Record OS

London-based fintech startup Record OS has successfully closed a $2 million (£1.49 million) Pre-Seed funding round led by early-stage venture capital firm Episode 1.

Summary of transaction details:

• Value: $2 million (£1.49 million) Pre-Seed.
• Sector: Fintech / TaxTech / WealthTech
• Advisor: Not disclosed.
• Key Entities: Target: Record OS; Lead Investor: Episode 1; Participating Investors: Form Ventures; Angel Syndicate: Former CFOs and senior executives from Wise, Revolut, Deliveroo, and Alphabet; Key Founders: Dhruv Chadha, José Luis De La Peña.
• Location: London, UK (Central London headquarters).

Note: Founded by early Wise employees Dhruv Chadha (formerly of Google and crypto-analytics platform Nansen) and José Luis De La Peña, Record OS is positioning itself to capitalize on the UK tax system's largest regulatory transformation in decades. Under HMRC's newly implemented Making Tax Digital (MTD) initiative, self-employed professionals, freelancers, and landlords earning above £50,000 are now mandated to submit digital, quarterly tax updates. While legacy accounting platforms are built for professional practitioners, individual taxpayers with multi-stream income (such as property portfolios, trusts, or offshore investments) face high accounting fees or error-prone manual entry. Record OS offers a hybrid direct-to-consumer model that pairs an automated, AI-driven data sorting workflow with an obligatory final quality check by a qualified tax professional before submission to HMRC. This initial round—complemented by capital from Form Ventures and tier-one fintech angel backers—will fund product pipeline scaling, core engineering hires, and active customer acquisition across the UK market.