Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Good for Business, Investments, Technology

Aiming to build a pan-European tax filing service, first stop outside the UK is Spain, with TaxScouts having already appointed a Madrid-based country manager. It says it has chosen Spain based on the size of the market and the complexity of the local tax system, and will expand to further European markets in the near future.

The founders of TaxScouts include Mart Abramov, former product manager of TransferWise and Skype, and Kaupo Korv, creator of the design firm Haiku. In the UK, TaxScouts has been offering a tax return service since 2018, during which time the number of customers has grown to tens of thousands.

"While for Estonians, filling in an income tax return is just a matter of a few clicks, then elsewhere in Europe, it is still a considerable headache. In Britain, it is a complex, thorough and nerve-wracking process, where mistakes are easy to come by. We have replaced this process with a simple online questionnaire that everyone can follow and which allows us to automate the vast majority of otherwise manual work. In the last stage, each client's declaration is handled by a certified accountant, who helps to resolve even the most exceptional cases," Abramov, CEO of TaxScouts, said.

The company, which currently has 18 employees, has expansion plans after the investment round, plans to triple the number of employees within a year and also expand the product portfolio. In addition to the head office in London and the product development center in Tallinn, the company also opened a branch office in the new target market in Spain.

According to Abramov, their goal is to grow TaxScouts into a pan-European service that can be used anywhere, regardless of the complexity of the country's tax system. "In the UK, we have increased our business five-fold in the last year and the product there is mature enough for us to be able to start expanding across Europe. Spain did not catch our eye because of the beautiful weather or the good wine, but rather because of its complex tax system, which means great growth potential for our business. We can help a lot of people with our service," he added.

Leading the 5 million British pound or 5.6 million euro round is Octopus Ventures, with previous investors SpeedInvest, Seedcamp and Finch Capital following on. Also participating is Clocktower Technology Ventures, the US venture capital firm specializing in financial technology. 

So far, the company has raised investments in the amount of 6.5 million British pounds or 7.2 million euros.