Transforming Fiscal Compliance: How Fiskaly's Cloud-First Approach Is Reshaping European POS Regulation
- Jörn Menninger
- 7 hours ago
- 25 min read
🚀 Meet Our Sponsor
Stay tuned for the latest sponsor message from Startuprad.io. For sponsorship inquiries, reach out to partnerships@startuprad.io.
Management Summary
This blog post explores how Fiskaly, a European RegTech scaleup, is pioneering cloud-first fiscal compliance software across Germany, Spain, and Italy. Featuring insights from Oliver Abel, Country Manager Germany at Fiskaly, this post is tailored for tech founders, POS SaaS providers, investors, and startup execs navigating regulated markets. Learn how API-driven compliance is unlocking scalability, simplifying tax regulation, and empowering startups to innovate in traditionally slow-moving sectors.
What Is Fiscal Compliance Software and Why Does It Matter?
Fiscal compliance software ensures that businesses digitally record, store, and report transactions in a tax-compliant way. This is especially crucial in the EU where tax authorities enforce strict rules through systems like Germany's TSE (Technische Sicherheitseinrichtung).
How Does Fiscal Compliance Software Work?
Fiscal software integrates with Point-of-Sale (POS) systems to automatically sign transactions, issue digital receipts, and transmit records to national authorities—often in real time. Fiskaly’s API-based solution does all this in the cloud, eliminating the need for traditional hardware.
Featured Snippet Optimized: Fiscal compliance software records and reports point-of-sale transactions to tax authorities in a legally compliant way. Fiskaly’s API-based system simplifies this via cloud-based automation.
🎙️ Why Fiskaly Is a Game-Changer in POS Compliance
What Makes Fiskaly’s API-First Model So Disruptive?
Most fiscal solutions rely on hardware dongles or local servers. Fiskaly removed this barrier with a unified API, enabling one-click compliance across multiple European markets. This lowers switching costs and speeds up international expansion.
How Did Fiskaly Win Over Regulated Markets Like Germany?
Gaining trust in Germany’s highly regulated fiscal landscape required certification by BSI and alignment with BMF mandates. Fiskaly’s achievement as the first 100% software-based solution in Germany marked a huge inflection point.
Why Is Unified API Compliance Important for Scaling Startups?
Fiskaly’s approach means POS providers can integrate once and stay compliant in Germany, Spain, and Italy—with other EU countries to follow. This eliminates the need for custom implementations per market.
💼 Who Needs Fiscal Compliance Software?
POS Providers (e.g. SumUp, Orderbird, Ready2Order)
Retail SaaS Platforms
Multi-country startups in regulated industries
Retail chains expanding across the DACH and EU regions
Fiskaly currently supports over 1,000 B2B clients and 1M+ integrated POS systems across Europe.
🤔 People Also Ask
What is the TSE regulation in Germany?
TSE stands for Technische Sicherheitseinrichtung, a requirement for secure recording of transactions. Fiskaly is BSI-certified to meet TSE standards with no hardware needed.
How can startups stay compliant while scaling?
Use a unified, API-driven platform like Fiskaly to ensure seamless compliance in multiple countries without infrastructure changes.
Is cloud-based fiscal software legal in Europe?
Yes, as long as it's certified. Fiskaly is certified in Germany and is expanding compliance to Italy and Spain under national frameworks.
What are the benefits of cloud-first fiscal compliance?
Reduced operational costs
Scalability across markets
Elimination of hardware
Easy updates with new regulation
How does fiscalization impact small retailers?
It lowers fraud and increases transparency but can be burdensome. Cloud-first solutions like Fiskaly make compliance frictionless.
🔍Q&A Block
➕ Concepts & Definitions
What is fiscal compliance software?
Fiscal compliance software ensures digital recording, reporting, and archiving of sales transactions in accordance with national tax laws. It often includes digital signature mechanisms and secure audit trails to prevent fraud and enable tax transparency.
🎙️ Fiscal compliance software automates tax-compliant transaction logging at the POS, reducing fraud and simplifying audits.
How does Fiskaly’s cloud-based fiscal compliance differ from traditional systems?
Unlike traditional systems that rely on local servers or hardware dongles, Fiskaly offers a 100% software-based API-first model. It enables real-time compliance across countries via a single cloud-based integration—eliminating hardware dependencies.
What is the TSE requirement in Germany?
TSE (Technische Sicherheitseinrichtung) mandates secure digital signatures for all point-of-sale transactions. Fiskaly meets this through BSI-certified software, avoiding the need for physical hardware.
What is CTC in fiscal regulation?
CTC stands for Continuous Transaction Control—mandatory real-time or near-real-time reporting of fiscal transactions to national tax authorities. Fiskaly enables CTC via seamless API connectivity.
🛠 Use Cases & Implementation
Why do SMEs and startups prefer cloud-based fiscal compliance?Cloud-first fiscal software minimizes setup costs, avoids hardware dependencies, and ensures automatic updates to regulatory changes. It empowers agile teams to expand across countries without custom implementation per market.
How does Fiskaly reduce compliance friction?
Fiskaly’s API handles transaction signing, digital receipts, and data transmission. With just one integration, POS providers get compliant coverage in Germany, Spain, and Italy—reducing engineering overhead and time-to-market.
🎙️ Fiskaly turns multi-country tax rules into a single cloud API—cutting setup time and compliance complexity.
Is Fiskaly suitable for high-volume POS systems?
Yes. Fiskaly currently supports over 1 million integrated POS terminals across Europe. The cloud infrastructure is designed to scale with transaction volume and enterprise growth.
🔍 Comparisons & Alternatives
Fiskaly vs traditional fiscal dongles: What’s the difference?
Traditional systems require on-site hardware and local storage. Fiskaly eliminates this by using cloud-native signing, real-time reporting, and API calls—making it easier to manage, update, and scale.
Fiskaly vs dbt vs Looker: Are they competitors?
No. Fiskaly focuses on regulatory compliance, not analytics. dbt and Looker support BI pipelines; Fiskaly ensures tax and legal compliance at the POS layer.
Bottom-up fiscal design vs top-down government rollouts: Which is better?Fiskaly’s model supports agile rollout across markets through software abstraction, while government-mandated top-down models often require complex hardware certification and long adoption cycles.
🚧 Risks & Challenges
What are the risks of using non-certified fiscal tools?
Businesses may face fines, audit risk, or regulatory bans. In Germany, for example, non-TSE-compliant systems are illegal. Fiskaly is fully BSI-certified for TSE.
🎙️ Using non-certified POS systems in Germany can trigger penalties. Fiskaly ensures verified, real-time compliance.
Can Fiskaly’s model scale to large retail chains?
Yes. Its unified API enables retail chains to manage compliance centrally—even across multiple countries—without maintaining local infrastructure per branch.
Is data privacy a concern with cloud-first fiscal solutions?
Fiskaly adheres to GDPR and national data handling standards. Transaction data is encrypted and securely transmitted to government endpoints without retaining sensitive user info.
🔮 Future Outlook
How will fiscal software evolve with AI and automation?
Cloud-based platforms like Fiskaly are paving the way for predictive compliance, real-time fraud detection, and intelligent audit reporting powered by AI integrations.
🎙️ The future of tax tech blends real-time reporting with AI-powered insights. Fiskaly is already moving in that direction.
What markets is Fiskaly expanding into next?
Fiskaly is actively preparing to expand into additional EU countries beyond Germany, Spain, and Italy, with the Unified API allowing rapid rollout wherever fiscal laws emerge.
Will all EU countries adopt cloud-first fiscalization?
Trends suggest increasing acceptance of technology-neutral, software-first standards. Countries like Italy are revising earlier hardware mandates to allow for API-driven compliance.
How does Fiskaly help shape EU-wide tax standards?
By working with regulators and offering scalable, transparent tools, Fiskaly influences national rollouts toward more modern, unified tax compliance systems.
🧠 Further Reading
Authoritative Sources:
Startuprad.io Links:
Related Posts:
How to Scale a SaaS Startup in Europe’s Most Regulated Markets
POS Compliance in Germany: Why Cloud-First Wins
What Retailers Need to Know About Digital Receipt Laws in Germany
🎥 The Video Podcast
Will go live on Thursday, June 19th, 2025. Available earlier for channel members.
🎧 The Audio Podcast
Subscribe on:
Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Castbox | Global Podcast Network | Good Pods
📬 Connect with Us
Work with us: partnerships@startuprad.io
Subscribe: https://linktr.ee/startupradio
Feedback: https://forms.gle/SrcGUpycu26fvMFE9
Follow Joe on LinkedIn: Joern Menninger
About the Author:
Jörn “Joe” Menninger is the founder and host of Startuprad.io -- one of Europe’s top startup podcasts that scored as a global Top 20 Podcast in Entrepreneurship. He’s been featured in Forbes, Tech.eu, Geektime, and more for his insights into startups, venture capital, and innovation. With over 15 years of experience in management consulting, digital strategy, and startup scouting, Joe works at the intersection of tech, entrepreneurship, and business transformation—helping founders, investors, and corporates turn bold ideas into real-world impact.Follow his work on LinkedIn.
Leave a review, share this post, and let us know your thoughts in the comments!
All rights reserved — Startuprad.io™
Automated Transcript
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:00:00]:
Fiscally went from three founders in Vienna to 90 plus employees, 1 million POS integration in just five years. What are the key inflection points along that journey?
Narrator Dorsey Jackson [00:00:16]:
Welcome to Startuprad IO, your podcast and YouTube blog covering the German startup scene with news, interviews and live events.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:00:31]:
Hello and welcome everybody. This is Joe from StartupReady IO, your startup podcast and YouTube blog from Germany. Today on Startup Radio, we're diving deep into the world of cloud based fiscal compliance, API driven POS innovation and regulatory tech with a very special guest, Oliver Abel, Country Manager at Fiscally, Europe's leading pioneer in digital finance fiscalization solutions. Welcome Oliver.
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:01:00]:
Hello. Happy to have. Happy to be here.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:01:03]:
You bring a unique mix of financial expertise, consulting background and deep regulatory knowledge. Having joined fiscally back in 2020 and now leading the expansion and market positioning in Germany. By the way, that's why we are talking here today. Since stepping into the role as a country manager in 2023, you've been instrumental in shaping so strategic communication, stakeholder engagement and expansion roadmap in one of the world's most regulated markets. Under your leadership, Fiscally has achieved key milestones including the acquisition of df, a multi million year investment from growth equity firm Verdan and strategic expansion into Spain and Italy. The innovative approach offers software only TC compliance, cloud, native digital receipts and unified API integration. You have now reached more than 600,000 points of sale as Fiscally Together and served more than 1,000 B2B clients, including top tier partners like Orderbird, Sum up and Ready to order.
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:02:14]:
Right, that's absolutely true. I have to correct it at some point because we as Fiscally we have. We hit 600 KPOs recently but with the acquisition of Deutsche Fiscal we are close to 1 million now. So the Fiscally Group itself has hit the magic 1 million barrier. So very proud of that. Yes.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:02:40]:
In this episode we'll unpack how Fiskely is transforming fiscal compliance from a bureaucratic burden into a growth enabler for POS providers and retailers alike. Your perspective on digitizing tax systems, shaping public private tech regulation and why Cloud first fiscalization is no longer just in the future, it's in the present. Welcome. That. That was quite a long introduction. Sorry, but you gotta set the stage. In your own words, what is fiscally and what urgent pain points did you originally aim to solve?
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:03:22]:
Well again, thanks for having me. I think the introduction set the bridge or set the tone quite well for what we are doing and what is so like what the vibe behind it is. You know, it's very hard to explain sometimes what we do, and I want to make it quite brief and for everyone to grasp because we are basically a B2B SaaS company building cloud based solutions for fiscal compliance or for compliance across Europe. So we do this like with a single API approach. And I always say like or I tend to say our customers like the post providers, retailers, they build great products, great experiences, but what stands often in their way of growth, of growing across borders or entering new markets is regulation, fiscal regulation, compliance. So it's often complex, it's fragmented, it's a blocker for innovation and that's actually where we come in. I like to say we reduce pain as a service. That's what we do, we make compliance seamless.
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:04:29]:
Yes, that's basically like what Fiski is what Fiskeli stands for.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:04:34]:
Pain reduction as a service. I like that one. Fiscally went from three founders in Vienna to 90 plus employees, 1 million POS integration in just five years. What are the key inflection points along that journey?
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:04:52]:
Well, the most important milestone since we've been founded in 2019 was the certification in Germany. Because to have a product in Germany you have to be certified by one of the most. Yeah, it's, I would, I would always call them the end boss of regulation. It's the BSI in Germany and they do this quite detailed. So basically, basically by getting the certification in Germany we were able to have a product in Germany and because we were the only ones doing this, like we, we were very disruptive. It is a hardware based, driven, hardware based industry. We set the tone doing cloud based fiscalization as the first ones in Germany. So that was the most important milestone.
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:05:40]:
The next ones are obviously entering new markets like Spain, Italy with the same mindset, being software based, software first and being as disruptive as possible to make it as easy and seamless as possible for the customers.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:05:56]:
Who was the entity that certified you in Germany?
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:06:00]:
Yep, it's the bsi Bundes Amfezicheit in the Information Technik. They were in Germany. The regulation for fiscal providers are the Ministry of Finance, BMF and the bsi. The Ministry of Finance sets the regulatory standards when it comes to the law itself. Like, which is stated in the Abgaard modeling in Germany. And the BSI is responsible for the technical guidelines. So the technical solution itself.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:06:32]:
Would you say fiscal compliance is tax compliance or more?
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:06:36]:
It is fiscal compliance is. I would say it's a combination of a technical complexity like you have a product which is in Germany, which is highly a technical product.
Unknown [00:06:52]:
Right.
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:06:52]:
But there is always with fiscal Regulation, obviously there's always tax compliance. And I think this is basically like the sweet spot where regulation hits because the regulator, the governments have an incentive of transactions being recorded, you know, to prevent tax fraud and to prevent money laundering and also all which could happen at the point of sale. So therefore they want to regulate this business. But you know what, even though the state or the governments have a very good incentive, or I would say even an understandable incentive in doing that, the implementation of it, it's sometimes really, really complex. And therefore I would say in Germany, Germany basically hit the jackpot on that. It's so complex. So there was actually no one able to doing it 100% software based. And we were the first ones trying it and succeeding.
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:07:52]:
And that's basically. That was not only the first milestone, that was basically what kept us going. And yeah, our success story.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:08:04]:
So what you're doing is you offer the digital recording of transactions in order for your clients to provide them to the tax authorities.
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:08:17]:
Yes. So basically if you're sum up Auditbird Zettel, one of our biggest customers, in order to provide a product in for example Germany, you have to be compliant with fiscal regulations and that's it. We call it CTC Continuous Transaction Control which is basically the mandatory set of fiscal regulations. And we are the only ones who do this 100% software and API based. So therefore one time integration with us and you can basically scale and yeah, that's, that's our promise and that's why we're so popular especially with those or in this kind of industry.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:09:03]:
Talking a little bit about the go to market strategy and innovation strategy where was going cloud first and API first. In fiscal compliance. Such a game changer especially in hardware dominated environments like fiscal tech.
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:09:17]:
Yeah, I mean there are two aspects of growth for us to growth for us. One is timing. Timing is very, very crucial because when we were founded 2019 in Germany, the casting sets was just implemented. So if we would come across right now we would have been too late. Because you know the go to market or the timing is really really crucial here because since 2020 everyone has to be compliant in Germany.
Unknown [00:09:49]:
Right.
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:09:50]:
And if you are compliant with a fiscal regulation, your needs or your pain to switch is not that big. So therefore you have to be there when the law is basically implemented and you have to have a similar solution. We were, the timing was perfect for Germany and therefore we did the same or we're trying to do the same for Spain and for Italy. In Spain it's actually right now where this law is being implemented. So in the next couple of months we going live here as well or the law is being enforced. Same for Italy. Italy was actually one of the first countries in Europe to introduce a fiscal regulation. But as in many other countries, it was basically thought very hardware based.
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:10:31]:
So it, it is a hardware based business. And in Italy they basically they are switching now they doing it basically like technology neutral, like in Germany to also allow software based solutions. And therefore we are also trying to get a 100% seamless and software based solution in Italy as well.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:10:57]:
I see. How do you sign and receipt work under the hood? How did you gain trust in markets like Germany where regulatory compliance is complex and strict?
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:11:15]:
That's actually a very good question. Because trust is, I would say it's one of the most important aspects to our business that we gain trust. And you know what, we're a startup now. A scale up you could say obviously because of the size we have in the growth and the sheer numbers. And to be being able to do that, to gain that trust in that industry was I would say one of the biggest challenges. But the promise was so like what we promised was so good, right? Because it is such a pain, physicalization is such a pain to do it like hardware based and stuff like that. So we said, you know what, we take this complex regulation and we will transform it into a seamless cloud based solution. Trust us.
Unknown [00:12:05]:
Right?
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:12:05]:
So that was basically the promise. And you know what, until the certification 2021, it was like sometimes, you know, you tell yourself things like that often enough that you will make it that you start believing it.
Unknown [00:12:24]:
Right?
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:12:25]:
And it was like a really big gamble. But we always lived up to our expectations and we always lived up to what we promised our customers. So it's basically not something we always say or we write somewhere, it's what customers or what partners experienced since the first hour. We are always transparent, we are always very direct and we always try to make one thing like we try to make the life of our customers very easy. And that's, you know, by tackling this very, very tough regulations.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:13:01]:
Expansion and ecosystem growth. You not only did expand to Germany, you already talked about Spain and Italy. Your topics, pension targets. How does your unified, unified API strategy reduce localization pain for POS partners?
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:13:22]:
Yeah, so regulation is most of the time very complex and domestic. So every country, it's not a, it's not a. So regulations are not similar across Europe. So in Spain we are facing a different regulation obviously than in Germany or Italy. But they do have things in common. You can say some. There are some patterns which they have in common. So this is, I would say, the next big thing for fiscally and for fiscally customers to have a unified approach.
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:13:55]:
What does it mean? We are not only solving Germany or Spain or Italy or Austria or whatever country comes next, we are basically building a solution which covers all of the countries, right? So we call it Unified API. And this is basically like the next big thing for us because we are basically simplifying this complex and fragmented regulation for the customers. So whoever is integrated in Spain with us, whoever will integrate Italy with us, whoever is our partner in Germany whenever they feel to, they can basically implement our unified approach and they're basically compliant in all the countries we offer at the moment.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:14:43]:
That was something I would have asked you anyway, because that obviously makes sense. So let's talk partnerships. How did you land clients like Autobird, SumUp and Ready to order? Any tactics other startups can learn from you?
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:15:00]:
I mean, autobird was basically one of the game changers, to be quite honest and quite frank about it. Autobud was one of the first customers and it's since then one of the most important ones. How do you land them? We always focused on what makes them great is nothing we can like what I said in the beginning, reducing pain as a service is not only a slogan, it's really a mindset because what they do is so far away from regulation, you know, they don't want to put much effort into that. So we from the start we basically said, you know what, we can take away everything, which is complex for you here. And this is our business, this is what we do. No one likes to do it, but we are the best ones doing it. And I don't know, maybe it's sometimes just. It's like every business, it's a people's business, right? And we have a very good, very strong founder team which they built a very good relationship with the other birds, the sum ups and settles.
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:16:10]:
And maybe it helped also with that. They also had a startup background, they also have a growth background. So they knew exactly where we're coming from and where we're heading to. So that was it. Maybe so.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:16:27]:
I just had to smile when you talked about nobody wants to do it, but we do it. Is that the kind of toast you do at the Christmas parties? Fiscally?
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:16:40]:
No, no, no.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:16:44]:
It'S.
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:16:45]:
It's. Sometimes you have to be honest to yourself, right? And sometimes you don't have the product or you don't have the thing which is considered, you know, sexy it, it's not the thing you, you can brag about talking to your friends because nobody understands it, quite frankly. Yeah, but that's the good thing. That's the good thing about it because that's niche. And niche is always good. Niche is lucrative. Niche is nice if you want to frame it like that. And what stands behind it is so much more important.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:17:19]:
Being the only English speaking podcast of some meaning for Germany, Austria and Switzerland. I can totally agree. Niche is nice.
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:17:29]:
Yes, yes, yes, yes, 100%. And to add something to that, you know what, solely in Germany, the government says like there is like around 70 billion euros per year which are lost on the point of sale or money laundering, whatever.
Unknown [00:17:51]:
Right.
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:17:51]:
So they have a clear incentive in regulating these things. And I always say nobody likes to talk about taxes or increasing taxes and stuff like that. You know, this is something you can have a whole discussion about. But the regulation exists and we are just trying to make it seamless and easy to enforce and our customers have, I mean, we lower the burden so much to actually comply with these kind of things. It makes everyone's life easier.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:18:21]:
Right.
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:18:22]:
For the government, for the businesses and yeah, in the end also for the taxpayer and for the whole society. Really.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:18:34]:
Interesting, interesting way to think about it. We'll be back, guys, after a short ad break. Hey guys, welcome back to Oliver from fiscally country manager for Germany. We are talking now funding and growth strategy. You've just secured growth capital from Verdun. Why now after bootstrapping so far? And how would that money fuel your next phase?
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:19:08]:
Yeah, first of all, kudos to our founder team that they have been able to bootstrap this whole thing for such a long time. You know, to make one thing clear, the founders still have a majority of fiscally, so it was a minority investment. One thing which is really important. We did not need the money. It was not about the money itself. It was about the strategic partner with Verdain. Verdain is one of the most prestigious growth investors in Europe from the Nordics. And what they offer is a very, very good expertise with their portfolio customers and other portfolio companies like us and some of companies in similar situations.
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:19:56]:
It makes just so much more sense to do networking, to say like, hey, you, we are, we are where you have been? I don't know, three years ago. How did you manage to tackle that topic? How did you manage to restructure things? You know, and this is something where we are actually looking for answers. This is a really challenging thing, you know, growing a business, leading a scale up into these new dimensions, having growth across countries. This is very, very challenging. And therefore it is really such a great thing to have Verdain on board because they offer expertise, they offer the network, they offer other companies. And that's basically what makes this partnership so valuable for us.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:20:43]:
You just talked about having partner, having funding here. What role will M and A play having just acquired a here in Germany going forward, especially acquiring DF Deutsche Fiscal. Are there more acquisitions part of your European roadmap?
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:21:03]:
Yes, to make it short, yes, we have a target list which is updated on a regular basis. We managed to actually do the acquisition of Deutsche Fiscal to. I mean I can't go into details obviously, but to very good conditions. It was a deal which makes it a. Makes it possible to have some other like acquisitions in the near future as well. This is something we take a look into. But we have to be very careful. It has to make sense on all ends.
Unknown [00:21:38]:
Right.
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:21:39]:
And yes, and we don't want to put too much effort in growing inorganically but also organically. This is really, really important for us. And yeah, so having both growth sites is basically key here. But yes, we have a target list and this is planned. I would say I'm.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:22:00]:
I'm interested because in Germany I'm now talking to a lot of different entrepreneurs and more of more of them seem to seem to go the way to team up with the larger investors, some thing like growth investor, private equity investment and then start consolidating across Europe. That's a, that's a very interesting thought popped up a few years ago, but I hear it more and more often. Interestingly, that's how they build a European champion, they usually call it. But let's move on a little bit to leadership and vision. What's your boldest product bet for the next 12 to 18 months? What will fiscally evolve beyond fiscal compliance?
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:22:51]:
Yeah, I mean we talked about it before. Evolving beyond fiscal compliance is actually not something we are looking for or we are aiming for. Fiscal compliance is our core business. There are though there is an expansion or there is, I would say the total addressable market grows because our product or our technical solution can be used for different kind of aspects of regulation. So we're not only talking about point of sale regulation, we're also talking about, if I can give you examples, ev, charging, stuff like that. It's also regulated and therefore you can also think about having our product in mind for these kind of businesses as well. Without going in too much detail, but that's, you know, every. Everywhere where transactions or have to be recorded or signed.
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:23:49]:
This is something where maybe we could come into play and for Europe or for our existing fiscal compliance solution and product. I also talked about it before, the unified approach. It's basically, you know, having a, having a country which is hard to fiscalize is maybe something really, really interesting for us. But another topic which is interesting is having this unified fiscalization across countries and across Europe.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:24:17]:
And now we're going to introduce our audience. I know they usually speak in four to five languages and most of them will likely also be able to speak at least some German to some interesting German words. Registria, kassenflicht and boomflicht. Could you just plainly explain a little bit what those terms mean before we get a little bit into question about that?
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:24:45]:
Sure. So register Custom fish is basically a mandatory cash register. So you have to have. It basically says you. Every business which uses a point of sale or which has B2C transactions needs to have an electronic record keeping system. Basically like an electronic pos.
Unknown [00:25:06]:
Right.
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:25:07]:
This is part of fiscalization. Sometimes for example in Austria, sometimes it's not like in Germany. So in Germany you have also another beautiful German word which is called offene ladenkasse. And it's just, you know, it's, it's, it's pen and paper and it basically right now some businesses are excluded from the regulation because they actually are allowed to use pen and paper. And this makes it so funny because you know, Germany really regulates a lot of things, but they also make exceptions. So basically I don't know, I don't know if you are in, you are in Berlin on a regular basis. But when you're in Berlin, for example, and you see those speedy. For our non German audience, this is basically just little stores you'll find everywhere where you can get some beer or some snacks or whatever.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:25:59]:
They're open late. Speed.
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:26:01]:
Right, Exactly. That's, that's where it derives from. And what most, most and I would say 100% or almost have in common. You don't get a receipt there and you don't see, you don't see any regulation happening there.
Unknown [00:26:15]:
Right.
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:26:16]:
Because they are still allowed to use pen and paper. And there comes like this solves basically like the mandatory cash register. This should address it. And also like the mandatory issuing of receipts. Because this all plays into this fiscalization regulations which we address and the government addresses.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:26:44]:
By the way, I was laughing so hard because we do have an AI that is doing the transcripts. And so buddy then looks over it. But I, I already can Hear her saying what, what does mean?
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:27:01]:
Yeah, 100, 100. I can totally understand.
Unknown [00:27:04]:
Yeah.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:27:05]:
With, with this and so on and so forth. What role do you see fiscally playing in shaping fair and modern tax systems across Europe?
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:27:18]:
Yeah, you know, it's, it's. For us it is. Sometimes the regulator is really afraid of implementing some sort of mandatory thing. You know, I can only speak for the German side, you know the. Sometimes they were like ah, yeah, you know, if we, if we implement the registirka place like this mandatory cash register, this would mean like all the small stores would have to have a big investment for this point of sale. You know what? They don't understand that this is not, this is not the reality anymore. This is not the reality of business anymore. You have the sum ups, you have the settles, you have the order birds, you have, you know, ready to order you all.
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:27:59]:
And they all offer something really, really nice, a very small device which complies with the regulations. It's software as a service also like, it's also you don't have these high investments anymore. So basically when some regulators think of point of sales, they're still thinking of this really hardware, like this big hardware boxes. But that's not the case anymore. Right. So demystifying what this means and what the upside for the regulators is something we do on a regular basis to actually keep it fair across businesses, which is really, really important to not only keep the goals the government sets, but also to have a level playing field across businesses. That's.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:28:52]:
Talking a little bit here towards the end of our interview about something that may have an impact for our audience. What's one thing you wish More early stage SaaS founders knew about selling into regulated industry like yours?
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:29:10]:
It sounds a little weird when I say that, but. Or it may sound weird, but just be more, be more ballsy, be more proud of what you did and what you achieved. Because sometimes, you know, especially when you are dealing in highly regulated areas and industries, sometimes you feel like this small step, you know, it's like the small little piece in it. But you are actually, you can shape the industry. This is what we did. You know, we, we were faced, we, we were in between of all this big players, established players within the ones who said like no, this is not possible how you do it or how you envision it. And we did it anyways, right? And we shaped an industry because right now nobody's talking about hardware fiscalization in Germany anymore. Everyone is looking towards cloud based fiscalization.
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:30:05]:
The same ones who said like three, four years ago. This is not possible. This is not something you should actually follow. Are the ones copying us right now. This is the biggest compliment being copied by those companies.
Unknown [00:30:17]:
Right?
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:30:18]:
So be proud of what you achieved, be proud of your idea even, and be proud of that you even tried it and follow through. That's basically it.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:30:29]:
As a last question, if you could go back something like five years to 2020 and give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:30:40]:
Hang in there, it will get better. No, I would say, actually that was basically the thing I said before. Would have been the pep talk I needed back then. Maybe because we were actually not so confident, you know, we had to fake our confidence. You know, we had to, basically, yeah. We were the small startup from Austria dealing in this highly regulated industry and trying to find a disruptive way of doing it seamlessly. So I would actually say, you know what, you're on the right path. Follow through, be confident.
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:31:16]:
You're shaping an industry right now.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:31:18]:
Because it's the last question. Out of curiosity, I was wondering, how often did it help you to close the deal when you said, I'll be back?
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:31:31]:
I would love to say once, but actually never. To be quite. To be quite honest, being Austrian and having this Austrian background not always helped us having or growing a business in Germany. Sometimes it did, but most of the time, yeah, let's say we did have to show other qualities than being Austrian.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:31:54]:
I see. Oliver, thank you very much. Was pleasure having you as guest.
Oliver Abel | Country Manager Germany | Fiskaly [00:31:59]:
Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
Narrator Dorsey Jackson [00:32:05]:
That's all, folks. Find more news streams, events and interviews@www.startuprad.IO. remember, sharing is caring.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:32:22]:
Sam.
Comments