What CIB does

CIB is a German enterprise software company, founded in 1998 and headquartered in Munich, that develops applications covering the full document lifecycle — from creation and capture through processing, workflow automation, archiving, and signature. Its core product portfolio centers on document lifecycle management and business process management (BPM), anchored by the CIB seven BPM engine (an open-source fork of Camunda 7), CIB flow for low-code workflow automation, CIB coSys for correspondence management, CIB doXiview for secure web-based document viewing, and CIB documentServer for high-volume document generation across 200+ formats. The company serves more than 300 business customers across banking and financial services (where it integrates with DATEV and Atruvia), public administration (with notable references including the Regierung von Oberbayern, Landeshauptstadt München, Dataport, Polizei-BW, and the Bundesamt für Wirtschaft und Ausfuhrkontrolle), and large enterprises (BMW, Generali, E.ON, BSH, OCLC, NTT DATA). According to company-reported figures, CIB processes more than 3 billion documents annually, has deployed over 500,000 desktop licenses serving 200,000+ users globally, and reinvests 14% of revenue into R&D.

CIB has built a distinct AI module portfolio layered on its document processing core, including CIB deepER for OCR and data extraction, CIB sherlock for Named Entity Recognition, CIB recognice for document classification, CIB PoP for GDPR-compliant anonymization (developed with Fraunhofer IAIS), CIB ridmi for on-premises PDF/UA accessibility conversion, CIB smartER for regulated document research, and the CIB crowdsource training platform. The company holds ISO 27001, 27017, 27018, 27035, and 22301 certifications, plus BITV 2.0 accessibility certification, and supports region-specific e-invoicing standards (ZUGFeRD, XRechnung, Factur-X, FatturaPA). CIB operates from offices in Germany (Munich HQ), Austria (Vienna subsidiary CIB solutions GmbH, founded September 2021), Portugal (Faro), and Spain, with additional partner-led distribution through Ceyoniq, Collabora, DATEV, Atruvia, BMW, and systems integrator puntus.

CIB is a privately held, founder-owned company (Ulrich Brandner) with no disclosed venture capital or private equity investment, suggesting organic/bootstrapped growth. Revenue is generated through enterprise software licensing and subscriptions (with multi-year contracts and volume licensing supporting 500,000+ desktop deployments), supplemented by professional services for implementation and customization. Management includes Georg Hatzelmann and Antje Bauer as authorized representatives, with Dr. Tobias Abthoff appointed Chief Development Officer in September 2023 to lead technological direction with a focus on AI capability development.

Name

CIB

Legal name

CIB software GmbH

Website

https://cib.de

Company type

Private

Founded year

1998

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

CIB is a Munich-based enterprise software company, founded in 1998, that provides document lifecycle management, business process automation, and AI-powered document processing solutions primarily to banking, financial services, and public administration customers across DACH and Southern Europe.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Enterprise Document Management & Business Process Automation Software

NAICS

Software Publishers (5132)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Enterprise Application Reporting, BI & Analytics Enablement (BPAEAGAK)

Keywords

• Document lifecycle management
• Business process automation
• Enterprise document processing
• E-invoicing solutions
• Workflow automation software

Headquarters

HQ city

München

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Software Licenses and Subscriptions: Enterprise software licensing model providing access to CIB seven BPM engine, document management systems, and workflow automation platforms on a subscription basis. Includes software maintenance, updates, and support services.
2. Desktop and Enterprise Licenses: Licensing model with over 500,000 desktop licenses deployed globally, providing recurring revenue through enterprise-wide deployments.
3. Professional Services: Implementation, customization, and consulting services for enterprise deployments and integrations.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

CIB develops and sells an enterprise software suite covering the full document lifecycle (creation, processing, workflow, signing, archiving, and e-invoicing), built around its proprietary CIB seven BPM engine, CIB flow low-code workflow platform, CIB coSys correspondence management, CIB doXiview secure document viewer, and CIB documentServer for high-volume processing. The portfolio is extended by AI modules (OCR, NER, anonymization, classification) and specialized add-ons for digital signatures, PDF, and e-invoicing compliance. The software is sold primarily as subscription licenses and deployed in public administrations, banks, insurance companies, and large enterprises.

Product overview

CIB Group is a German IT and software company offering a modular, integrated software suite for digitalization and automation of business processes, primarily serving public administrations, financial institutions, and enterprises. The portfolio consists of core platform products (CIB flow for workflow automation, CIB seven as the BPM engine, CIB coSys for correspondence management, CIB doXiview for document viewing, and CIB documentServer for high-volume document processing) supplemented by specialized add-on modules covering e-invoicing (CIB eInvoice, CIB invoice toolbox, CIB ZUGFeRD SDK), digital signatures (CIB doXisign), secure cloud storage (CIB doXisafe), hybrid postal shipping (CIB fairBrief), and PDF tools (CIB pdf brewer, CIB pdf toolbox, CIB pdf standalone, CIB fluXcomprimator). The AI module portfolio includes CIB deepER (OCR/data extraction), CIB PoP (anonymization), CIB sherlock (entity recognition), CIB recognice (classification), CIB ridmi (accessibility), CIB smartER (deep research), and the CIB crowdsource training platform. All components are designed to work together in integrated business process solutions.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• CIB seven: Open-source BPM engine (Camunda 7 fork) for process modeling, automation, and orchestration based on BPMN standards
• CIB flow
• CIB coSys
• CIB doXiview
• CIB doXisafe
• CIB doXisign
• CIB fairBrief
• CIB eInvoice
• CIB documentServer
• CIB pdf brewer
• CIB crowdsource
• CIB PoP
• CIB ridmi
• CIB Impulsa

Products and services

• CIB flow BPMN-based low-code automation platform for designing, executing, and monitoring business process workflows. Provides drag-and-drop process modeling with over 500 pre-built process components, targeting enterprise and public-sector process automation.
• CIB seven Open-source BPM engine (Camunda 7 fork) for process orchestration, workflow automation, and enterprise process management with native BPMN 2.0 support. Open-sourced under the name CIB seven to position for European digital sovereignty, and integrated into Ceyoniq's nscale 10.2 platform.
• CIB doXiview Web-based document viewer with secure server-side rendering that protects against PDF security vulnerabilities. Includes AI-powered OCR, automatic data anonymization, digital signature, E-Rechnung processing, and intelligent form handling for enterprise and government document workflows.
• CIB coSys Correspondence management system (CCM) consisting of CIB webTom (template management), CIB webDesk (web-based document creation), CIB darkDesk (batch processing interface), and CIB workbench (Microsoft Word extension). BITV 2.0 accessibility certified in 2020 and used by Bank 11 among others for customer communication management.
• CIB documentServer Server-based solution for high-volume document creation and processing, supporting over 200 document formats with dynamic document generation, OCR, PDF editing/compression/encryption, and ZUGFeRD/SEPA invoice validation.
• CIB doXisafe Secure cloud platform for storing, sharing, and collaboratively editing documents, with secure deletion capabilities and granular access control for enterprise document collaboration.
• CIB doXisign Digital signature solution supporting simple (EES), advanced (FES), and qualified (QES) electronic signatures for legally binding online document signing.
• CIB eInvoice E-invoicing solution for creating and processing legally compliant electronic invoices in XRechnung, ZUGFeRD, Factur-X, and FatturaPA formats, used by BMW suppliers and others.
• CIB fairBrief Hybrid postal shipping solution enabling efficient and cost-effective sending of individual letters, series letters, and hybrid mail with automated processing and guaranteed delivery. Used by SPAR, Regierung von Oberbayern, Unterallgäu, and Bank 11.
• CIB pdf brewer Professional PDF creation and editing tool with Microsoft Word integration, supporting PDF/UA accessibility standards and e-invoice format generation.
• CIB pdf toolbox PDF SDK for custom business integration, enabling programmatic PDF manipulation, creation, and processing.
• CIB pdf standalone Browser-based PDF editing tools for processing documents without uploading data to the internet, ensuring data privacy and local processing.
• CIB deepER AI-based data extraction and OCR service for automatic text recognition from scanned documents and images, part of the CIB AI module portfolio.
• CIB PoP (Protect our Privacy) AI-powered privacy protection module that automatically identifies and anonymizes or pseudonymizes personal data in documents according to GDPR requirements, developed in cooperation with Fraunhofer IAIS.
• CIB sherlock AI-based Named Entity Recognition service for automatic data extraction from documents, identifying and categorizing entities such as names, dates, addresses, and other structured information.
• CIB recognice AI-based document classification module for automatically categorizing and organizing documents based on content analysis.
• CIB ridmi Local AI integration for GDPR-compliant conversion of PDF documents to accessible PDF/UA format, enabling barrier-free document access for users with disabilities without cloud dependency.
• CIB smartER AI-powered deep research solution for regulated corporate data in Europe, enabling secure document analysis and knowledge extraction from internal documents, contracts, and regulatory content.
• CIB crowdsource Crowdsourcing platform for training AI models through human annotation tasks in areas such as entity recognition, invoice recognition, segmentation, text recognition, and document classification.
• CIB invoice toolbox SDK for creating and evaluating e-invoices with support for multiple formats including ZUGFeRD and XRechnung, featuring automated data transfer via API and integration with CIB doXiview and CIB deepER for scanning and e-invoice creation from paper documents.
• CIB fluXcomprimator High-compression PDF tool using MRC (Mixed Raster Content) technology to reduce PDF file sizes by up to 90% while maintaining quality, with built-in OCR and AI-based quality control.

Quantifiable outcome

• Processing over 3 billion documents annually
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration15 records

AI capability11 records

Feature7 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and strategic.

• CeyoniqcoreTechnology or IntegrationStrategic technology integration partnership where CIB's seven BPM engine is integrated into Ceyoniq's nscale platform, enabling comprehensive document management and business process automation capabilities for shared enterprise customers.
• Fraunhofer IAISstrategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerResearch collaboration with Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems focusing on privacy-preserving technologies for document processing and AI applications.
• puntuscoreImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerSystems integration partnership for workflow automation implementations. puntus serves as implementation partner deploying CIB flow and BPM solutions for enterprise customers.
• DATEVcoreTechnology or IntegrationTechnology integration partnership with DATEV, a major German accounting software provider, enabling document processing capabilities for DATEV's customer base in the German SME and accounting sector.
• AtruviacoreTechnology or IntegrationIntegration partnership with Atruvia, a leading banking IT service provider in Germany, providing document processing and workflow solutions for the German banking sector.
• BMWcoreTechnology or IntegrationE-invoicing solutions provider for BMW's supplier network, enabling electronic invoice processing and management across BMW's supply chain operations.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• ABBYY: ABBYY is a specialist in OCR, document AI, and data extraction — directly comparable to CIB's AI modules (deepER, sherlock, recognice, PoP) and competes for enterprise intelligent document processing budgets.
• Basware: Basware is a leading e-invoicing and AP automation vendor, directly comparable to CIB eInvoice, CIB invoice toolbox, and CIB ZUGFeRD SDK for compliant electronic invoicing in European enterprise and public-sector markets.
• M-Files: M-Files offers AI-driven document management and information governance, comparable to CIB coSys and CIB documentServer in automating document-centric workflows for regulated industries.
• DocuWare: DocuWare provides cloud and on-premise document management and workflow automation for mid-market and enterprise customers, overlapping directly with CIB coSys, CIB documentServer, and CIB flow in document-centric process automation.
• Appian: Appian is a low-code process automation and BPM platform widely used in banking, insurance, and government — directly comparable to CIB flow and CIB seven for enterprise workflow and case management use cases.
• Camunda: Camunda is the leading open-source BPMN workflow and decision automation platform; CIB seven is explicitly a Camunda 7 fork/continuation, making Camunda the closest direct comparable in BPM engine technology and target buyer.
• Kofax (Tungsten Automation): Kofax/Tungsten provides intelligent document processing, OCR, and workflow automation that overlaps with CIB deepER, CIB sherlock, CIB recognice, and CIB doXiview capabilities for high-volume enterprise document capture.

Broad incumbents

• Hyland Software: Hyland (OnBase, Alfresco) is a large enterprise content management and process automation vendor serving regulated industries, comparable to CIB's document management and BPM offerings at the higher end of the market.
• OpenText: OpenText is a global enterprise content management and BPM incumbent; its Documentum, Content Suite, and Extended ECM platforms compete with CIB's document management and workflow offerings in regulated, large-enterprise deployments.
• Microsoft Power Automate / SharePoint: Microsoft bundles document management, workflow automation, and AI extraction (Power Automate, SharePoint, Syntex) into its enterprise platform, providing an indirect but very large incumbent alternative to CIB's BPM and document processing suite.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/cib-group

Compliance7 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

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 CIB