Kanton Bern

What Kanton Bern does

Kanton Bern is a constituent canton of the Swiss Confederation and a public government entity, not a commercial enterprise. It administers the canton's executive and administrative functions through a Staatskanzlei (State Chancellery), seven directorates covering construction/transport, economy/energy/environment, health/social/integration, interior/justice, education/culture, security, and finance, plus a dedicated Amt für Informatik und Organisation (KAIO) responsible for digital infrastructure. The canton is officially bilingual (German/French) and serves all residents, businesses, and 365 municipalities within its territory, delivering statutory services including taxation, building permits, identity documents, healthcare coordination, education, policing, and emergency services.

Its core digital product is the be.ch internet portal, which acts as the unified gateway to cantonal e-services and is anchored by BE-Login — an AGOV-based single sign-on authentication system supporting two-factor SMS via eCall (F24 Schweiz AG) and Cloudflare Turnstile CAPTCHA. The portal hosts a catalogue of e-services (eBau, TaxMe, eGant, EPD electronic patient dossier, e-Lernfahrausweis), the Geoportal for spatial data, the BELEX online legislative collection, and accessibility features such as Leichte Sprache / Français facile with ReadSpeaker text-to-speech. The most prominent recent product launch is Notfall-Finder, a web application co-developed with POLARIS HEALTH AG and JAXForms AG, integrating all 34 emergency stations across the canton and recording 80,000+ citizen visits and 160,000+ occupancy updates since its October 2025 debut.

Kanton Bern does not generate commercial revenue in the traditional sense. Its funding flows from cantonal and municipal taxation (income, corporate, property), administrative fees (building permits, identity documents, vehicle registration, court services), federal transfers, and co-financing partnerships (e.g., health insurers Atupri, KPT, and Visana supported the Notfall-Finder platform). The GTM motion is direct-to-citizen through both the digital portal and physical directorate offices, with no third-party resellers in the commercial channel sense; distribution is supported by an in-house Amt für Kommunikation managing press, social media (WhatsApp, Instagram, X, YouTube, Facebook), and a News-Abo email/RSS subscription service.

Name

Kanton Bern

Legal name

Kanton Bern (Canton de Berne)

Website

https://be.ch

Company type

Private

Founded year

1803

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Kanton Bern is a Swiss cantonal government entity that delivers public administration services — taxation, permits, healthcare coordination, emergency services, education, and policing — to residents, businesses, and 365 municipalities within Canton Bern via the be.ch digital portal and seven directorate offices.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Cantonal Government Administration & Public Services

NAICS

Web Search Portals, Libraries, Archives, and Other Information Services (519)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

Government Digital Service & eGovernment (Service Delivery, IDs, Portals) (BPAIAAAE)

akta.pro secondary industry

General Web Portals & Start Pages (BPAMAAAA)

Keywords

• Cantonal government services
• E-government portal
• Public administration
• Emergency services platform
• Digital identity authentication

Headquarters

HQ city

Berne

HQ country

Switzerland

HQ region

Europe

Offices11 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Public Tax Revenue: Canton Bern is funded primarily through cantonal and municipal taxation including income tax, corporate tax, property tax, and various fees for government services
2. Administrative Fees and Charges: Government fees collected for various administrative services including building permits, identity documents, commercial registrations, and court services

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels10 records

Core offering

Kanton Bern provides cantonal government administration and public services through the be.ch internet portal, including building permits, identity documents, tax filing, healthcare access, emergency services information, education, public safety, and environmental management. As the second-largest Swiss canton by population, it delivers bilingual (German/French) services through seven directorates (Construction/Transport, Education/Culture, Interior/Justice, Finance, Health/Social/Integration, Security, Economy/Energy/Environment) plus the State Chancellery, supported by digital e-services, BE-Login authentication, and the Notfall-Finder emergency station platform.

Product overview

Kanton Bern operates a comprehensive e-government internet portal (be.ch) that serves as the central digital gateway for the cantonal administration, providing citizens, businesses, and media with access to government services, information, and digital transactions. The portal is bilingual (German and French) and includes an accessibility layer in Leichte Sprache/Fran\u00e7ais facile. The core portfolio includes the main internet portal (be.ch), the BE-Login single sign-on authentication system, the Notfall-Finder emergency station availability platform, the Geoportal for cantonal geodata, the BELEX online legal collection, and a broad catalogue of e-services (eBau, TaxMe, e-Lernfahrausweis, EPD, eGant). Additional modules include the news subscription service (News-Abo) and the kantonal contact form service.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Kanton Bern Internetportal (be.ch) The official bilingual (German/French) internet portal of the Canton of Bern, providing comprehensive access to e-services, news, administrative information, topic portals, and cantonal government services for citizens, businesses, and media.
• Notfall-Finder (Urgences-Finder) Emergency Station Finder A free web application that helps Bernese citizens find the appropriate medical emergency point in acute situations by displaying real-time occupancy information from all 34 emergency stations across Canton Bern.
• BE-Login Authentication System The cantonal single sign-on (SSO) authentication system enabling citizens to securely log in to various cantonal e-services, supporting AGOV login procedure and two-factor authentication via SMS (eCall by F24 Schweiz AG) and Cloudflare Turnstile as a captcha alternative.
• E-Services Catalogue (Digitale Verwaltung) A catalogue of digital government services including eBau (electronic building applications), eGant (electronic auctions), TaxMe (tax filing), electronic patient dossier (EPD), and the electronic learner's permit (e-Lernfahrausweis), spanning services from multiple cantonal directorates.
• Leichte Sprache / Français facile (Easy Language Portal) An accessibility service providing selected portal content in easy-to-read language (Leichte Sprache in German, Français facile in French) with larger text and ReadSpeaker text-to-speech functionality, ensuring government information is accessible to people with cognitive disabilities or limited literacy.
• Geoportal Kanton Bern A geodata and mapping portal providing geographic information, maps, and spatial data for the Canton of Bern, managed by the Amt für Geoinformation (AGI) under the Direktion für Inneres und Justiz.
• Bernische Gesetzessammlung (BELEX) Online Legal Collection An online collection of cantonal legislation including the Bernische Systematische Gesetzessammlung (BSG) and the Bernische Amtliche Gesetzessammlung (BAG), available in German and French.
• News-Abo (Government News Subscription Service) An email-based news subscription service allowing citizens and media to subscribe to cantonal media releases, updates, and announcements via email, RSS feed, or social media channels (WhatsApp, Instagram, X, YouTube, Facebook).

Quantifiable outcome

• 34 emergency stations integrated with real-time occupancy tracking serving the entire canton
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration9 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and supporting.

• POLARIS HEALTH AGcoreTechnology or Integration · 1 October 2025POLARIS HEALTH AG co-developed the Notfall-Finder web application platform that integrates all 34 emergency stations in Canton Bern, providing real-time occupancy status information to citizens. The platform supports the canton's efforts to efficiently manage healthcare emergency resources.
• JAXForms AGcoreTechnology or Integration · 1 October 2025JAXForms AG developed the Notfall-Finder platform in collaboration with Canton Bern and healthcare institutions. The company also provides the cantonal form service infrastructure used across multiple government e-services including the contact form system.
• Bedag Informatik AGcoreTechnology or IntegrationBedag Informatik AG provides web server infrastructure and technical operations for Canton Bern's government portal and digital services, including log data processing for security and service optimization.
• Siteimprove GmbHsupportingTechnology or IntegrationSiteimprove provides web analytics services for the canton website, enabling analysis of website usage patterns and optimization of the digital government service offering.
• Cloudflare Deutschland GmbHsupportingTechnology or IntegrationCloudflare provides Turnstile CAPTCHA alternative service for BE-Login authentication, protecting government digital services from automated attacks while providing seamless user experience.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Swiss Confederation (Bund / admin.ch): Federal-level Swiss government operating admin.ch as the overarching e-government platform across all cantons. Comparable to Canton Bern as the parent tier of public digital service delivery, setting standards (e.g., AGOV login) that Kanton Bern's BE-Login aligns with.

Direct peers

• Canton of Vaud (Kanton Waadt): French-speaking Swiss canton with its own digital portal (vd.ch) offering e-services across justice, health, and education. Operates a comparable directorate-based cantonal administration, making it the most natural francophone comparator to Bern for e-government benchmarking.
• Canton of St. Gallen (Kanton St. Gallen): Larger German-speaking Swiss canton with comparable e-government offerings on sg.ch including tax services, building permits, and online civil registry. Directly comparable on size and scope to Canton Bern's e-service portfolio for peer benchmarking.
• Canton of Geneva (République et Canton de Genève): Geneva canton operates ge.ch with e-services spanning taxation, healthcare, and civil status, and serves an urban, multilingual (including English/Arabic-friendly) population. Comparable to Canton Bern as a mid-large Swiss canton with strong digital public-service ambitions and extensive cross-border service demand.
• Canton of Aargau (Kanton Aargau): German-speaking Swiss canton with parallel directorate structure and a growing portfolio of digital e-services (ag.ch). Directly comparable to Bern for benchmarking e-government rollout pace, SSO deployment, and online administrative services like eBau and TaxMe.
• Canton of Lucerne (Kanton Luzern): Mid-sized German-speaking Swiss canton providing government e-services through lu.ch with the same directorate-based structure. Comparable to Canton Bern for cross-canton digital public-sector benchmarking and potential peer learning on shared infrastructure.
• Canton of Basel-Stadt: Small but digitally progressive urban Swiss canton operating bs.ch e-services across tax, construction permits, and civil registry. Comparable to Canton Bern for piloting citizen-facing digital platforms and SSO-based authentication architectures.
• Canton of Zurich (Kanton Zürich): Switzerland's largest canton by population, also operating a comprehensive bilingual/multi-language e-government portal (zh.ch), SSO-based e-services, and a full directorate structure. It is the most direct structural comparator to Canton Bern in terms of scale, service breadth, and digital portal maturity.

Regional players

• City of Bern (Stadt Bern): Municipal government of Bern operating bern.ch with e-services overlapping the cantonal portal (notfall-finder, building permits). Directly nested within Canton Bern's territory, it represents the sub-cantonal tier of government digital services and is a natural partner/peer for service-layer coordination.

Others

• eGovernment Schweiz / Digitale Verwaltung Schweiz (DVS): National coordination program for digital government services across Swiss cantons, including shared infrastructure like AGOV login that Kanton Bern's BE-Login interfaces with. Relevant as the supra-cantonal entity enabling Canton Bern's services and inter-canton interoperability.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xbe.ch/x
• YouTubebe.ch/youtube
• Facebookbe.ch/facebook
• Instagrambe.ch/instagram

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Subsidiaries8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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

M&A

Investments1 record

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

Frequently asked questions about Kanton Bern