Last week, the Boast U.S. team was in Austin for SaaStock USA 2026, connecting with software and technology leaders who are building the next generation of B2B tools. It was a fast-moving two days on the show floor, and we came away with a clear theme: The companies driving the most innovation aren't just building great products—they're finding smarter ways to fund the work, streamline operations, and scale efficiently.
That's exactly why R&D tax credits matter for the SaaS community. If your company is spending money to build, improve, or experiment with software, there's a strong chance a portion of that investment qualifies for federal R&D tax credits under IRC Section 41 (and potentially additional credits at the state level). Boast helps companies identify, document, and claim every dollar of non-dilutive government funding they've earned.
We sat down with many standout companies at SaaStock to learn more about what they're building. Here's a look at some of the highlights.
Surface Labs — Making Every Lead Count
Surface Labs is an AI-powered lead operations platform designed to help B2B marketing teams capture, qualify, route, and recover inbound leads with far less manual effort. The platform combines multi-step form funnels, AI scoring, and automated follow-up sequences to help marketing teams convert more of the traffic they’re already generating.
For companies investing in growth infrastructure like this, those engineering and product development costs can qualify for R&D tax credits; especially when teams are building custom workflows, testing new AI models, or integrating proprietary systems. Boast helps companies like Surface Labs’ customers understand where those credits apply and capture them before they’re left on the table.
TaxCloud — Simplifying Sales Tax Compliance
TaxCloud provides automated sales tax calculation, filing, and compliance for ecommerce and SaaS businesses, covering more than 13,000 tax jurisdictions across the U.S. As a certified Streamlined Sales Tax provider in 24 states, TaxCloud helps growing companies stay compliant as they scale across new markets without the manual overhead or enterprise-level pricing.
The convergence of tax infrastructure and SaaS automation is a real R&D opportunity. If your team is building integrations, developing new compliance features, or improving the systems that power your billing and financial stack, that work may qualify for federal and state R&D tax credits; funding that can be reinvested directly into product development.
Navu — AI Chat That Actually Knows Your Website
Navu puts a smart AI chat assistant on your website that answers visitor questions using only your own content with no hallucinations, and no generic responses. Setup takes minutes, and the platform connects directly with CRMs like HubSpot and Salesforce, giving sales teams real-time insight into what prospects are actually asking.
AI product development is one of the most R&D-rich investment areas in software right now. Companies building AI-powered tools, training models on proprietary data, or developing novel automation layers are doing exactly the kind of work the federal R&D tax credit was designed to reward. Boast helps tech companies document and claim those credits without disrupting their engineering teams.
RCKT — Growth Infrastructure for Seed and Series A SaaS
RCKT is a growth partner built specifically for Seed and Series A B2B SaaS companies. Rather than running one-off campaigns, RCKT installs what they call a growth operating system that cover positioning, demand generation, sales enablement, and retention, all while measuring success by pipeline and revenue movement, not activity.
Early-stage software companies are often sitting on unclaimed R&D credits precisely because they’re heads-down on product. The qualified research expenses tied to building, testing, and iterating on a SaaS product can offset a meaningful portion of payroll and development costs. For founders under pressure to extend runway between funding rounds, that’s non-dilutive capital that changes the equation.
DataGOL — The AI-Native Data Platform
DataGOL is a platform that helps companies make their existing data stack AI-ready, connecting sources like Salesforce, Snowflake, HubSpot, and NetSuite into a unified layer that supports embedded analytics, AI agents, and custom LLM-powered features. For SaaS companies looking to ship AI features faster, DataGOL bridges the gap between raw data infrastructure and production-ready AI capabilities.
This is precisely the kind of investment the R&D tax credit rewards. Companies building AI products, training models on proprietary data, or developing novel data pipelines are investing in qualified research activities. Boast helps teams in the data and AI space systematically capture those credits without requiring engineers to become tax experts.
Maxio — Financial Operations for Scaling SaaS
Maxio provides billing, subscription management, revenue recognition, and SaaS metrics reporting for B2B software companies. From usage-based billing to GAAP-compliant revenue recognition and custom financial dashboards, Maxio is the financial backbone many scaling SaaS companies rely on to manage complexity across their customer base and close the books faster.
For CFOs and finance leaders at SaaS companies, R&D tax credits are one of the most underutilized tools for recovering investment in product development. Boast integrates with the tools your finance team already uses to build a comprehensive, audit-ready system of record so that claiming your credits doesn’t create extra work at close.
Empleyo — Global Remote Staffing Without the Headaches
Empleyo is an Employer of Record (EOR) and remote staffing platform that handles payroll, compliance, onboarding, and HR for companies hiring internationally. Whether you’re scaling a remote team across Asia, Europe, or the Americas, Empleyo manages local employment laws and pays your team accurately without requiring you to set up legal entities in every country.
For SaaS companies that rely on international engineering and product teams to drive R&D, understanding which wage expenses qualify under the federal R&D tax credit is critical. Boast helps companies with distributed teams identify and document qualified research activities across their workforce, turning global development investments into domestic tax credit claims.
The SaaS Stack That Supports Innovation, and the Credits to Match
The companies we met at SaaStock represent a cross-section of the modern SaaS stack, from growth infrastructure and lead operations to financial systems and global hiring. What they share is a commitment to building better tools, and much of the engineering and product investment behind that work qualifies for government R&D funding.
Boast has helped more than 2,000 companies across North America secure over $900M in R&D tax credits. If you’re investing in software development and not claiming your credits, you’re leaving money on the table.
