TaxScouts scoops £5m Series A and plots European expansion

The fintech saw a 30 per cent jump in the number of people looking for help with their tax returns in April alone.

TaxScouts, a new platform helping to make tax preparation easier in the UK, has today revealed that it has closed a £5m Series A funding round.  

The round, which was led by Octopus Ventures, will be used by the fintech to expand across Europe. 

Other existing investors in the round include SpeedInvest, Finch Capital and Seedcamp, which has invested in the likes of Revolut, TransferWise, Pleo and Curve.  

TaxScouts has chosen Spain as its first target for European expansion due to the size of the market and the complexity of the Spanish tax system.  

Mart Abramov, co-founder and CEO of TaxScouts, said: “Having successfully built a solution for one of the trickiest tax systems in Europe, we are confident that we can deliver another great product for Spain’s complex tax structure.  

“The market is double that of the UK, and this is the first step to us building a Pan-European tax service. We will build the go-to solution for anyone across Europe to easily file their tax return regardless of its complexity.”  

Since its launch at the beginning of 2018, TaxScouts has grown five-fold each year, with the fintech expecting to file tens of thousands of tax returns in the next year.  

During lockdown, TaxScouts has also seen an additional 30 per cent increase to the total number of people looking for help with their 2019/2020 self-assessment tax returns.  

Nick Sando, investment manager at Octopus Ventures, added: “Having seen the success of TaxScouts and the potential for this to be replicated in other markets with complex tax systems, we see a huge potential for one service that works for everyone.”  

The Series A takes the total raised by the fintech to date to £6.5m with the latest injection of cash being used to bolster its Spanish employee base and triple the entire TaxScouts team by the end of 2020.