FIZ is a financial platform for freelancers that combines AI with automation to simplify tax and financial management for independent professionals
Could you briefly introduce FIZ and tell us how the idea came about?
FIZ is a financial assistant — effectively a neo-accountant — for freelancers and small businesses in Portugal: certified invoicing, VAT, Social Security and income tax, all automated in one app, with an AI assistant on hand for tax questions day or night. The idea is personal. As entrepreneurs ourselves, we kept hitting the same wall — accountants who speak a language you do not understand and never seem to have time for you. We felt first-hand how much of a limitation that is for people like us: people who want to build, to create, to enjoy the freedom of working for themselves — not to lose their days to bureaucracy.
That is the conviction FIZ is built on: in Portugal, going freelance should not come with a second, unpaid job as your own accountant. Yet the moment you go independent, you are hit with recibos verdes, IVA, Segurança Social and IRS, each with hard deadlines and real fines for small mistakes. So we built FIZ to make the tax side simply disappear into the background. Today more than 15,000 people in Portugal rely on it.
What vision are you pursuing with FIZ?
No freelancer should have to become a tax expert to stay compliant. We want the fiscal side of running your own business to feel invisible — handled quietly and correctly in the background, so the only time you think about taxes is when we tell you they are already done. Simplification, for us, is not hiding complexity behind a prettier screen; it is removing the work itself — filing automatically, pre-filling the numbers, surfacing what matters, and answering questions in plain language the moment they arise.
Who is FIZ primarily built for, and which challenges do you solve?
FIZ is built for Portugal freelancers, sole traders on recibos verdes, and small businesses. They are brilliant at what they do, but were never meant to be accountants. We take on the everyday stress points: issuing certified invoices correctly, knowing exactly how much VAT and Social Security to pay and when, staying ahead of IRS. And when a mistake does slip through, we shield them from it — our Escudo Fiscal (Tax Shield) protects users against fines of up to 1,500 euros. In short, we give a one-person business the same backing a large company gets from its finance department.
Why did you decide to combine invoicing, taxes and social security into one platform?
Because in real life these are not separate problems — they are one continuous stream of obligations, and the friction lives in the gaps between them. Invoicing in one tool, VAT in another, Social Security in a third, and you become the integration layer, copying numbers by hand and hoping nothing slips. Bring it all together and the data flows on its own: an invoice you issue today already knows what it means for your next VAT and IRS. That is where both the time-saving and the accuracy come from.
What makes the combination of certified invoicing, tax automation and an AI assistant unique?
Two things. First, our invoicing is officially certified by the Portuguese tax authority — AT certification no. 3041 — so it is compliant at the source, not patched up afterwards. Second, we pair that with an AI assistant that genuinely understands the Portuguese tax context: a user can ask, in their own words, how much should I set aside this quarter, and get a clear answer at midnight, no appointment required. Certified compliance, a knowledgeable assistant and full automation in one place — that is what makes FIZ feel less like software and more like an accountant in your pocket.
How important is automation in helping entrepreneurs spend less time on admin?
It is the entire point. Admin drains your energy without creating any value — every hour on it is stolen from the thing you are actually good at. Automation reverses that: the routine, deadline-driven tasks are handled for you, reliably, so your focus returns to clients and growth. For a solo business, that is not a convenience — it is what keeps the business sustainable instead of heading for burnout.
How does FIZ ensure users feel confident with their financial data?
When you hold people financial data, trust is the foundation, not a feature — and you earn it two ways. Technically, through serious security and data-protection standards around sensitive information. And through being provably correct: our official AT certification means what we do is compliant and auditable, not merely claimed. We also keep users in the loop, showing exactly what is being filed on their behalf and why. When people see the system is both secure and right, confidence follows naturally.
What have been the biggest challenges building a fintech that works with regulatory requirements?
Regulation is not a wall you clear once — it is a moving landscape you have to stay inside of continuously. Rates, rules and reporting formats change, and here a mistake is not just a bug: it can cost your user real money. So the hardest work is being effortless and rigorously correct at the same time — two goals that constantly pull against each other. Staying certified as the rules evolve only works if tax expertise and engineering sit in the same room, solving the problem together.
How do you see AI shaping the future of tax and financial management?
AI turns financial management from reactive into proactive. You used to discover a tax problem only after it happened — at filing time, or when the fine arrived. AI lets FIZ understand your situation continuously and tell you what to do before the deadline, in language you actually understand. It also collapses the distance to expert advice: questions that once needed an appointment get answered instantly. Kept honest — always grounded in the real rules — AI makes good financial guidance something every independent worker can afford, not only those who can hire a professional.
What are the next major milestones and product developments planned for FIZ?
In the near term, we are extending FIZ from the individual freelancer toward small companies — bringing the same automation to their bookkeeping, so a growing business gets the same effortless, compliant experience its founders already trust as freelancers.
What are your long-term ambitions beyond the Portuguese market?
Portugal is where we are proving the model — but the problem we solve is not Portuguese. Independent workers everywhere face the same fragmented, intimidating tax systems. So expansion is very much the plan: in 2027 we will launch in Spain, with more markets to follow — and we are already actively studying Brazil. The ambition is to bring that same your-taxes-simply-take-care-of-themselves experience to freelancers well beyond Portugal.
What three pieces of advice would you give to founders building a fintech in a highly regulated industry?
One: get close to the regulation early and treat compliance as a core product feature, not a legal afterthought — in a regulated market, being correct is your product.
Two: obsess over one specific user and one specific pain before you broaden — we went deep on the Portuguese freelancer exact fiscal routine, and that depth is what earns trust.
Three: put domain expertise and engineering on the same team from day one; in regulated fintech, the magic happens when the people who know the rules and the people who build the product solve it as one.
Picturecredits FIZ
Thank you Petr Kutis for the Interview
Statements of the author and the interviewee do not necessarily represent the editors and the publisher opinion again.
