Tax start-up Taxdoo, which was founded by three former research assistants at the University of Hamburg, has announced its Series B round of 57 million led by Tiger Global. Among other things, the funds will go towards further internationalisation and help establish the financial operating system for e-commerce.
Small e-commerce traders benefit from the global reach of internationally operating online trading platforms, but they often have problems due to the internationality, as they have to declare their VAT in different countries and follow the corresponding rules. In 2016, VAT expert Dr Roger Gothmann, together with Dr Christian Königsheim and Dr Matthias Allmendinger, developed the Taxdoo software, which relieves online traders of the VAT declaration. With internationally active online trading platforms, these benefit from their global reach, but they often have problems due to the internationality, as they have to declare their VAT in different countries and follow the corresponding rules.
Total funding rises to a total of 74 million euros
Eleven months after the last funding round of 17 million euros, Taxdoo now announces the Series B round of 57 million euros led by Tiger Global. Existing investors Accel, Visionaries Club and 20VC are participating again, underlining their commitment. “The increased interest from investors has convinced us to launch another round of funding. Although our existing resources would also have been sufficient to continue our business for a long time, we can now pursue our plans with even more weight,” reports Dr Christian Königsheim. Among other things, the funds are to flow into further internationalisation and help establish the Financial Operating System for e-commerce.
The year 2021 was marked by several major events for Taxdoo: Brexit became a reality and turned the tax treatment of e-commerce deliveries to the UK upside down. In addition, with the One-Stop-Shop came what is believed to be the biggest VAT reform since 1993. The added complexity that these events brought confirmed the startup in developing an integrated finance platform for e-commerce.
The team was strengthened in many ways
“Fortunately, we can draw on our great and diverse team, which has grown from 45 members at the end of 2020 to nearly 200 today – with a consistent 50/50 gender ratio from more than 30 nations. We have been able to attract executives with experience in large and established start-ups as well as tax experts from the Big4 and other renowned consultancies,” Dr Christian Königsheim continues: “What unites us all is the firm conviction that tax and regulation should not be an obstacle for our more than 1,700 clients. On the contrary, we want to give traders from all over Europe a competitive edge by removing hurdles while they grow their business.”
The startup aims to develop the Financial Operating System for e-commerce: Flexible apps that run on a data set that automatically takes into account all relevant regulations. These apps will cover use cases such as VAT, invoicing, bookkeeping or payments and enable customers and their tax advisors to create their own automated processes. At the same time, external developers will be able to integrate their own apps with Taxdoo.
Taxdoo was able to secure an EXIST start-up grant in 2016 with the help of Nadine Weitendorf from the University of Hamburg’s start-up service in cooperation with Nils Neumann from Hamburg Innovation GmbH (now the “beyourpilot” project). The chair holder Prof. Dr. Markus Nöth has supported the team as a mentor since they found the company. Dr Moritz Lukas, postdoc at the same chair, provides strategic advice to the team.
Further news:
Taxdoo: Startup der Universität Hamburg erhält Investitionen von 17 Millionen Euro (18.12.2020)
