Rulen, an Italian startup that makes AI software for tax and accounting work, has raised €1.8m (about $2.0m) in its first funding round. It announced the deal on 21 October 2026 and changed its name from LexSA at the same time.
VC Partners led the round. Growth Engine, AME Ventures, Zest through its Magic Mind vehicle, Alpha Venture and a group of business angels from the sector also invested, according to the company's release. Tech.eu, Startup.eu and Dealroom also reported the round.
The company described the deal as its first capital increase and did not name a stage; it is listed here as a seed round. No valuation was disclosed. Dealroom placed the round at about the 20th percentile by size among comparable deals.
“Our goal is to make AI adoption simple, concrete and scalable.”Simone Hong, Co-Founder and CEO, Rulen
What Rulen does
Rulen sells what it calls an AI operational platform for the tax and accounting sector. The company said the product started as an assistant and has become an agentic platform that runs whole workflows, from collecting and reviewing data to producing documents, while professionals stay in control and check the results. It stressed that the product is not a chatbot.
The software connects to the tools firms already use and to third-party systems, including the Cassetto Fiscale, the Italian Revenue Agency's online store of taxpayer records. Customers include large law and tax firms, smaller specialist practices, groups that combine professional firms and multinational companies, the release said.
Rulen was founded by Simone Hong, its chief executive, and Claudio Cama, its chief technology officer, and launched at the end of 2025. Startup.eu reported that it is based in Milan. The new name comes with the tagline "Turning Rules Into Actions".
Early traction
The company said its number of clients rose fivefold over the past three and a half months and that the platform now handles thousands of tasks a day. It did not disclose revenue or an exact customer count.
Rulen won the Digithon 2025 competition and has joined A-Road, a growth capital programme for Italian scaleups.
In its release the company pointed to a shortage of new professionals: new enrolments in the Italian tax profession have fallen by 27.3%, and people under 40 make up only 15% of the profession. Dealroom noted that Dublin-based Fonoa raised $110m in May 2026 and bought PwC's Indirect Tax Edge platform.
Cama said in the release that each workflow the company automates frees up time for firms, and that the next step is to apply the approach to more activities and connect more systems. Stefano Siglienti, managing partner of VC Partners, described tax advice as a complex sector.
What the money is for
Rulen said the money will go to commercial expansion and product development. It plans about 10 hires by the end of 2026 in sales and marketing, including sales development staff aimed at law firms and corporate tax teams, in product, and tax specialists who will work with engineers to design agentic workflows.
Startup.eu reported that VC Partners, a Milan investor, is investing from a first fund with €70m (about $78.6m) in commitments.
Occhiuto Legal advised Rulen on the deal, while Target Law and Rovetta Zanello e Associati advised the lead investor on legal and tax matters. The company has not disclosed its current headcount.
Company website: rulen.ai