COMBASE AG
COMBASE AG, founded in 1994 and headquartered in Dresden, Germany, provides the KORONA enterprise headless POS platform with KORONA AI for pricing and inventory decisions. It serves 7,000+ retail, hospitality, ticketing, and franchise customers across international markets.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded1994
- HeadquartersDresden, Germany
- Headcount101–250
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What COMBASE AG does
COMBASE AG is a privately held German software company founded in 1994 and headquartered in Dresden. It develops and sells KORONA, an enterprise point-of-sale (POS) platform aimed at modern retail, hospitality, ticketing, and franchising operators. The company reports more than 7,000 customers across its footprint and positions KORONA as a scalable backbone for commerce operations ranging from single-register businesses to networks of up to 10,000 cash registers.
The KORONA platform is built on a "headless" POS architecture that decouples a single business-logic backend from multiple frontend formats — classical cash registers, self-checkout, mobile, and autonomous formats. KORONA AI, the company's proprietary AI module, runs predictive analytics and optimization at the point of sale for real-time pricing, assortment, and inventory decisions. The platform is delivered via secure cloud infrastructure with international fiscalization support and an API-first approach that enables integration with ERP, CRM, and loyalty systems. Distribution relies on a dedicated product site (koronapos.com) and the parent corporate site (combase.de).
COMBASE operates a subscription-based revenue model and combines a product-led growth motion (a free, full-featured test account with more than 300 pre-built analyses) with an enterprise field-sales motion that delivers scheduled 10–20 minute live demonstrations to large chains and franchise networks. The go-to-market spans four named verticals — retail, hospitality, ticketing, and franchising — with content marketing, social media, and industry-event presence (including NRF 2026) supporting lead generation. The company is self-funded with no disclosed external capital and no public ownership commentary.
COMBASE AG firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- COMBASE AG
- Legal name
- COMBASE AG
- Website
- https://combase.net
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 1994
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 101–250 employees
- Short description
- COMBASE AG, founded in 1994 and headquartered in Dresden, Germany, provides the KORONA enterprise headless POS platform with KORONA AI for pricing and inventory decisions. It serves 7,000+ retail, hospitality, ticketing, and franchise customers across international markets.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
COMBASE AG industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Point of Sale Software
- akta.pro primary industry
- POS Payment Software & Middleware (Terminal OS, Apps, Device Management) (FSAMADAC)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Integrated POS Payments (ISVs & Vertical POS Platforms) (FSAMADAD), POS-to-Online Unified Payments (Omnichannel Payments) (CRAFALAL)
Keywords
Where COMBASE AG is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Dresden
- HQ country
- Germany
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices1 record
Markets served
COMBASE AG business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Operations, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- KORONA POS Software Subscriptions: Enterprise POS software platform sold as subscription, providing headless POS, KORONA AI, and cloud infrastructure. Scalable licensing from single register to 10,000+ cash registers.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Pay-as-you-go | Free Test Account - Full-featured trial with no obligations |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels4 records
COMBASE AG product offering
Product offeringCore offering
COMBASE AG provides the KORONA enterprise Point of Sale (POS) software platform, featuring a headless architecture that runs traditional cash registers, self-checkout, mobile, and autonomous formats on a single business-logic backend. The platform includes KORONA AI for real-time pricing, assortment, and inventory optimization at the point of sale, open APIs for ERP/CRM/Loyalty integration, and secure cloud infrastructure with international fiscalization. It scales from a single register to 10,000+ cash registers and is sold via subscription to retail, hospitality, ticketing, and franchise operators.
Product overview
COMBASE AG offers KORONA Kassensysteme as its core enterprise headless POS platform, featuring KORONA AI as an integrated AI module for real-time pricing, assortment, and inventory optimization. The platform supports multiple frontend formats (traditional checkout, self-checkout, mobile, and autonomous formats) on a single backend, with open APIs for ERP/CRM/Loyalty integrations. KORONA.pos Kassenservice provides ongoing support for the POS systems.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- KORONA: Enterprise POS (Point of Sale) system platform featuring Headless POS architecture, AI-powered control (KORONA AI), and open APIs. Scalable from 1 to 10,000 cash registers.
Products and services
- KORONA Kassensysteme Enterprise-grade headless Point of Sale (POS) platform for modern retail, hospitality, ticketing, and franchising. Supports scalable deployments from 1 to 10,000 cash registers, runs multiple frontend formats (traditional checkout, self-checkout, mobile, autonomous) on a single business-logic backend, and provides AI-ready capabilities, open APIs, and secure cloud infrastructure with international fiscalization.
- KORONA AI AI-powered decision support module for the KORONA POS platform that provides real-time pricing, assortment, and inventory recommendations directly at the point of sale, helping operators reduce waste, shorten wait times, and replace intuition-based planning with data-driven decisions.
- KORONA.pos Kassenservice Service center providing support, maintenance, and handbuch (manual) resources for KORONA POS systems, offered via support.korona.de and the COMBASE products page.
Quantifiable outcome
- Platform scalable from 1 to 10,000 cash registers
- +1 more outcomes
Companies that use COMBASE AG
Customer profileNamed customers1 record
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
COMBASE AG technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability3 records
Feature4 records
COMBASE AG partnerships and signals
Strategic signalScale indicators4 records
Recent moves5 records
Expansion highlights6 records
COMBASE AG competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Lightspeed Commerce: Publicly-traded omnichannel commerce and POS platform serving retail and hospitality SMBs and mid-market — directly comparable to KORONA in core vertical, multi-register scalability, and international footprint.
- Toast: Cloud-based POS platform purpose-built for the restaurant and hospitality vertical — directly comparable to COMBASE's hospitality offering and a representative benchmark of vertical-specialist POS economics.
- orderbird: German-based iPad POS provider for restaurants and hospitality — a closely comparable German peer in the hospitality vertical with overlap in KORONA's home market.
Broad incumbents
- Shopify POS: Part of the Shopify commerce platform, offering retail POS as part of a wider commerce stack — competes with KORONA at the omnichannel retail layer where headless architecture overlaps.
- Square (Block): SMB-focused POS and payments platform from Block — a broader incumbent in the same POS software category, particularly relevant at the small-business end of COMBASE's customer spectrum.
- Clover (First Data / Fiserv): POS hardware/software platform from Fiserv sold through acquirers — a broader incumbent in the SMB POS software category overlapping with COMBASE's smaller end customers.
- Diebold Nixdorf: Large enterprise retail technology vendor with global deployments in retail banking and store technology — a broader incumbent that competes for enterprise retail chain contracts alongside COMBASE.
- Heartland Payment Systems (Global Payments): U.S.-focused payments and POS provider for SMB and enterprise merchants — overlaps with COMBASE at the integrated payments-plus-POS layer used by mid-market and enterprise retail customers.
Emerging players
- SumUp: European-headquartered payments and POS company serving SMB merchants across multiple markets — comparable to COMBASE in geographic and customer-base profile.
- Zettle (PayPal): PayPal-owned SMB POS and payments product focused on small merchants in Europe — comparable to COMBASE at the smaller-merchant end of the European SMB market.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
COMBASE AG social profiles
Digital presenceCOMBASE AG financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
COMBASE AG leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles1 record
COMBASE AG funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
COMBASE AG M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about COMBASE AG
What does COMBASE AG do?
COMBASE AG provides the KORONA enterprise Point of Sale (POS) software platform, featuring a headless architecture that runs traditional cash registers, self-checkout, mobile, and autonomous formats on a single business-logic backend. The platform includes KORONA AI for real-time pricing, assortment, and inventory optimization at the point of sale, open APIs for ERP/CRM/Loyalty integration, and secure cloud infrastructure with international fiscalization. It scales from a single register to 10,000+ cash registers and is sold via subscription to retail, hospitality, ticketing, and franchise operators.
Is COMBASE AG a public or private company?
COMBASE AG is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was COMBASE AG founded?
COMBASE AG was founded in 1994. It employs 101 to 250 people.
Where is COMBASE AG based?
COMBASE AG is headquartered in Dresden, Germany, in the Europe region.
How does COMBASE AG make money?
One revenue line is on record: KORONA POS Software Subscriptions.
Who are COMBASE AG's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Lightspeed Commerce, Toast and orderbird. Broad incumbents are Shopify POS, Square (Block), Clover (First Data / Fiserv), Diebold Nixdorf and Heartland Payment Systems (Global Payments). Emerging players are SumUp and Zettle (PayPal).
Does COMBASE AG have an API?
Yes. COMBASE offers open APIs with an API-First approach, enabling integrations with ERP, CRM, and Loyalty systems. The platform supports scalable deployments from 1 to 10,000 cash registers with international fiscalization capabilities.
What industry is COMBASE AG in?
COMBASE AG's product category is Point of Sale Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is FSAMADAC, POS Payment Software & Middleware (Terminal OS, Apps, Device Management), with a secondary code of FSAMADAD, Integrated POS Payments (ISVs & Vertical POS Platforms).