What Thesius does

Thesius is a German web platform that aggregates academic and early-career resources for students and connects them with companies and universities. Its core products include a thesis topic search (Themensuche), a survey promotion tool (Thesius Surveys) that uses a lottery/prize mechanic to recruit participants, a job board and company directory (Unternehmensübersicht), a community forum, citation tools (Zitieren) developed in cooperation with the writing workshop at Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, and an academic and career blog. The platform also operates the Recherche database, which Thesius describes as the only database aggregating all German dissertations together with current Bachelor and Master theses, complemented by indexing access via the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.

The platform is built as a self-serve web application, with user accounts, profile-as-CV functionality, favorites, and an internal application workflow that routes student profiles to corporate contacts. Distribution runs through the thesius.de website, organic social (Facebook and Twitter), email newsletters, university referrals (notably Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz), and content marketing via the academic blog and citation-style guides. Survey promotion is compatible with SoSci Survey (recommended tool, 10,000+ academic surveys per year), Unipark, and SurveyMonkey.

Commercial model is dual-sided: free for students across thesis search, survey promotion, dissertation database, and applications, with monetization concentrated on the corporate side through paid thesis topic postings, job listings, and survey lottery sponsorship (Jobify and StudentJob.ch partnerships also support the career content layer). The platform is legally operated by persona service AG & Co. KG, a German staffing and services company headquartered in Lüdenscheid that acts as data controller and parent; Thesius functions as a digital platform brand within that corporate parent's portfolio. The geographic footprint is Germany with Austria referenced in German-speaking reach, and there is no disclosed public listing, no venture funding rounds, and no disclosed revenue figure.

Name

Thesius

Legal name

persona service AG & Co. KG

Website

https://thesius.de

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Thesius is a German-language web platform serving Bachelor, Master, and PhD students with thesis topic search, dissertation database access, survey promotion, citation tools, and a job board; it monetizes by selling company recruitment listings and survey sponsorships.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Academic Thesis and Career Platform

NAICS

Educational Support Services (611710)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Research, Capstone & Extended Essay Mentoring (IB EE, independent research) (EDANAKAH)

akta.pro secondary industries

Online Learning Content & Course Publishing Platforms (BPAMAJAL), Open Access Scholarly Journals & Monographs (EDAGAFAJ)

Keywords

• Academic thesis platform
• Dissertation database
• Student recruitment platform
• Academic career services
• Survey research platform

Headquarters

HQ city

Lüdenscheid

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Company Recruitment Services: Companies pay to post thesis topics and job listings on the platform to reach students for thesis collaborations and graduate recruitment
2. Survey Promotion Sponsorship: Partner companies sponsor prizes for the Thesius Survey Lottery, providing revenue while offering incentives for survey participation
3. Job Board Advertising: Companies advertise job openings targeting graduates and students on the Thesius job board

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Thesius is a free web platform that connects students seeking thesis topics with universities and companies that post them. It provides a searchable database of German dissertations, a survey promotion tool with lottery-based incentives, a company directory and job board, citation guides, and a community forum focused on academic and career resources for students.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Themensuche (Topic Search) Searchable thesis topic database where students find topics posted by companies and universities for bachelor, master, and doctoral theses, filterable by subject area, keywords, or company.
• Thesius Surveys Survey promotion platform that helps students and researchers boost participation in academic surveys by attaching a generated lottery contest link at the end of the survey, with Thesius sponsoring prizes.
• Recherche (Dissertation Database) Comprehensive database aggregating all German dissertations combined with current bachelor and master theses, featuring modern keyword search functionality. Self-described as the only such aggregated German dissertation database.
• Unternehmensübersicht (Company Directory and Job Board) Company directory and job board allowing companies to post job listings and thesis topics while graduates browse employment opportunities and identify companies open to practical thesis placements.
• Zitieren (Citation Tools) Citation reference tool providing guidance on academic citation styles (APA, Harvard, IEEE, DIN ISO 690, Chicago, MLA, ACS) with examples, checklists, and field-specific recommendations, created in cooperation with the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz writing center.
• Forum Community forum for academic discussions where students ask questions, share experiences, and exchange information about theses, studies, and careers.
• Career Blog Career-focused editorial section providing advice on job applications, resumes, interviews, starting salaries, and career entry strategies for graduates.
• Thesius Blog Academic lifestyle blog covering bachelor/master theses, dissertation advice, career guidance, academic life, study tips, and citation guides, with category-specific content across disciplines.
• Registration and User Accounts Free user registration system giving students access to thesis applications, favorites, application tracking, study information, academic credentials, and a CV profile used when applying to companies.

Named customers2 records

Segments3 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

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• SpringerminorGTM or Marketing PartnerSpringer appears as a partner in the Thesius partner section, with their logo displayed on the website footer alongside other partner logos.
• Rheinland PfalzminorGTM or Marketing PartnerThe state of Rheinland-Pfalz is listed as a partner with their logo displayed on the Thesius website.
• persona service AG & Co. KGcoreOtherspersona service AG & Co. KG is the legal operator and data controller of Thesius, based in Lüdenscheid, Germany. The platform is a service of this staffing and recruitment company.
• Johannes Gutenberg-Universität MainzcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThesius was founded by students and doctoral candidates at Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz. The university collaboration includes joint content development with the Schreibwerkstatt and Akademische Integrität project.
• Schreibwerkstatt (Writing Workshop) MainzcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration with the Schreibwerkstatt at Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz to create comprehensive citation guides and academic writing resources for students.
• Akademische Integrität (Project)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerJoint project with the Akademische Integrität initiative at Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz to promote academic integrity and proper citation practices.
• German National Library (Deutsche Nationalbibliothek)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerThesius collaborates with the German National Library to index dissertations, including works whose authors did not explicitly register on the platform.
• JobifyminorGTM or Marketing PartnerJobify is referenced as a job matching partner, with Thesius featuring their services as part of career guidance content.
• StudentJob.chminorGTM or Marketing PartnerStudentJob.ch provides guest content about resume writing and job applications featured on the Thesius career blog.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Jobvector: Specialized job board for academic and scientific roles across Germany and Europe, competing for the same company-side thesis topic and graduate recruitment advertising spend as Thesius.
• Absolventa: German graduate and student recruitment platform connecting companies with young professionals for entry-level jobs, internships, and theses — directly comparable to Thesius's company directory and job board offerings.
• StudyDrive: German student learning and knowledge-sharing community with thesis-related study materials and university-specific content; overlaps with Thesius in the German university student user segment.
• Unicum: German student and graduate career platform providing job listings, career advice, and employer branding to the same student demographic that Thesius targets, with overlapping thesis/graduate recruitment use cases.
• Praktikum.info: German-language platform for student internships, theses, and entry-level jobs; serves the same student and employer customer base with overlapping thesis-topic marketplace functionality.

Broad incumbents

• Xing: Germany- and DACH-focused professional network owned by New Work SE, offering job listings, employer profiles, and student/graduate career content; a broader incumbent with overlapping company-recruitment and student-career functionality.
• StepStone: One of Germany's largest general-purpose job boards, with graduate and entry-level segments that compete for the same company recruitment advertising budgets as Thesius's job board.

Emerging players

• ResearchGate: Global academic social network used by researchers and PhD students for thesis-related discovery and collaboration; partial overlap with Thesius's dissertation database and academic community features.
• Academia.edu: Academic sharing platform where researchers upload papers and theses; addresses a similar thesis-discovery and research-network use case as Thesius's Recherche (Dissertationen) product, though at a global scale.

Others

• SoSci Survey: Leading German academic survey platform, used for 10,000+ academic surveys per year and tightly integrated with Thesius Surveys; a complementary ecosystem partner and potential direct competitor in survey-based research tooling.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/thesius_de
• Facebookfacebook.com/pages/Thesius/682897518396666?ref=ts&fref=ts
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/thesius-ddl-gmbh-

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

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 Thesius