mika, a Berlin-based vertical AI business building an alternative to the traditional tax firm, has secured €6m in seed funding to support its growth and continue developing its platform.

Pan-European investor Smedvig Ventures led the round. Basel family office Wecken & Cie. (Care4 AG) also took part, as did studiVZ co-founders Dennis Bemmann and Michael Brehm, limango founder Johannes Ditterich and Martina Pfeifer of encourageventures. Existing backers Keen Venture Partners and Dutch Founders Fund added to their holdings.

The company is not simply putting a digital layer on top of conventional tax advisory. Instead, it has designed accounting, tax and finance from scratch as an AI-native financial operating system for SMEs. For small GmbHs and UGs, the platform handles day-to-day bookkeeping, VAT returns, annual accounts and tax filings.

Germany is home to almost one million small incorporated firms, and every one of them must legally keep books, file VAT returns and produce annual accounts, mika said. Management could in principle do this work itself, but few attempt it. A single error can lead to back-taxes or fines, and the relevant rules sit across tax codes that are revised every year. As a result, nearly all small companies pay a tax adviser or firm to take care of it.

Founder and CEO Agnieszka Walorska has first-hand experience of this hurdle. She started her first business without entrepreneurial role models, family wealth or a network to rely on. For some founders, an annual adviser bill of a few thousand euros barely registers.

Source link