Why Change Ventures invested in Eurora
Eurora was not an obvious choice for the biggest investment to date from Change Ventures. Eurora’s team of 45 people, and an AI/ML engine built over the past two years through cooperation with TalTech and AI technology groups did not really signal Minimum Viable Product to us. However, deeper analysis of eCommerce market made us realize that all this was necessary to automatically and accurately from day one handle tens of thousands of transactions per hour for large Chinese clients like JD.com.
EU law change increased cross-border eCommerce declarations by 900%
Eurora’s 1-stop eCommerce tax and duty platform launch was timed to take advantage of the July 1st, 2021 EU trade rules change. The new regulations increase the number of customs declarations by more than 900% as billions of new declarations must be submitted and processed across EU. All goods entering the EU zone must be declared in customs and all orders will now be subject to VAT. EU nations are strongly motivated to enforce the new rules as they are expected to result in over € 10 billion in additional tax revenues for member states.
Eurora offers eCommerce platforms automatic tax and duty calculations, declarations and fiscal representation for all EU member states
Eurora’s industry leading platform modernizes and automates bureaucratic processes for cross-border eCommerce transactions. Eurora can automatically and dynamically:
· assign to each e-commerce product an appropriate HS code (standardized international numerical method of classifying products);
· calculate the appropriate VAT and duty amounts based on sender and receiver locations (while mouse is hovering on price, or at check out) ;
· verify against prohibited parties and items lists;
· provide an accurate total product cost at check-out of each item;
· automatically create the appropriate electronic declarations for all EU duties and taxes; and
· act as the EU fiscal representative for all cross-border transactions for non-EU sellers.
At the center of Eurora’s services is a powerful AI/ML engine. The algorithms of the AI/ML engine were trained on over 500 million eCommerce product descriptions. Eurora platform can already automatically handle 5000 requests per second with up to 96% accuracy. This is the highest level of accuracy, speed and automation available in the market.
Target market — Chinese eCommerce platforms
Eurora’s focus is currently on Chinese platforms which represent over half of the world’s eCommerce volume. Eurora has already onboarded major clients like UBI and TopYou (largest e-commerce logistics providers in South China), Yanwen (ranked TOP3 cross-border e-commerce logistics provider in China), JD.com (one of the largest marketplaces in the World), and AIECOMS (large Association of Chinese cross-border e-commerce businesses). Together they represent over 1 million Chinese eCommerce companies. For these clients Eurora is already processing over 100,000 eCommerce transactions per day, and the volume is expected to increase to over 1 million transactions per day by end of 2021.
All-star eCommerce team
Eurora is led by a tremendously qualified team — the founder and COB Marko Lastik has been a leader in the logistics industry for over two decades as the founder and COB of international logistics company GTS Express; co-founder of international biomass and bioenergy group Graanul Invest; co-founder and head of logistics and customs at forestry giant Sylvester Group.
Marko is joined by the CEO Jaanus Vihand, who has served with distinction as the CEO of large companies like Bauhof, Coop and Apollo, managing hundreds of people and tens of millions in revenue in each of the posts.
Tax and duty expertise is brought to the team by the Director of Compliance & Customs Services Egon Veermäe. Egon is the Former Deputy Director of Estonian Tax and Customs Board, and former CEO of Estonian Social Insurance Board.
B2C services are headed by Taavi Kotka, co-founder of Nortal, former Chief Information Officer of the Estonian Government. And co-founder of the Estonian e-Residency program.
Change Ventures led this $3M investment round, and we were joined by some top Baltic angels including the co-founders of eCommerce platform Printify Artis Kehris and Janis Berdigans, and founder of KatanaMRP Kristjan Vilosius. Eurora’s early investors also include industry insiders like Roger Crook (former CEO, DHL Global Forwarding) and Taavi Kotka (former CIO for the Government of Estonia).
Yrjö Ojasaar
Investment Partner
Change Ventures
