What Swisscows does

Swisscows AG is a Switzerland-based privacy technology company that operates a proprietary semantic search engine and a portfolio of encrypted consumer products. Founded in 2014 as a subsidiary of Hulbee AG by CEO Andreas Wiebe, the company positions itself as a tracking-free, family-friendly alternative to mainstream search engines, with all servers located in Switzerland and no user IP addresses, browsing histories, or profiles stored. The technology stack is self-developed over 20+ years of research and includes a semantic search engine, a proprietary web crawler, a custom web index, a data visualization layer, and AdAnounce — a contextual advertising system modeled on Google AdWords that does not transmit user data to advertisers.

The product portfolio extends beyond search: Swisscows Pro offers an ad-free paid tier, Swisscows.email provides PGP-encrypted email, Swisscows.VPN delivers a no-logs VPN service, Edelcloud offers secure cloud storage, and TeleGuard provides an end-to-end encrypted messenger. These products are sold individually and bundled in the Swisscows Platinum subscription. Distribution is primarily self-serve through swisscows.com, mobile app stores, browser extension marketplaces (Firefox, Chrome, Brave, Edge, Opera, Vivaldi, Safari), and an affiliate partner network. International operations have been established in the USA, China, and the United Arab Emirates.

Revenue is generated through two principal streams: advertising on the free search tier (delivered via partners including System1, Google Ads, and Microsoft Bing) and recurring subscription revenue from premium products. The company is privately held with no external venture funding disclosed; in 2023, founder Andreas Wiebe established the KeyShift Association to support development through donations. Sister company Hulbee Enterprise AG extends the underlying technology into enterprise search via the HES product.

Name

Swisscows

Legal name

Swisscows AG

Website

https://swisscows.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Swisscows AG operates a privacy-focused semantic search engine and an ecosystem of encrypted consumer products (email, VPN, cloud storage, messenger) for privacy-conscious consumers, families, and professionals, headquartered in Switzerland.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Egnach

HQ country

Switzerland

HQ region

Europe

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Advertising Revenue: Swisscows earns revenue through advertisements delivered via partners. The company developed its own advertising technology called AdAnounce that works similarly to Google AdWords but does not pass user data to advertisers. Free users see ads to finance the service.
2. Premium Subscriptions: Revenue from paid services including Swisscows Pro (ad-free search), Swisscows.email (encrypted email), Swisscows.VPN (anonymous browsing), and EdelCloud (secure storage).
3. Technology Licensing: Swisscows generates revenue through technology licensing of its software projects and plans to provide additional software and hardware services.
4. Donations: Accepts donations through the KeyShift Association founded by founder Andreas Wiebe in 2023.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Swisscows operates a privacy-first semantic web search engine with its own web index and AI/ML-driven crawler, offered free with advertising and as a paid ad-free premium tier (Swisscows Pro). Around the search engine, the company sells a suite of integrated privacy products — encrypted email (Swisscows.email), no-logs VPN (Swisscows.VPN), secure cloud storage (Edelcloud), and an end-to-end encrypted messenger (TeleGuard) — available individually or bundled in the Swisscows Platinum package.

Product overview

Swisscows operates a diversified privacy-focused technology portfolio anchored by the Swisscows semantic search engine — a family-friendly, AI-powered web search platform built on proprietary semantic search, data visualization, and web crawling technologies. The portfolio is organized around the core search engine with a premium paid tier (Swisscows Pro) offering ad-free, fully anonymous, customizable search results. Surrounding the core are integrated privacy products: Swisscows.email (end-to-end encrypted email with PGP support and IMAP access for third-party clients), Swisscows.VPN (no-logs VPN with browser extensions and system-level encryption), Edelcloud (secure cloud storage), and TeleGuard (encrypted messenger for text, voice, and video). These products are cross-sold as individual subscriptions and bundled together in the Swisscows Platinum mega package. Additional offerings include HES enterprise search, GetDigest content processing, a physical Faraday Bag, and an affiliate program. All products are developed and operated from Swiss infrastructure, emphasizing data sovereignty and zero-knowledge architecture.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Swisscows Pro: The fully data-secure version of the Swisscows search engine with no data storage or sharing, offering ad-free and anonymous search experience with customizable search results
• Swisscows.email
• Swisscows.VPN
• Edelcloud
• TeleGuard
• Swisscows Platinum
• HES (Hulbee Enterprise Search)
• GetDigest
• AdAnounce
• KeyShift Association

Products and services

• Swisscows Search Free, anonymous, family-friendly web search engine with its own semantic index; stores no user data and uses AI-driven semantic analysis to deliver intelligent results.
• Swisscows Pro Premium ad-free, no-tracking version of the Swisscows search engine with no IP logging, no user profiles, and customizable source filtering.
• Swisscows.email Swiss-based end-to-end PGP-encrypted email service with RSA-2048 keys; supports IMAP/SMTP for Outlook, Thunderbird, Apple Mail, and TheBat; available in Basic, Standard, and Premium tiers.
• Swisscows.VPN No-logs VPN service from Switzerland offering system-level encryption, anonymous browsing, and servers in Brazil, Japan, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, and India; supports up to 3 simultaneous devices.
• Edelcloud Secure cloud storage solution for storing files, photos, and videos with tagging/organization features and access from anywhere.
• TeleGuard End-to-end encrypted messenger application for text, voice, and video calls that does not store chats or share data.
• Swisscows Platinum (Mega Bundle) Mega bundle subscription combining Swisscows Pro, Swisscows.email Premium, and Swisscows.VPN Standard into a single discounted package.
• Faraday Bag Physical electromagnetic-shielding bag sold through the Swisscows shop to protect electronic devices against unauthorized access and tracking.

Quantifiable outcome

• No IP addresses, browsing history, or user profiles stored

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

AI capability6 records

Feature7 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• BravecoreTechnology or IntegrationSwisscows has a cooperation with Brave for search results. This partnership enhances search quality through collaboration with Brave's search technology combined with Swisscows' own 20+ years of search technology experience.
• System1minorGTM or Marketing PartnerSwisscows uses System1 as an advertising partner for delivering advertisements. This advertising is not data-secure as certain usage data must be processed for ad delivery.
• GoogleminorGTM or Marketing PartnerGoogle is used as an advertising partner through Google Ads. Google Consent Mode v2 is implemented for advertising cookies. Data may be transferred to the US.
• MicrosoftminorGTM or Marketing PartnerMicrosoft Bing is used as an advertising partner. Data is processed by Microsoft for ad delivery and measurement.
• Hulbee AGcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSwisscows AG is a subsidiary of Hulbee AG. The parent company developed semantic search technologies and Swisscows originated from Hulbee AG. Hulbee Enterprise AG is a sister company offering enterprise search solutions.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves9 records

Expansion highlights7 records

Direct peers

• Qwant: Qwant is a French/European privacy-respecting search engine with its own indexing and a focus on GDPR compliance; directly comparable to Swisscows as a European, regulation-aligned alternative to Google.
• Mojeek: Mojeek is an independent European search engine with its own crawler and index, no tracking, and a similar privacy-first positioning to Swisscows; competes in the same niche of alternative, non-Google search providers.
• Brave: Brave operates its own privacy-focused web search (Brave Search) and a privacy browser, and is also a strategic partner supplying search results to Swisscows; competes head-to-head on the same value proposition of non-tracking search plus an integrated product ecosystem.
• Startpage: Startpage delivers Google results without tracking or personal data collection, serving the same privacy-conscious user base as Swisscows; operates under European (Dutch) privacy jurisdiction.
• DuckDuckGo: DuckDuckGo is the most direct competitor to Swisscows in privacy-focused web search, offering a no-tracking search engine (with its own crawler and indexes) and a bundled browser; both target privacy-conscious consumers with ad-supported and premium tiers.
• Ecosia: Ecosia is a privacy-friendly search engine that plants trees with its profits, appealing to values-driven users overlapping Swisscows' audience; uses Bing results but competes for the same ethical-alternative search niche.

Emerging players

• Proton: Proton (ProtonMail, Proton VPN, Proton Drive) is a Swiss-based privacy ecosystem with end-to-end encrypted email, VPN, and storage — closely comparable to Swisscows' email/VPN/cloud bundle, though without a proprietary search engine.
• Mullvad VPN: Mullvad is a Swedish no-logs VPN provider with a comparable privacy-first positioning and anonymous account model to Swisscows.VPN, competing for the same European privacy-segment users.
• Tutanota (Tuta): Tutanota is a German end-to-end encrypted email and calendar service directly comparable to Swisscows.email; targets the same privacy-conscious consumer and SMB segment with a similar subscription model.

Broad incumbents

• Yandex: Yandex is one of the world's largest search engines (and listed as one of the four 'ahead' of Swisscows in market position), providing regional competition in Russia/CIS and a benchmark for what scale looks like outside Google/Bing.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/swisscows_ch
• Facebookfacebook.com/swisscows
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/swisscows
• Instagraminstagram.com/swisscows.official

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

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 Swisscows