IronLedger.ai

What do they actually do

IronLedger automates expense collection and coding for multifamily property accounting. It pulls invoices from email and card feeds, texts purchasers via automated SMS to collect missing receipts or allocation details, reads receipts/invoices to assign GL codes and property splits, and pushes the coded transactions back into the customer’s property management/accounting system so accounting teams can review and close faster (site/product, site).

They report live use across roughly 30k–35k multifamily units with named case studies, and advertise setup in under two weeks with <2 hours of customer time. They claim high-confidence auto-coding with human review for low-confidence items (“auditable AI”), >99% coding accuracy, and savings like ~4 hours per property per month and a $70k annual cost reduction in one example (site, product, YC page).

Who are their target customer(s)

• Regional multifamily owners/operators and management companies (hundreds to thousands of units): Accounting effort scales linearly with portfolio size; month-end close and expense processing require more headcount and manual work. They want to reduce the time spent on receipt chasing and expense coding without adding staff (site, YC page).
• In-house property accounting teams and bookkeepers: Their day is dominated by tracking down receipts, manual GL coding, and spreadsheet reconciliations, which slows month-end and introduces errors (product, YC page).
• On-site property staff (leasing, maintenance, office) who make purchases: They spend time finding and sending receipts or allocation details, delaying reimbursements, billbacks, and vendor payments and distracting from on-site work (site).
• Outsourced accounting providers and CPA firms handling property books: They receive messy inputs (emails, cards, mixed allocations) and spend many review cycles. They need high-confidence, auditable coding to cut review time and reduce billable hours spent on low-value tasks (product).
• Finance leaders/owners focused on cost control and audit risk: They want predictable, auditable accounting with fewer mistakes and less outsourced spend so they can grow portfolios without proportional back-office headcount (accounting services, site).

How would they acquire their first 10, 50, and 100 customers

• First 10: Founder-led paid pilots with 8–12 regional owners or outsourced-accounting partners, offering hands-on onboarding (under two weeks / <2 hours of customer time) focused on SMS receipt collection + auto-coding to prove hours saved and accuracy, with clear success metrics (product).
• First 50: Add 1–2 sales reps to run targeted outbound to similar owner/operators and CPA firms, using pilot case studies and the “eliminate receipt chasing” wedge; convert happy pilots into referrals. Pursue listings/integrations with major property-management systems to shorten sales and remove technical objections (site).
• First 100: Sign channel partnerships with regional accounting firms and PMS resellers; add self-serve demos and templated onboarding to compress sales/implementation. Invest in two scalable demand channels (industry conferences/publications and targeted LinkedIn to finance leaders) plus a small CS team to keep churn low and drive word-of-mouth.

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

The U.S. has roughly 21–22 million multifamily apartment households/units; small multifamily (5–49 units) alone represents ~14.2 million households (65.6%), implying ~21.6 million total across small and large multifamily (Arbor; see also NMHC Quick Facts resources NMHC). Property management platforms commonly price add-ons per unit per month (e.g., AppFolio ranges about $1.40–$5.00 per unit/month) (Balanced Asset Solutions).

Bottom-up calculation:

If IronLedger sells expense automation at ~$1.50–$3.00 per unit per month to a targetable U.S. base of ~12–15 million multifamily units managed on modern systems, annual TAM is ~$270M–$540M (12–15M units × $18–$36 per unit/year). This excludes adjacent revenue from broader accounting automations (billbacks, reconciliations).

Assumptions:

• Targetable U.S. units: ~12–15M of the ~21–22M total are on modern PMS/accounting stacks that can integrate.
• Pricing model: $1.50–$3.00 per unit per month for expense automation, benchmarked to per-unit add-on ranges in the market.
• Scope limited to U.S. multifamily; does not include single-family or international expansion.

Who are some of their notable competitors

• Yardi (PayScan / Smart AP): Major property-management suite with Procure-to-Pay tools (PayScan, Smart AP) for invoice capture, approvals, and vendor payments integrated into Yardi Voyager—standard in many multifamily shops (Yardi PayScan, Smart AP).
• AppFolio (Smart Bill Entry): Broad property-management platform used by mid-market operators; includes Smart Bill Entry for invoice scanning/coding and AP workflows as part of its accounting stack (third-party overview Buildium vs. AppFolio).
• RealPage: Enterprise property-management platform with AP/payment tools and integrations with payables providers like AvidXchange/NexusPayables, widely adopted by large portfolios (integration refs).
• AvidXchange (Real Estate): AP automation focused on mid-market real estate and property management; digitizes invoice capture, approvals, and vendor payments with real estate-specific workflows (AvidXchange for Real Estate).
• Ramp: Corporate card and AP platform with receipt collection, invoice capture, and bill pay; not real-estate-specific but often considered for reducing manual AP work in property companies.