DivTax, a Hamburg-based fintech startup focused on international dividend tax recovery, has raised €1 million in a pre-seed funding round to accelerate product development and expand institutional partnerships.
Investors in the round include Angel Invest, CapCircle, Superangels, ING COO Ralph Müller, Max Linden, and financial-sector angels such as Christian Stiebner and Matthias Goegele. Müller and Stiebner had previously backed the company in its 2024 angel round.
What The Company Does
Founded in 2023 by Nicolas Oldag, Linus Holzer, and Julius Holzer, DivTax is building a digital platform designed to help investors reclaim foreign withholding taxes on international dividends, a process that is often complex, manual, and underutilised. The company addresses the issue of double taxation, where investors pay withholding taxes abroad that can be partially reclaimed but are frequently left unclaimed due to administrative barriers.
Its platform aggregates transaction data directly from brokers, calculates reclaim eligibility and optimisation potential across different jurisdictions, and manages the full reclaim workflow through an automated, digital process. According to the company, the system can process tax reclaims within minutes, potentially increasing net dividend returns for investors.
Developed in collaboration with DivTax-Legal and founder Fabian Druschel, the technology is positioned as a standalone, full-service infrastructure for international withholding tax management serving both retail and institutional clients.
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Market Context / Industry Background
As cross-border investing becomes more accessible through digital brokerage platforms, more retail and institutional investors are exposed to foreign dividend withholding taxes. However, reclaim processes remain fragmented, jurisdiction-specific, and heavily paperwork-driven, leading to significant amounts of recoverable tax going unclaimed each year.
While fintech innovation has simplified trading, portfolio management, and access to global capital markets, tax optimisation workflows have largely remained manual and opaque. This gap has created an emerging niche for tax-focused fintech platforms that automate compliance and reclaim processes while ensuring regulatory adherence.
Increasing participation in global equity markets, particularly among retail investors, is also amplifying demand for automated solutions that can improve net investment returns without adding administrative complexity.
Founder / Investor Commentary
Co-founder Nicolas Oldag noted that his experience in fintech and capital markets highlighted how technology has made investing more accessible, while tax-related processes have largely remained overlooked despite their impact on shareholder returns. He emphasized that taxes represent a significant driver of investment performance, yet are rarely optimised through digital tools.
The company positions its platform as a secure and compliant solution, highlighting its use of high encryption standards and data storage exclusively on German servers, with a stated policy of not monetising user data.
Growth Plans / Use Of Funds
The newly raised funding will be used to further develop DivTax’s platform, enhance broker integrations, and expand strategic partnerships with financial institutions. The company also aims to broaden its service offering for both retail and institutional clients as it scales its withholding tax management infrastructure.
DivTax launched its B2C platform in early 2025 and is currently available to German investors, with integrations into several leading fintech and brokerage platforms. The startup has also secured an initial strategic client and received additional support from IFB Innovationsstarter GmbH, reinforcing its early market traction within the German fintech ecosystem.
About DivTax
DivTax is a Hamburg-based fintech company providing a digital platform for reclaiming overpaid withholding taxes on foreign dividends. Founded in 2023. The company offers a fully online, compliant solution that automates the tax reclaim process, helping investors increase net dividend income through secure and streamlined international tax management.
