Firstbase

Launching a company in the United States has always been challenging for any founder, but especially for international founders who face hurdles surrounding things like incorporation, compliance, banking, and tax deadlines. For countless entrepreneurs, these challenges have been situations that have ultimately led them to believe it is impossible to get access to the US startup ecosystem. Firstbase.io, founded by Ali Jiwani in 2019, is the solution to these barriers: an all-in-one platform that enables entrepreneurs from all over the world to incorporate and operate their businesses in the US with ease. The company has a simple mission: making starting a company as easy as clicking a button.

The company offers a range of services that are much broader than the process of incorporation. With Firstbase Start, founders launch U.S. LLCs or C-Corps in days, while Firstbase Agent helps companies remain legally compliant with continuing obligation to operate in multiple states by acting as your registered agent. Firstbase Mailroom provides a virtual business address and professional mail handling services. The accounting and tax filing services help founders manage their finances simply, so they can remain compliant without needing finance functions onboard. All of these services have been rolled up in Firstbase One, a bundled service that allows founders to manage everything through one dashboard. By looking not only at the company creation phase of a business, but also the "life after incorporation" phase, Firstbase is setting itself apart from traditional formation services.

The company’s reach and adoption have grown tremendously since the company started just offering incorporation in Delaware and Wyoming. Firstbase has since extended its work across thirty-three U.S. states, including traditionally strong startup states such as California, New York, Texas, and Florida. Globally, the company has assisted founders from over 180 countries, and over 30,000 businesses have incorporated via the company's platform as of 2025. Collectively, the companies have raised over three billion dollars, demonstrating the effects of Firstbase in democratizing access to the U.S. startup ecosystem. The growth is highly representative within the company as well- they started as a lean, early-stage company, and are now over 140 employees and growing steadily with global ambitions.

Firstbase has drawn some significant investment interest. The company was in Y Combinators Winter 2021 cohort and has completed multiple early-stage funding rounds amounting to a gross between 3.5 and 7.2 million dollars. Investors include: BlueYard Capital, CRE Ventures, Y Combinator, Pioneer Fund, Earnest Capital, Amino Capital, Oyster Ventures, among others, and angel investors include: Adam Wiggins, Heroku; Danny Olinsky, Statuspage. While there is no publicly available reference about an actual valuation, it’s only safe to conclude based on the company’s growth and investor composition that market confidence is increasing. Revenue estimates tell a similar story: around 600,000 in 2020; most recent estimates are over 20 million annual revenue. Gross profitability has not been disclosed, however, given the SaaS-style margins of its business model, Firstbase can certainly grow exponentially.

Firstbase's hybrid earning system combines one-time fees with recurring subscription revenue. Incorporation packages vary from approximately $399 to $999, depending on the business structure and filing options, while recurring revenue from services like the Mailroom, Registered Agent, and Compliance tools is produced from ongoing subscription income recurring in annual or monthly billing frequencies. Firstbase's other products, like accounting and tax filings, have their own separate pricing creating multiple revenue opportunities that have the chance to compound as first-time startup founders scale their businesses. Firstbase's hybrid structure and combination of one-time and recurring payments, creates predictable income and allows the company to operate sustainably like a SaaS business.

Firstbase.io has a competitive edge in a saturated market. Its closest competitors are Stripe Atlas, Clerky, Doola, and LegalZoom, as well as the low-cost incorporation services of Incfile, MyCorporation, Rocket Lawyer, and BizFilings. Many of these competitors are price-driven, with strictly incorporation-based services starting at $0 plus state fees (Incfile) or $100 (MyCorporation). Most of these companies focus narrowly on initial filing, and do not have a meaningful offering to support a business after it has incorporated. In contrast, Firstbase is providing a brand that emphasizes ongoing support — with compliance dashboards, bookkeeping, tax services, and mail handling that open up the founder experience well beyond registration. Doola has tried to compete by offering bonuses or banking access to the business entity, but Firstbase is building an ecosystem with a far wider range of services.

Looking at the future, Firstbase appears to be positioned for success. With more than thirty thousand companies created on its platform, a worldwide customer base spanning almost two hundred countries, and founders with billions of capital raised, Firstbase has established itself as an important infrastructure player for hopefully international entrepreneurs. Its growth into further states and offering of further services shows growth prospects, following its steady funding history and stable investor backing, which could allow for further rounds for greater capital and scale. It is not possible to comment on the profit margins of Firstbase, but we can assume that the pricing system and SaaS model support some high earning potential, particularly as the company continues to grow. Firstbase has taken a market that is littered with fragmentation in providers and very traditional eras, and find limitless potential for them as they have focused on building an operating system for founders. The company's transformation of how incorporation and compliance are fundamentally seen and executed, focusing on digitization, certainly allows world entrepreneurs a new way to create a path of building in the U.S.

Click here to access Firstbase's website.