NWB Verlag

What NWB Verlag does

NWB Verlag GmbH & Co. KG is a German professional publishing house headquartered in Herne that produces subscription-based knowledge products and education services for tax advisors, accountants, lawyers, and students in the German-speaking market. Its core product, the NWB Datenbank, is a digital library of up to 400,000 practice-oriented expert contributions maintained by 10 specialist editorial teams, 50 editors, and 500 authors, complemented by the NWB Livefeed for daily tax, economic, and accounting news. Two AI products overlay the corpus: NWB KIRA, an LLM-powered chat assistant that retrieves answers from verified NWB database content, and NWB NEO, a 2026-launched platform for end-to-end digital processing of complex tax matters, from fact identification through research to supporting memoranda.

The company monetizes primarily through multi-tier Kanzleipakete (PRO, PLUS, MAX, ULTRA) sold on annual subscriptions with a 4-week free trial, alongside 14 specialized Themenpakete topic add-ons, individual online and print book sales, the NWB Akademie seminar and conference business, the NWB Copyshop reprint service billed per page, and advertising on its job and practice marketplaces. Distribution combines direct e-commerce (shop.nwb.de), self-serve database access (datenbank.nwb.de), traditional Buchhandel retail, and dedicated key-account management for large clients, with university Campus Library IP-based licensing for the higher-education channel.

NWB is privately held with no external investors identified, is managed by Dr. Ludger Kleyboldt and Mark Liedtke, and operates a single-country DACH footprint. The Kiehl Verlag brand is retained as a wholly owned sub-brand and folded into the NWB ULTRA package, while community engagement is built through the STEUERBAR podcast (90+ episodes since 2019), the tax&bytes blog, and the annual NWB Steuerberater-Forum flagship event.

Name

NWB Verlag

Legal name

NWB Verlag GmbH & Co. KG

Website

https://nwb.de

Company type

Private

Founded year

1947

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

NWB Verlag is a German professional publisher that delivers subscription databases, AI-assisted tax research tools (NWB KIRA, NWB NEO), and accredited continuing education to tax advisors, accountants, lawyers, and universities in the German-speaking market.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Professional Tax Publishing

NAICS

Book Publishers (51313), Periodical Publishers (513120)

SIC

Books: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2731), Periodicals: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2721)

akta.pro primary industry

Business, Economics & Management Scholarly Publishing (EDAGAFAF)

Keywords

• Tax law publishing
• Professional tax databases
• Continuing professional education
• AI tax research
• Accounting publications

Headquarters

HQ city

Herne

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Subscription - Kanzleipakete (PRO, PLUS, MAX, ULTRA): NWB generates the majority of its revenue through recurring subscription packages (Kanzleipakete) for tax advisory firms. These packages bundle database access, the Livefeed, journals, and AI tools (KIRA) at tiered levels (PRO, PLUS, MAX, ULTRA) with multi-user licensing. Themenpakete (topic packages) provide additional specialized coverage. All packages offer a 4-week free trial.
2. Individual Product Sales: NWB sells individual digital and print products including online books, online commentaries, loose-leaf works (Loseblattwerke), statute collections (Gesetzestexte), client information materials (Mandanten-Informationen), working aids, textbooks/exam collections/flashcards, audio content, and accessories. Products are available for single purchase or subscription unlock via activation codes.
3. Professional Education Services: The NWB Akademie generates revenue through seminar, conference, and Inhouse event registrations. Online seminars, in-person seminars, and hybrid formats are offered at various price points. Select seminars are DStV-accredited. Some seminars are recorded and available for purchase. Volume discounts of 10% apply from the second booking of the same event at the same date.
4. NWB Copyshop: NWB offers a legal forwarding service (NWB Copyshop) where customers can order individual article reprints from journals for distribution to employees, clients, or colleagues. Pricing is per page (EUR 0.10/page) with minimum order EUR 7.50, plus personalization fees. This provides a legal way to share NWB content with third parties.
5. Advertising and Media Sales: NWB sells advertising space and media services (Media Sales / Anzeigenservice) on its platforms, including job listings via the NWB Jobbörse and practice placement listings via the NWB Kanzleibörse.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels7 records

Marketing channels10 records

Core offering

NWB Verlag is a German professional publisher founded in 1947 and headquartered in Herne that produces subscription-based digital knowledge platforms, AI-powered research tools, specialist journals, and continuing professional education for tax advisors, accountants, auditors, and lawyers. Its flagship deliverable is the NWB Datenbank — a curated tax- and business-law database — which is sold to professional firms via the Kanzleipakete multi-license subscriptions (PRO, PLUS, MAX, ULTRA), and is augmented by the proprietary AI research platform NWB NEO and the AI assistant NWB KIRA. The company also runs NWB Akademie, E-Trainings, topical podcasts, and an article-reprint service (NWB Copyshop), serving German-speaking tax professionals and the firms that employ them.

Product overview

NWB Verlag is a German tax law publishing house offering a modular digital platform for tax professionals. The core offering consists of four Kanzleipakete (office packages) tiered by scope: PRO (entry-level), PLUS (mid-tier), MAX (premium with AI), and ULTRA (comprehensive including Kiehl content). These are complemented by 14 specialized Themenpakete (topic packages) covering areas like international tax, sustainability reporting, and business taxation. AI capabilities are delivered through NWB NEO (AI platform for tax work) and NWB KIRA (AI research assistant). The ecosystem also includes the NWB Datenbank (database), NWB Livefeed (news), NWB Akademie (training), NWB E-Trainings via NWB Campus, the STEUERBAR Podcast, tax&bytes sub-brand, and a physical publications catalog including books and commentaries under the Kiehl brand.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Kiehl: Publishing brand for tax and business law literature and educational materials
• NWB NEO
• NWB KIRA
• NWB Akademie
• tax&bytes

Products and services

• NWB Datenbank Subscription-access professional database of current German tax law, business law, and accounting content, sold primarily to tax-advisory firms (Kanzleien) under the Kanzleipakete multi-seat license tiers (PRO, PLUS, MAX, ULTRA) and kept current via the NWB Livefeed update module.
• NWB NEO Proprietary AI research platform integrated with the NWB Datenbank that delivers AI-assisted search, analysis, and navigation across German tax-law, business-law, and accounting content for Steuerberater, accountants, and auditors.
• NWB KIRA Conversational AI assistant for the NWB Datenbank, introduced in 2023 to let subscribers interactively query and work with NWB's tax-law, business-law, and accounting content through natural-language prompts.
• NWB Akademie Continuing professional education (Pflichtfortbildung) offering that delivers in-person Akademie seminars and conferences for Steuerberater, Wirtschaftsprüfer, accountants, and lawyers seeking required CPE/CPD hours.
• NWB E-Trainings Online / e-learning training programs that enable Steuerberater, accountants, and auditors to complete required continuing professional education hours remotely.
• NWB Karriereführer Career guide publication aimed at Steuerberater and accounting professionals, sold individually through the NWB Online-Shop.
• STEUERBAR Podcast Podcast covering current German tax-law, business-law, and accounting topics for Steuerberater, accountants, and auditors, part of NWB's audio content portfolio.
• tax&bytes Podcast Podcast focused on the intersection of tax and digitalization for the German tax and accounting profession, complementing NWB's editorial content portfolio.
• NWB Copyshop Per-page reprint / article-copy service that licenses copies of NWB-published tax-law, business-law, and accounting articles on a per-page pricing basis.
• Campus Library Institutional multi-user license to NWB's tax-law, business-law, and accounting reference content, marketed to universities and academic libraries for use in coursework and study.

Named customers1 record

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability4 records

Feature6 records

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Verlag C.H. Beck: One of Germany's leading legal and tax publishers with extensive commentary, journal, and online database offerings. Directly comparable to NWB in tax law publishing for professional audiences.
• Haufe Group: Major German professional information and software provider for tax, HR, legal, and real estate. Closely comparable to NWB in serving German tax advisors and Kanzleien with content, software, and continuing education.
• Deubner Verlag: German tax and business law publisher with online products, loose-leaf works, and continuing education offerings. Directly comparable to NWB in serving German tax professionals.
• Verlag Dr. Otto Schmidt: Cologne-based publisher specializing in tax, business, and labor law with journals, commentaries, and online products. Directly comparable to NWB in specialized German tax/business law publishing.
• Stollfuß Verlag (Stotax): German tax and business law publisher offering loose-leaf works, online databases, and software for Steuerberater. Directly comparable niche competitor to NWB in specialized tax publishing.
• IWW Institut: German continuing education and information provider for tax advisors, accountants, and HR professionals. Comparable to NWB's NWB Akademie/E-Trainings arm in professional education for tax professionals.

Broad incumbents

• Wolters Kluwer Deutschland: Global professional information and software provider operating across tax, legal, and regulatory markets. Comparable in serving professional tax/legal audiences but operates at much broader international scale.
• DATEV: German cooperative providing software, tax-related content, and data services to tax advisors and Kanzleien. Comparable target customer base (German Steuerberater) but operates primarily as a software/platform incumbent rather than a publisher.
• Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden: German arm of Springer Nature publishing professional and academic content across economics, law, and business. Overlaps with NWB in business and tax publishing for professional audiences.
• LexisNexis Deutschland: International legal, tax, and regulatory information provider operating in Germany with comparable content/database offerings for tax and legal professionals.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@NWB-Verlag/featured

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 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 NWB Verlag