What Hulbee does

Hulbee AG is a Swiss private software technology company headquartered in Egnach, Switzerland, founded in 2008 by Andreas Wiebe, that develops search, semantic-analysis, and information-management products built on more than 17 years of proprietary research in artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and business intelligence. The company serves two distinct customer bases: privacy-conscious consumers (through Swisscows, the Swiss privacy search engine, and Desktop PRO) and European enterprises and SMBs (primarily via Hulbee Enterprise Search, branded hesbox). Additional offerings include Kauftipp, a Swiss price-comparison portal monetized through advertising, and GetDigest, an AI text-summarization service supporting 33+ languages. Mail.Swisscows, a secure Swiss-hosted email service, is in development.

The company's underlying technology stack centers on a proprietary semantic DataCloud that links documents, emails, web content, and archives through a custom crawler with indexing, classification, and visualization capabilities. Core search capabilities span semantic and fuzzy matching with AI-driven summarization and multilingual NLP. The privacy-first architecture is technically embedded: Swisscows does not store IP addresses, cookies, or search queries, and all servers are hosted in Switzerland under Swiss jurisdiction. Enterprise Search v4.0 integrates with Microsoft Active Directory, SharePoint, Exchange, IBM Lotus Notes, Dropbox, and can be deployed on VMware, VirtualBox, or Azure, and is explicitly positioned as a Google Search Appliance replacement. Notable enterprise customers disclosed include Brueggli, Pilatus Aircraft, ZBW (Leibniz Information Centre for Economics), and Valora.

Hulbee monetizes through a hybrid B2C/B2B model. Enterprise revenue comes from perpetual per-seat licenses at approximately 340 CHF per employee, with a flat 8,500 CHF package for 25-employee SMBs (no annual license fees for companies up to 250 employees), sold through hesbox.com with a 6-week free trial and Proof-of-Concept motion. Consumer products are largely free (Swisscows, Kauftipp, Desktop PRO trial) with monetization via optional donations, advertising (Kauftipp ~500 integrated shops, 16+ million product index), and direct-purchase license sales (Desktop PRO via Avangate). The company is privately held with no disclosed institutional investors, founders Andreas Wiebe (CEO/Chairman) and Irina Wiebe (CFO) controlling the entity alongside subsidiary leadership held by Alexander Perezhogin.

Name

Hulbee

Legal name

Hulbee AG

Website

https://hulbee.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2008

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Hulbee AG is a Swiss software company founded in 2008 that builds privacy-focused search and information-analysis products — Swisscows search, Hulbee Enterprise Search (hesbox), Desktop PRO, and Kauftipp price-comparison — serving privacy-conscious consumers and European business customers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Enterprise Search Software

NAICS

Software Publishers (5132), Web Search Portals and All Other Information Services (51929), Directory and Mailing List Publishers (51314)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming Services (7371)

akta.pro primary industry

Enterprise Search, Indexing & Content Discovery (HDAEAGAH)

Keywords

• Enterprise search software
• Semantic search engine
• Privacy web search
• Price comparison platform
• Text summarization software

Headquarters

HQ city

Egnach

HQ country

Switzerland

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Enterprise Search Licenses: Perpetual one-time license fees for Hulbee Enterprise Search (hesbox) with pricing based on number of employees. Approximately 340 CHF per employee for licensing, with special packages for small businesses (8,500 CHF for 25 employees one-time). Companies up to 250 employees have no annual license fees.
2. E-commerce Advertising (Kauftipp): Kauftipp Swiss price comparison portal monetized through advertising from integrated online shops (approximately 500 integrated online shops) and partnerships with contracting partners. Platform is free for users.
3. Private User Products: Swisscows search engine is free for private users, funded through optional donations. Desktop search products sold directly to consumers. Mail.Swisscows email service planned to be funded through donations (target: 500,000 CHF start-up capital, 1.5 million CHF total estimated cost).
4. Desktop Software Sales: Hulbee Desktop PRO sold as try-and-buy or direct purchase through Avangate payment platform. Pricing not publicly disclosed on main website.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Hulbee AG develops and sells AI-powered search, enterprise search, and information analysis software built on proprietary semantic and DataCloud technologies. Its commercial portfolio centers on Hulbee Enterprise Search (hesbox) for B2B document discovery, complemented by consumer-facing products including the privacy-focused Swisscows search engine, the Kauftipp Swiss price comparison portal, Hulbee Desktop PRO desktop search, and GetDigest AI text summarization.

Product overview

Hulbee AG is a Swiss technology company offering a portfolio of search and information analysis products. The core offerings include Swisscows (privacy-focused web search engine), Hulbee Enterprise Search (enterprise search with AI), and Hulbee Desktop PRO (desktop search). These are complemented by GetDigest (text summarization), DataCloud (semantic visualization), Kauftipp (Swiss price comparison portal), and Mail.Swisscows (secure email service in development). All products share foundational technologies in semantic search, natural language processing, and AI-powered text analysis developed over 17+ years of research in AI, semantic analysis, and business intelligence.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Swisscows: Privacy-focused web search engine that does not store IP addresses, tracking cookies, or user search queries. Subject to Swiss law only.
• Hulbee Enterprise Search (hesbox)
• Kauftipp
• Hulbee Desktop PRO
• Mail.Swisscows
• GetDigest
• DataCloud

Products and services

• Swisscows Privacy-focused web search engine (answer engine) that does not store IP addresses, tracking cookies, or search terms, based on semantic Data-Cloud technology that understands meaning through content correlation rather than keywords. Targets privacy-conscious individuals, families, and anyone seeking a safe Google alternative.
• Hulbee Enterprise Search (hesbox) AI-powered enterprise search engine (version 4.0) that finds documents across intranet, internet, file structures, and archives. Features semantic search, fuzzy search, Active Directory-based security, document preview with automatic summarization, SharePoint/Exchange/Dropbox/Lotus Notes connectors, and SDK/API extensibility. Designed for companies from 25 to unlimited employees with pricing of ~340 CHF per employee.
• Hulbee Desktop PRO Desktop search solution for professionals and small/medium companies that indexes over 350 file formats including Office documents, PDFs, Lotus Notes, and media. Features semantic search, automatic DataCloud generation showing related terms and associations, and flexible indexing across networks, servers, archives, and USB drives.
• Kauftipp Swiss price comparison portal aggregating over 16 million products from approximately 500 integrated online shops, providing purchase recommendations, price comparisons, article ratings, and test reports. Marketed as a genuinely Swiss alternative with servers and headquarters in Switzerland; ranks #2 in Swiss price comparison market share.
• GetDigest AI-powered text summarization technology that analyzes web content, text documents, and emails and summarizes them meaningfully within seconds. Works like a human reader by skimming and ignoring unimportant information, automatically extracting key terms. Supports over 33 languages.

Quantifiable outcome

• 36 minutes saved per employee per day on information search
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration6 records

AI capability7 records

Feature10 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• SharePointcoreTechnology or IntegrationHulbee Enterprise Search provides connectors for Microsoft SharePoint, enabling indexing and search of SharePoint content as part of enterprise-wide information discovery.
• Microsoft ExchangecoreTechnology or IntegrationIntegration with Microsoft Exchange for searching emails and calendar content through Hulbee Enterprise Search.
• Lotus NotescoreTechnology or IntegrationDedicated module for IBM Lotus Notes supporting search of emails, attachments, contacts, deadlines and tasks.
• Online Shops (Kauftipp)coreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorApproximately 500 online shops integrated into Kauftipp price comparison portal, providing product data and enabling commission-based revenue.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Market position

Competitive moat5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/hulbeeus
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/hulbee-ag

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Subsidiaries2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Hulbee