Confidential · Founders & Investors
Strategic Design & Analysis
Prepared Aug 2026
v0.1
Tax-Recovery Infrastructure · Strategic Dossier

The platform that powers every tax-recovery startup in Europe.

A shared technology platform — the picks & shovels beneath a new generation of vertical tax-recovery operators. One integration gives any niche startup the OCR, AI, tax-authority connectivity, open banking, and cross-vertical intelligence it would otherwise spend 18 months and a technical team building. We are their outsourced CTO. Recommended brand: Reclaim · reclaim.tax — see §7.

€89B
EU VAT gap — the leakage that proxies Europe's recoverable-tax pool hi
6+
Distinct tax-recovery verticals, each rebuilding the same tech stack today
11
Shared capability layers we provide as one platform — OCR to open banking
1 API
Replaces a technical co-founder, a team, and ~18 months of build
Basis: €89B VAT gap — European Commission / DG TAXUD VAT Gap reports (high confidence; full sizing in Market §3). · Verticals & layers — derived from the platform thesis (Thesis §2, Platform §5). · Reference vertical — the EU truck tax-recovery dossier at TTR/research shows the depth one vertical needs; Tax Labs generalises it into a platform. Confidence flags and workings appear on each page.
The thesis in one line

Europe's tax-recovery market is fragmenting into dozens of niches — truck fuel VAT, SME VAT, cross-border per-diems, import duty, corporate-travel VAT — and every one is rebuilding the same expensive infrastructure from scratch. Tax Labs builds it once, at platform scale: cheaper, better, and compounding. We win on economies of scale, a cross-vertical data network effect, and a CTO-as-a-service model — usage + licensing + equity — that makes us the technical co-founder of a whole category.

Contents
01

Executive Summary

The opportunity, the platform, the model, and the recommendation — on one page.

02

The Thesis & Why Now

Picks-and-shovels logic, the vertical map, and the tailwinds that make the timing right.

03

Market Research

The recoverable-tax pool, the enabling-tech markets, and a bottom-up TAM / SAM / SOM.

04

Competitive Landscape

Point solutions, horizontal tax-tech, build-vs-buy — and the white space they all leave open.

05

Platform Architecture

The 11 layers, the inference gateway, multi-tenancy, and the data-network-effect moat.

06

Business Model

Usage + licensing + equity, unit economics, and the operating leverage of a shared platform.

07

Branding & Positioning

The name (Reclaim), the category we own, and the ingredient-brand strategy.

08

Go-to-Market & Verticals

Which verticals first, how the flywheel spins, and the land-and-expand motion.

09

Risks & Roadmap

Regulatory constraints, key risks, moats, and the phased build plan.

Reference

Glossary

Tax, regulation, AI-infrastructure, and platform terms — plain-English.

Each page is print-optimised — use your browser's Print → Save as PDF for a clean deck. New to a term? See the Glossary →

Tax Labs · Strategic Design & Analysis — Confidential Prepared for founders & investors · Aug 2026