Daten Kompetenzzentrum Städte und Regionen

What Daten Kompetenzzentrum Städte und Regionen does

Daten Kompetenzzentrum Städte und Regionen (DKSR) is a Berlin-based private GmbH founded in 2021 as a spin-off of the Fraunhofer Morgenstadt Initiative, with five Fraunhofer Institutes (IAO as initiator, IESE, IOSB-INA, FOKUS, ISST) and industry co-initiators Deutsche Telekom, Urban Software Institute, and axxessio. The company builds and operates CIVORA, an open-source modular smart city data hub that combines a data catalog, no-code dashboards, digital twins, an urban data platform, and map solutions to connect, visualize, and analyze decentralized data across municipal departments and between municipalities, with full data sovereignty and GDPR-compliant architecture.

DKSR monetizes through three streams: subscription-based access to CIVORA modules, professional services (data strategy, governance frameworks, training, and use-case development), and project-based development funded through German public programs (mFUND, Modellprojekte Smart Cities / MPSC, and ERDF/JTF in North Rhine-Westphalia). Sub-brands KDW (Kommunale Datenwerke, for inter-municipal data sharing) and TransParEnergy (building energy analytics) extend the core platform. The primary customer segments are German municipalities and cities, rural districts and regions (e.g., Landkreis Hof, 27 municipalities), municipal utilities and energy providers (e.g., Mainzer Stadtwerke AG), and public-sector digitalization leaders; named customers include Troisdorf, Landkreis Hof, Kreise Lippe, and Mainzer Stadtwerke AG.

Distribution combines consulting-led direct sales, a 4-week free CIVORA trial, an active user community, and thought-leadership channels including the annual Urban Data Summit, Smart Country Convention exhibitions, webinars, and partnerships with Fraunhofer, acatech, and Mission KI. Management is led by CEO Dr.-Ing. Alanus von Radecki (former head of the Fraunhofer Morgenstadt initiative) and Chief Business Development Officer Tim Cleffmann; the firm employs 11-50 staff and is privately held with no disclosed venture funding.

Name

Daten Kompetenzzentrum Städte und Regionen

Legal name

Daten-Kompetenzzentrum Städte und Regionen DKSR GmbH

Website

https://dksr.city

Company type

Private

Founded year

2021

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

DKSR is a Berlin-based Fraunhofer spin-off (founded 2021) that builds CIVORA, an open-source modular smart city data hub for German municipalities to connect, visualize, and analyze decentralized data across departments and regions with full data sovereignty.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Smart City Data Platform

NAICS

Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (51821)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Data Management Platforms (DMP) & Customer Data Platforms (CDP) (BPAMALAD)

Keywords

• Smart city data platform
• Urban data management
• Municipal digitalization consulting
• Open source civic technology
• Data sovereignty solutions

Headquarters

HQ city

Berlin

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. CIVORA Smart City Data Hub Subscriptions: Modular software platform offered as subscription-based solution to municipalities and public administration for data management, visualization, and analysis. Includes data catalog, dashboard, digital twin, and urban data platform components.
2. Consulting Services: Professional services including data strategy development, data governance frameworks, digitalization and data project process accompaniment, employee training and enablement workshops, and data-based use case development.
3. Project-Based Development: Collaborative research and development projects funded by government programs (mFUND, MPSC, ERDF/JTF) to develop specialized analysis tools and municipal applications.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels10 records

Core offering

DKSR provides the CIVORA Smart City Data Hub, an open-source modular platform enabling municipalities and regions to connect, visualize, and analyze decentralized data across departmental and organizational boundaries while maintaining full data sovereignty. The offering includes integrated modules for data cataloging, dashboarding, digital twins, urban data platform, and map solutions, complemented by consulting services in data strategy, governance, and digitalization project support.

Product overview

DKSR offers CIVORA, an open-source modular smart city data platform with multiple integrated modules. The core CIVORA Smart City Data Hub includes a Data Catalogue for metadata management and data discovery, Dashboard for no-code visualization and automated reporting, Digital Twins for spatial data integration and real-time visualization, Urban Data Platform as the data processing foundation, and Map Solutions for spatial analysis. The KDW (Kommunale Datenwerke) sub-brand provides secure intra/inter-municipal data sharing capabilities. TransParEnergy delivers specialized energy analysis tools for heat transition planning. DKSR also provides consulting services covering data strategy, governance, and process support.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• CIVORA: Smart City Data Hub platform for urban data management, including data catalog, dashboards, digital twins, and urban data platform modules.
• KDW (Kommunale Datenwerke)
• TransParEnergy

Products and services

• CIVORA Smart City Data Hub
• CIVORA Datenkatalog (Data Catalog)
• CIVORA Dashboard
• CIVORA Digitale Zwillinge (Digital Twins)
• CIVORA Urbane Datenplattform (Urban Data Platform)
• DKSR Consulting Services
• KDW Kommunale Datenwerke (Municipal Data Works)
• TransParEnergy Analysis Tool

Quantifiable outcome

• 80% of time in many data projects is spent on searching, collecting, and cleaning data - CIVORA reduces this through centralized data catalog
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

AI capability5 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

16 partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• acatechcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 30 October 2025German Academy of Sciences and Engineering. Co-organizer of Fachveranstaltung on AI for resilient urban development alongside DKSR and Mission KI.
• Mission KIcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 30 October 2025AI initiative hosting the Innovation and Quality Center in Berlin where joint Fachveranstaltung on AI for urban development took place.
• RIWAcoreTechnology or Integration · 27 October 2025Project partner for Innovationsraum Hofer Land, providing GIS system for geodata processing. Led the digital twin implementation project.
• Virtual City SystemscoreTechnology or Integration · 27 October 2025Partner for Hofer Land digital twin implementation. Developed the digital twin component that integrates data catalog and live data. Co-presenter at SCCON 2025 on System-of-Systems architecture.
• Fraunhofer (general exhibition partnership)coreGTM or Marketing Partner · 26 September 2025Joint exhibition at SCCON 2025 at Hub27 Stand 404. Fraunhofer curates program on Chancen und Herausforderungen des Koalitionsvertrags für den digitalen Staat.
• Fraunhofer IAOcoreTechnology or IntegrationInitiating Fraunhofer Institute for the DKSR spin-off. Head of Morgenstadt initiative Dr. Alanus von Radecki led the transition from research network to commercial platform. Contributed core urban innovation expertise and Morgenstadt research network connections.
• Fraunhofer IESEcoreTechnology or IntegrationPartner institute contributing key technologies and expertise to the DKSR platform development. One of five Fraunhofer Institutes directly involved in the spin-off.
• Fraunhofer IOSB-INAcoreTechnology or IntegrationPartner institute providing technical expertise for DKSR platform. Also a project partner in TransParEnergy for building energy data standardization and machine learning models.
• Fraunhofer FOKUScoreTechnology or IntegrationPartner institute contributing key technologies. Developed piveau-based data catalog for KDW project. Co-developer of KDW platform infrastructure with Mainzer Stadtwerke AG.
• Fraunhofer ISSTcoreTechnology or IntegrationPartner institute contributing key technologies and expertise to the DKSR spin-off. One of five Fraunhofer Institutes directly involved.
• Deutsche TelekomcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerIndustry co-initiator alongside Fraunhofer spin-off. Contributing industry perspective and resources to the DKSR founding team.
• Urban Software InstitutecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerIndustry co-initiator of DKSR spin-off, providing urban software expertise and industry connections to the founding team.
• axxessiocoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerIT consultancy and co-initiator of DKSR spin-off, contributing technical consulting expertise and industry knowledge.
• Mainzer Stadtwerke AGcoreImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerPilot municipality partner in KDW project. Worked with DKSR and Fraunhofer FOKUS to develop technical, legal, and organizational concepts for municipal data sharing.
• Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaften HofminorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerAcademic partner implementing first use case for ice warning system with municipal public works (Bauhöfe) in the region.
• Reich + Hölscher TGA-Planer GmbHminorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerTechnical building equipment planning partner in TransParEnergy contributing expertise for building energy modeling.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Esri: Esri's ArcGIS platform is the dominant GIS and digital-twin stack used by German municipalities, competing with CIVORA's map solutions and digital twin modules while offering a broader geospatial portfolio.
• Teradata: Teradata provides large-scale data warehousing and analytics used by public-sector organizations, comparable to CIVORA's urban data platform for cross-departmental analytics and reporting at municipal and regional level.
• HERE Technologies: HERE provides location and urban mobility data plus a smart-city platform that municipalities use for mobility planning and urban analytics, overlapping with CIVORA's map solutions and mobility use cases.
• Tableau (Salesforce): Tableau is widely used in public administration for dashboarding and indicator reporting, overlapping with CIVORA's no-code dashboard module while serving a much broader enterprise and government base.
• Siemens (Insights Hub / MindSphere): Siemens' industrial IoT and smart-city portfolio addresses municipal infrastructure monitoring and energy management, overlapping with CIVORA's IoT integration and Complex Event Processing for use cases like energy and flood early warning.

Direct peers

• OpenDataSoft: OpenDataSoft provides a data catalog and visualization platform commonly deployed by cities and public administrations to publish and share open data, closely mirroring CIVORA's data-catalog and dashboards modules for municipal customers.
• FIWARE Foundation: FIWARE offers an open-source smart city platform with components for context management, IoT, and data publishing, overlapping directly with CIVORA's urban data platform and Complex Event Processing capabilities for municipalities.
• Virtual City Systems: Virtual City Systems is a German digital-twin vendor for municipalities and a current DKSR project partner on Hofer Land; its 3D city models and digital twins compete with CIVORA's Digitale Zwillinge module in the same German public-sector RFPs.

Regional players

• RIWA: RIWA is a German GIS specialist integrated into CIVORA's Hofer Land deployment; it competes for municipal GIS and geodata-processing budgets in Germany and serves as both a partner and adjacent competitor in regional RFPs.

Emerging players

• SensorUp: SensorUp implements the OGC SensorThings API standard used within CIVORA's urban data platform, positioning it as a smaller, open-standards-focused peer for municipal IoT and sensor data integration use cases.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/dksr_city
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/dksr
• Facebookfacebook.com/DataForCities

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

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 Daten Kompetenzzentrum Städte und Regionen