Small business owners are constantly pressed for time, and often resource constraint. While they’d just like to focus on growing their business, the vast majority of them are struggling with complex accounting, tax filings, regulatory constraints and proper financial planning. 

This problem is huge – in Germany alone there are 3M small businesses, with these entrepreneurs  typically annually spending ±300 hours and >€30,000 on overhead financial and tax tasks and advisors. And inspite of these costs, 70% of entrepreurs still feel they lack the insights and support they need; in Germany 90% of entrepreneurs see bureaucracy as a major obstacle.

Enters mika: a Berlin-based genAI startup focused on eliminating financial and tax overhead for small businesses. With mika, we’re building genAI-powered autonomous agents to handle accounting tasks, tax filings, and financial advice – making financial management more accessible, efficient, and cost-effective for small businesses. mika will initially focus on the German market, before expanding through the rest of Europe.  

mika was founded by Agnieszka Walorska, who brings passion, determination, deep knowledge of the tax and regulatory system, and first-hand experience of the problem as a repeat entrepreneur.

We are thrilled to have the opportunity to build mika with Agnieszka; here are our top 3 reasons:

1. Leveraging latest advancements in genAI technology …

Until very recently, technological barriers prevented products from extracting meaningful insights from the huge variety of financial documents a typical small business entrepreneur might encounter. And critically, the advancements in genAI now allows us to translating these insights into a UX that will actually help an entrepreneur. 

2. … to impact millions of users not yet empowered by AI … 

Large businesses have the resources to use sophisticated AI tools; small business entrepreneurs don’t. We’re inspired by mika’s mission to use AI technology to empower these users. By co-building mika we can help these entrepreneurs focus on their business, instead of dealing with admin and bureaucracy.

3. … partnering with a founder that embodies her target customers

Agnieszka’s idea for mika directly developed during her years as a small business entrepreneur – she experienced the pain and frustrations directly, and made it her life’s mission to change this situation. As she said to us “Having bootstrapped my first business as a migrant with no network, I know these challenges firsthand; that’s why I’m building mika. Imagine having a CFO-level AI in your pocket, handling all the financial complexities so you can focus on your passion. That's mika.”

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mika is the third venture since summer 2023 we’re building within the Samen Slimmer alliance (after Qneiform among others)-  working with Keen Venture Partners and DFF to partner with exceptional founders to build businesses that will transform their industries with AI.

We are very excited to welcome mika to our portfolio!