Reptune has appointed Rolf van de Velde as Chief Executive Officer as the tax compliance software company looks to expand beyond its existing multinational client base.
He takes over as more multinational groups are required under international tax rules to maintain and file transfer pricing documentation. Nearly 9,000 multinational enterprise groups now fall within those requirements, widening the market for software and advisory services aimed at in-house tax teams.
The Amsterdam-based company was founded in 2015 by Lennart van den Kommer and Allard Posthuma, with David Zarecky joining later. The founders came from Big Four firms and in-house multinational transfer pricing roles, and built the business around software for preparing, managing, and filing transfer pricing documentation across more than 170 countries.
Reptune has worked with more than 150 multinationals and says it has spent more than a decade refining its platform as regulations have evolved. Clients have shifted from fully outsourced transfer pricing documentation to a predominantly self-service model supported by Reptune specialists.
Market shift
Transfer pricing has become a bigger compliance issue for multinationals since the introduction of the OECD's Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Action 13 reporting requirements. The rules require multinational groups above a specified revenue threshold to document how they price transactions between subsidiaries, adding to the burden on internal tax departments and external advisers.
Reptune is positioning itself around a shift in how some tax teams manage that burden. Rather than relying entirely on outside advisers, more multinationals are bringing documentation work in-house with software support, partly to cut recurring costs and gain more direct control over reporting processes.
Customers typically save 50-75% in time and cost compared with fully outsourcing the work to external advisers, according to Reptune. The company also says its platform is kept current with local transfer pricing rules in more than 170 countries.
New Chief Executive
Van de Velde joins after senior roles at specialist business-to-business technology companies including Moving Intelligence and aviation internet-of-things company Undagrid. His remit is to scale a product that has already found adoption in a niche market but has yet to reach a larger share of potential customers.
His appointment also allows Co-founder Lennart van den Kommer to step back from the top executive role and return to product and specialist work within the business.
Van den Kommer explained the rationale for the leadership change.
"We've built a platform that transfer pricing specialists around the world rely on. Scaling it takes a different kind of expertise than building it, and Rolf has done exactly this in other complex industries. With him taking over, I'm glad to return to the work I do best," said Lennart van den Kommer, Co-founder, Reptune.
Growth plans
For Reptune, the leadership change marks an effort to move from a founder-led specialist business to a broader commercial push in tax technology. The company says many large companies still have limited awareness that in-house transfer pricing compliance is now a realistic alternative to traditional outsourced models.
Van de Velde framed his role as broadening market awareness rather than changing the underlying product.
"I've spent most of my career making complex technology accessible, ensuring the right companies know the right solution exists. Reptune has built and proven its transfer pricing platform, and the market is now embracing the shift. My goal now is to make sure Reptune is at the forefront of that movement, establishing a leading expert position in the tax technology industry," said Van de Velde.
The addressable market remains far larger than Reptune's current customer base. With more than 150 multinationals on the platform and thousands more groups facing country-by-country reporting and documentation requirements, the company sees room for further growth if corporate tax teams continue to bring in-house work that has historically gone to accounting firms and specialist advisers.
The broader backdrop is a tax environment in which reporting demands have become more standardised and more tightly enforced across jurisdictions. That has created room for specialist software providers that sit between traditional tax advisory firms and internal finance systems, particularly where local filing requirements vary by country.
Reptune says one advantage is the link between its software and a specialist transfer pricing community led by its founders, which feeds practical insight into platform updates. The company argues this helps keep documentation workflows aligned with how rules are applied in practice, rather than simply how they are written.
Van de Velde set out a broader ambition for the business in his closing remarks on the appointment.
"The goal is not just to reach more of the market - it is to define it," said Van de Velde.