- London-based Record OS has raised $2M in a pre-seed round led by Episode 1, with angel backing from Wise, Revolut, Deliveroo, and Alphabet, to build a self-assessment and make-tax-digital platform.
- Founded by former Wise operators Dhruv Chadha and José Luis De La Peña, the startup integrates AI-driven filing with mandatory review by a qualified tax professional.
- The launch aligns with Making Tax Digital. Since April 2026, self-employed workers and landlords earning over £50,000 must submit quarterly digital updates to HMRC. The threshold will decrease to £30,000 in 2027 and £20,000 in 2028.
Dhruv Chadha, who has worked as a CFO at Google, Wise, and Nansen, found a mistake in his self-assessment return while testing the platform, even with professional help.
“When I found an error in my own tax return while testing the platform, I was shocked – I’d paid for professional help, I work in finance, and I was still left wondering whether everything had actually been done correctly. That simply shouldn’t still be the case in 2026,” Chadha says.
The UK initiative, Making Tax Digital, has made things more complex. Since April 2026, self-employed people and landlords earning over £50,000 must keep digital records and send quarterly updates to HMRC using approved software. The threshold will drop to £30,000 in April 2027 and £20,000 in April 2028. In two years, most self-employed workers in the UK will have to use this system, and the old annual tax return will be phased out.
Most people in the UK manage to file their self-assessment tax returns each year, but the process remains confusing and error-prone. The annual deadline often results in last-minute filings rather than careful, ongoing updates, and mistakes can lead to penalties, investigations, or missed tax relief.
Record OS, a London tax startup co-founded by Chadha and José Luis De La Peña, has raised $2 million in pre-seed funding led by Episode 1, to tackle this problem. Former CFOs and senior leaders from Wise, Revolut, Deliveroo, and Alphabet also invested.
How Record OS works
At first, the company built software for accounting firms handling self-assessments. Later, the founders switched to a direct-to-consumer approach after seeing that individual taxpayers faced the same problems.
The platform uses software automation along with expert review. Users link their financial data, and AI handles most of the work by sorting income, finding allowable expenses, and spotting issues. Unlike other software, every return is checked by a qualified tax professional before it is sent.
Having a human review is key to the business. Most people filing self-assessments want reassurance, not just software. By offering standard filings with a professional sign-off for £125, the platform is cheaper than traditional accountants and solves problems that software alone cannot.
“No one becomes an accountant to mechanically fill tax returns, and taxpayers often think of self-assessments as almost a punishment for success or for starting a venture. We want this friction gone and we know there’s a better way. As Making Tax Digital brings more people online, we’re building a platform that combines the speed of technology with the reassurance of expert review,” notes De La Peña.
This change opens up a gap that current providers struggle to fill. Software like Sage, Xero, and QuickBooks is built for accountants and business owners who know bookkeeping. HMRC’s portal works but has limited features. Traditional accounting firms are expensive, slow, and not set up to handle the extra workload that Making Tax Digital will bring.
The investor roaster
Former CFOs and senior leaders from Wise, Revolut, Deliveroo, and Alphabet are investing, and Episode 1 shows strong support for the problem and the team’s ability to solve it.
“The UK tax system is undergoing one of its biggest shifts in decades. Dhruv and José combine deep operational experience with a genuine obsession for solving customer pain points. We’re excited to back them as they build what we believe could become the default platform for self-assessment and digital tax filing,” says Hector Mason, general partner at Episode 1.
This is a big goal for a small, six-person pre-seed team. But the regulatory environment is unusual. Making Tax Digital is required by law, with a set schedule and thresholds, meaning another 1.7 million people will need to file taxes digitally by 2028.
