Kontist is dead, long live Integral
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Kontist is dead, long live Integral 😇
It was the final nail in the coffin when I saw the updated and redesigned Kontist by Ageras (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) website the other day. Gone is the deep purple, replaced by a very bright green. Gone is the name, which is now only visible if you look at the animated logo at the top left, where the bold lettering switches in an endless loop between the former revolutionary for German freelancers, Kontist, and the current conqueror of the European TaxTech market, Ageras (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre). (Full disclosure: I worked at Kontist as a tax expert and as a product manager from 2021 to 2024)
A slow death
Kontist started as a banking offering for German freelancers in 2016, expanded its product to offer a full end-to-end tax service for the same target group in 2020, only to be acquired by Ageras in 2022. It was a near-revolutionary approach, building its own in-house business tax software to enable a fast back-office tax consultancy workflow and a modern approach to tax consultancy for Germany's underserved sole traders.
It's been a slow death for Kontist after the highs of 2021, when Kontist secured €25 million in funding, which kicked off a hiring spree that ended with around 200 employees. Only to lay off around 50 people in early 2022, followed by the acquisition of Kontist by Denmark's Ageras in mid-2022, where around 150 Kontist employees joined 200 Agerians from Denmark's Billy and Salary, the Netherlands' Tellow and Finland's Zervant. The subsequent doubling down on technology-enabled tax service didn't work out as expected, leading to a second round of layoffs and a shift in focus to Kontist's do-it-yourself tax products.
Kontist Steuerberatung no more
By this time, Kontist Steuerberatung, the company responsible for providing the actual tax advice for Kontist's tax services, seemed to have lost its place in Ageras' grand vision of European dominance. So it makes sense that Kontist Steuerberatung is now taking care of itself by hiring its own engineers (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) and starting with a fresh branding (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre). Kontist Steuerberatung is now smarta Steuerberatung (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre), run by Juri Preis, offering the same services as before, just not as closely linked to Ageras as before.
It doesn't seem to matter much to Ageras, who are focused on making their latest €82m funding round from last year count. With their two latest acquisitions, France's Shine (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) and Denmark's Storebuddy (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre), they continue to expand their European buy-and-build strategy.
Integral, the new hope
But just as Kontist as a brand and its original tax service are fading from our collective consciousness, a new player with a similar approach may be taking its ambitious vision and making it its own.
I'm talking about Integral (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre), founded in late 2024 by Lukas Zörner (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) (CEO, ex-Penta/-Qonto) and Anil Can Baykal (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) (CTO). They are off to a good start, having just secured a €6.3 million funding round (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) led by General Catalyst (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) and Cherry Ventures (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre).
Integral aims to digitally rethink all aspects of tax by offering accounting, tax advice and payroll through a single platform. While the platform is operated by Integral Services, the actual tax advice is provided by Integral Steuerberatung. Integral Steuerberatung is led by a familiar face in the TaxTech world: Markus Thomas Boldt (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) is a German tax consultant who has advised companies such as Kontist and Debitoor, and was previously part of the ETL Group.
Rather than focusing solely on freelancers like Kontist, Integral seems to be targeting small and medium-sized UGs and GmbHs. Through a combination of personal tax expertise and AI-enabled (tax) software, Integral promises to efficiently handle all tax matters for its prospective clients. Combining their own technology, political activism for their target market and being entrepreneurs themselves, the similarities with Kontist are unmistakable and provide a good foundation for the next generation of digital tax advice.
An old dream
As is often the case in life, some things end where new things begin, and although Kontist has gone, it pushed the boundaries of what people thought was possible in the German tax advisory market. They led the way by being bold and are now passing the torch to the new incumbents, who have the lessons of the past and new, advanced technology at their disposal to finally make the old dream of a seamless, digital tax service for SMEs a reality.
In other news 🥁
1️⃣ Accountable: AI tax advisor, banking and new look
In an eventful week for Belgium-based Accountable (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre), they had three things to announce:
An AI tax advisor (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) at your fingertips
A new business banking offering (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) provided by French Swan (and not German Solaris)
A new look (and Aldo) for their brand and website
2️⃣ Simon Beyme joins do-it-for-me tax app Zasta
Simon Beyme (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) joins Zasta (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) as General Counsel from January 2025 (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre). He has many years of experience in the legal and tax field, having previously served as Managing Director of the Berlin-Brandenburg Association of Tax Advisors, Head of Tax and Legal Counsel at RIDE Capital (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) and Managing Director of RIDE Steuerberatung GmbH.
3️⃣ Taxfix: Launch of new subscription-based pricing model Taxfix+
Something that has been pretty standard for accounting and bookkeeping software has now been introduced by Taxfix (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) for personal tax returns: the option to subscribe to your do-it-yourself tax application on an annual basis. With Taxfix+ (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre), a single filing costs €39.99 per year (joint filing: €59.99), compared to a one-off payment of €49.99 and €69.99 respectively. Users can also save €10 for each tax return from previous years. Taxfix+ is intended for do-it-yourself tax filing and not for their tax service offering.
4️⃣ New Zealand- and Australia-based Hnry extends tax services to the UK
After conquering the other side of the world with its transparent tax service for sole traders, Hnry (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) is taking the next step and coming to Europe (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) to offer sole traders automatic tax calculations and a personal accountant.
