Tabula

What do they actually do

Tabula builds an AI assistant for small and medium businesses and the accounting firms that serve them. Today it automates much of day‑to‑day bookkeeping—especially accounts payable—by reading invoices/receipts, inferring VAT and ledger accounts, proposing bookings, and flagging edge cases for review. Firms can then export final entries into their existing accounting system, with a focus on DATEV in Germany (Tabula product page; YC company page).

The typical workflow is: upload a batch of invoices, receipts, or bank transactions; the AI classifies and prepares bookings; the system prompts for missing documents or clarifications; an accountant reviews only exceptions; and exports to DATEV in one click (Tabula product page).

Tabula is used by German accounting firms and their SMB clients. The company says it has run books for roughly 700 SMBs and is used by more than 100 accounting firms; customers report large reductions in manual booking time, fewer missing invoices due to reminders, and a smoother handoff into DATEV (Tabula — Jobs/traction; Tabula product page).

Who are their target customer(s)

• Small local accounting firms serving many German SMBs: They spend hours on manual invoice entry, VAT coding, and ledger classification before exporting to DATEV, and want to free staff time for reviews and client advice.
• SMB founders or office managers handling admin: They struggle to keep invoices and receipts organized, often submit documents late, and lack up‑to‑date books for cash‑flow decisions.
• Mid‑sized accounting firms scaling without many junior hires: They need consistent, fast processing across hundreds of client files, but manual workflows create review bottlenecks and quality variation.
• Tax/VAT specialists and auditors inside firms: They worry about misclassified VAT or incorrect tax treatment from automated tools and need clear flags on edge cases and audit‑ready records.
• Practice managers or client‑success leads at firms: They spend time chasing missing documents and stitching exports into DATEV; they want fewer client touchpoints and smoother handoffs into existing systems.

How would they acquire their first 10, 50, and 100 customers

• First 10: Run founder‑led pilots with small German accounting firms via warm intros, onboarding the first client files by hand to validate exports into DATEV and quantify time saved for case studies (Tabula product page; YC company page).
• First 50: Standardize the onboarding playbook and have an AI‑adoption lead run framed pilots for practice managers; convert pilots to paid and use referral incentives so each satisfied firm brings 1–2 peers. Amplify via German accounting forums, meetups, and targeted LinkedIn outreach (Tabula — Jobs).
• First 100: Add channels: partnerships with DATEV consultants, bookkeeping service providers, and regional associations for bundled referrals; launch a low‑friction self‑serve trial for SMBs to feed more files into partner firms; invest in case‑study content and targeted ads while automating onboarding to scale across regions (Tabula — Mission; YC company page).

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

Germany’s accounting/bookkeeping/auditing industry is ~€52.5B/year; if bookkeeping and adjacent services are 30–50% of that, the relevant pool is roughly €15–26B (IBISWorld). Longer term, applying similar logic across Europe suggests a multi‑billion opportunity spanning tens of billions.

Bottom-up calculation:

Germany has ~3.2M SMEs (Destatis). Scenario A: if 14% fully outsource bookkeeping and spend ~€600/yr, SAM ≈ 448k × €600 ≈ €0.27B (Codat; Integral pricing; firma.de). Scenario B: if ~40% use an accountant for bookkeeping/VAT at ~€1,800/yr, SAM ≈ 1.28M × €1,800 ≈ €2.3B.

Assumptions:

• A larger share of SMEs use accountants for parts of bookkeeping/VAT than fully outsource (assumed ~40%).
• Representative annual spend for fuller bookkeeping/VAT packages ~€1,800/yr; low‑end packages ~€600/yr.
• Near‑term focus is Germany with DATEV‑using firms, limiting practical SAM despite larger structural TAM (DATEV).

Who are some of their notable competitors

• Finmatics: AI bookkeeping automation for tax advisors in DACH with workflows tailored to accountants and DATEV-centric practices.
• Dext: Invoice and receipt capture with coding suggestions used by accounting firms to speed up bookkeeping.
• Candis: Accounts payable automation for SMBs in DACH, covering invoice approval, data capture, and exports to accounting tools.
• BuchhaltungsButler: German automated bookkeeping software that categorizes transactions and supports DATEV export.
• GetMyInvoices: Invoice collection and data extraction that consolidates documents and syncs them to accounting systems.