of integrations and decades of brand equity. QB does $8B in revenue and is still growing ~20% a year, despite an NPS of just 15.

Over the years, many companies have tried to compete by improving UX and offering cheaper pricing. Some have made progress there (Xero, Wave, etc) but we didn't think that was a large opportunity today.

A real challenger needs 2 things Quickbooks can't match
1) Native distribution. Show up inside the software SMBs already open 10x a day.
2) A 10x experience. Automate bookkeeping so it is faster, cheaper, and more accurate.

They won't sell “accounting software” as a standalone product. It will feel like an invisible feature baked into the tools an SMB already relies on, and it will use AI to do the accounting, competing not just with software like Quickbooks but building a much larger business automating the process.

Layer is that company. They've built accounting infrastructure that embeds within the other companies that SMBs rely on. With Layer, these platforms offer accounting and bookkeeping services directly to their customers. Instead of “Export to QB,” there's a fully native revenue-generating business feature that is mission-critical for the SMB customer.

Vertical SaaS platforms like Toast, Jobber, Moxie and others already own the sales, inventory, and payroll data that powers accounting.

By embedding a modern ledger and AI-powered bookkeeping inside those platforms you:
-Meet owners in the software they open every day. No new log-ins or training.
-Eliminate exports and double entry. Data flows straight from the source into the books.
-Give real-time insight. Profitability shows up in the same dashboard they already trust.
-Drive zero-CAC adoption. A toggle in the platform activates accounting, and we've seen up to 40% of merchants convert in the first few months!
-Put bookkeeping on autopilot. AI agents categorize transactions, reconcile deposits, and flag anomalies - you can fully automate this, and make it faster, cheaper, and more accurate than humans.

With this 10x product, platform partners that embed Layer see a revenue boost and much higher retention.

We’ve seen this play out with our other embedded fintech companies @Unit_co_ (embedded banking, capital, bill pay) and @salsa_dev (embedded payroll), and accounting is inevitable.

CEO Justin spent years at Square leading Banking and Financial-Data products, where he heard thousands of owners complain about accounting, and knew he had to build this. He teamed up with Daniel, who had built large-scale ledger and reporting systems at Wealthfront.

Since we invested, they’ve shipped a full double-entry ledger, AI-assisted bookkeeping, and drop-in React components that let a partner go live in weeks.

They have a bunch of fantastic partners, like Moxie, Nav, Dripos, Carry, and Duet, and serve over 30,000 SMB’s.

So… Layer doesn’t compete with Quickbooks by selling “accounting software.” It solves accounting for SMB’s in platforms they already sit in, a far larger opportunity in our opinion.

Excited to bring @emergencecap on to the cap table!

[Kevin Spain @kevinspain]

Excited to be partnering with Justin, Dan, and the whole @layer_financial team! Some thoughts on why we were eager to back them: https://t.co/RUmwQR4ihV

[Layer Financial @layer_financial]

Today we're announcing our $6.6M seed led by @emergencecap with participation from our existing investors @btv_vc.

Our mission is to give American small and medium businesses a step-change improvement in accounting and bookkeeping, embedded within their software platforms.

[Kevin Spain @kevinspain]

Old startup benchmarks were built for a different time.

The best founders today aren’t chasing yesterday’s playbook—they’re writing their own. That’s why @emergencecap created Beyond Benchmarks.

📥 Download here: https://t.co/b0mcVkT2mC

[Adaptive @AdaptiveBuilds]

Accounting firms know construction is a massive opportunity.

But manual processes have made it impossible to scale until now.

We just launched industry-specific AI to help firms grow their construction verticals without adding headcount.

Learn more: https://t.co/jGHEBzdsbZ

[Kevin Spain @kevinspain]

@jeff @uncorkcap Congrats @jeff @Bandrew and the rest of the @uncorkcap team! Can’t wait to find more things to work on together!

[Emergence Capital @emergencecap]

Enterprise software is entering a new era: from static tools to dynamic learning systems.

Introducing the Emergence Rate: our framework for evaluating AI software based on its ability to evolve with users over time.

Learn more from @gordonritter : https://t.co/RyNfQsuxLe

[Emergence Capital @emergencecap]

Huge congratulations to the entire https://t.co/28E8fgZ3zu team on their agreement to be acquired by @servicenow! 👏

This is a well-earned milestone — and a powerful moment for the future of enterprise CPQ. 🧵

[Emergence Capital @emergencecap]

Want insights into how Emergence operates, what we look for in startups, and our priorities and principles for the new Fund VII? Check out this conversation -- our thanks to @etarczynski for having Jake!

[Kevin Spain @kevinspain]

I have such gratitude for the founders, teammates, and LPs that have allowed us to reach this milestone.

Here’s to the iconic B2B companies we’ll get the chance to work with in Fund VII!

[Emergence Capital @emergencecap]

Announcing Emergence VII: A $1 billion fund dedicated to supporting the next generation of iconic B2B companies reshaping the future of work.

https://t.co/gz1ULLd9Gx

[Emergence Capital @emergencecap]

🚨Survey alert! 🚨Our enormously popular Beyond Benchmarks report is back for another edition! We're partnering with our friends at @Benchmarkitai. Senior leader at a SaaS company? Share your data (which will be aggregated/anonymous) here: https://t.co/ViDUGVjG8J

[Dannie Herzberg @DannieHerz]

My very favorite @HarryStebbings interview of all time dropped today. Well done, @jakesaper 🫶 This may top the family's 2025 Spotify Unwrapped

[Emergence Capital @emergencecap]

Big news from our friends at @arcee_ai! Agentic AI isn't coming – it's already here, and powered by SLMs that are compact, efficient and performant. It's time go make some music with Orchestra! 🎼

[Molly O’Shea @MollySOShea]

One of the most iconic VC funds in Silicon Valley..

Let's breakdown Emergence Capital

Notable Investments*:
- Salesforce (CRM): $328B
- Veeva Systems (VEEV): $38B
- Zoom (ZM) : $27B
- Doximity (DOCS): $11B

Emergence Stats:
- $450B+ Market Cap of Portfolio (current & former)
- $2.3B AUM
- Six (VI) Funds
- 100+ Portfolio Companies
- 20 Exits & Private Valuations Greater than $500 Million

*As of Jan 30, 2025

@emergencecap @YazanElBaba @gordonritter

[Kevin Spain @kevinspain]

I’m excited to welcome @MethodFinancial to the @emergencecap family!

[Emergence Capital @emergencecap]

🌟 Thrilled to announce our lead investment in Method Financial!

Read more about the impact @MethodFinancial is making in our latest blog post:

https://t.co/lc4V5MUUx0