“Can an Austrian-hosted, GDPR-native SMB accounting suite win DACH tax advisors and small businesses against DATEV and Lexware by pairing on-prem AI with PSD2 bank aggregation?”
manubu gmbh (the operating parent, formerly 'Das Finanzbuch' Software GmbH) has built FreeFinance since 2008 as an Austrian-founded, Vienna-based cloud accounting suite for SMEs, sole proprietors, NGOs and tax advisors in Austria and Germany. The product has expanded from Austrian double-entry bookkeeping into Germany (ELSTER), added bank connectivity via finAPI for all major DACH banks and neobanks (N26, Bunq, Revolut, Wise, Finom, Qonto, Vivid, Holvi), and layered on AI OCR belief-processing that they explicitly run on their own EU-hosted servers rather than a US LLM API — GDPR positioning is central to the pitch. Their embedded-finance surface area is deliberately narrow: they are the accounting book of record, not an issuer, wallet, or lender.
manubu gmbh connects to bank accounts through finAPI.
manubu gmbh integrates with WooCommerce (via make.com), Shopify (via make.com), Magento 2 (via make.com), Wix (via make.com), Etsy (via make.com), Amazon Seller Central (via make.com), DATEV export, FinanzOnline and 2 others.
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 2 layers in manubu gmbh's stack: Open banking (finAPI); Accounting (WooCommerce (via make.com), Shopify (via make.com), Magento 2 (via make.com), Wix (via make.com) and 6 others).
manubu gmbh was founded by Gerd Schaffer, Marcus and Simone and is founded in 2008, headquartered in Schwechat, Austria (Concorde Business Park F, 2320 Schwechat); legal entity 'Das Finanzbuch' Software GmbH at Argentinierstraße 21, 1040 Wien.
Get a read on where your own stack stands against manubu gmbh and the rest of its category — what they built versus bought, which providers they use, and where the gaps in your own strategy and competitive set actually are.