European Crypto Tax Companies Announce Merger to Power US Expansion
Florian Wimmer (left), founder, and CEO of Blockpit, and Klaus Himmer (right), co-founder and managing director of CryptoTax. (Blockpit)
Two of Europe’s largest crypto tax reporting firms are to merge in an effort to turbocharge a planned expansion into the U.S. market.
- Austria-based Blockpit and Germany’s Crypto Tax announced the merger Tuesday, saying they would start offering a range of compliance and tax services all under one roof.
- Crypto Tax provides tax reporting frameworks, for crypto and non-crypto assets, like traditional securities, that can be adjusted to different countries; Blockpit offers anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) compliance tools.
- Klaus Himmer, co-founder and managing director of CryptoTax, and Florian Wimmer, founder, and CEO of Blockpit, told CoinDesk the merger will make them a full-scale regtech company.
- The new company will trade under the “Blockpit” brand, but will retain the “Crypto Tax” name for the taxation services.
- Structured by Austrian M&A specialist Venionaire, Wimmer said the merger was close to a 50:50 deal.
- Blockpit’s existing offices in Linz will become the new headquarters for the newly merged company, with Crypto Tax’s offices in Munich to be retained.
- A tax solution had already been developed by Crypto Tax, but is yet to be rolled out.
- The new company, already prevalent in the German-speaking world, will now turn its attention to rolling out specialized regtech products in the much-larger U.S. market.
- The new Blockpit plans to raise €1.6 million (~$1.9 million) from both companies’ existing investors and get the ball rolling on an extended Series C to fund the U.S. move.
- A prospective expansion to other English-speaking countries, as well as the Asian markets, is in the works for 2021.
- Wimmer said the merger has likely saved both companies a year or so building out products the other company already had.
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