Carare

What Carare does

Carare is a non-profit membership association, founded in 2010 and registered as a Company Limited by Guarantee in Dublin, Ireland, that operates as an accredited domain aggregator for Europeana focused on digital archaeological, architectural and 3D cultural heritage. It brings together national heritage agencies, museums, universities, research infrastructures, and specialist digital archives across more than 20 European countries to enable the publication of digital heritage collections on Europe's central cultural platform.

The technical platform comprises four core components: the CARARE Metadata Schema v2.0 (a harvesting schema based on MIDAS Heritage and CIDOC CRM, with specialized support for 3D paradata and provenance); the MINT Mapping Service (developed by the National Technical University of Athens, supporting XML, CSV, HTTP, FTP and OAI-PMH ingestion and mapping to CARARE, EDM and LIDO schemas); Repox Flow (an OAI-PMH repository manager handling harvesting, transformation to EDM, validation, enrichment and publication to Europeana, which replaced the legacy MORe repository in 2020); and the Share3D Dashboard (which integrates with Sketchfab and Scan the World to ingest and enrich 3D model metadata for Europeana publication).

Carare's revenue model combines tiered annual membership subscriptions (Larger Institutions €110–€220, Smaller Institutions €55–€110, Individual Members €55–€83, scaled by IMF country GDP grouping) with project-based funding from EU programmes. Operations are sustained through continuous participation in EU-funded initiatives — CARARE Best Practice Network (2010–13), LoCloud (2013–16), Share3D (2018–20), Europeana Archaeology (2019–20), ARIADNEplus (2018–22), 4CH (2021–24), 5DCulture (2022–24), Tech4Heritage (2022–24), 3DBigDataSpace, XRculture, and the 3D-4CH Competence Centre (launched February 2025). The association is governed by a board chaired by Anthony Corns of The Discovery Programme, with operational leadership provided by Operations Manager Kate Fernie.

Name

Carare

Legal name

CARARE

Website

https://carare.eu

Company type

Private

Founded year

2010

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Carare is a Dublin-based non-profit association and accredited Europeana aggregator that provides metadata aggregation services enabling heritage institutions across 20+ European countries to publish digital archaeological, architectural and 3D cultural heritage content on Europeana.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Cultural Heritage Data Aggregation

NAICS

Museums, Historical Sites, and Similar Institutions (712), Libraries and Archives (51921)

akta.pro primary industry

Cultural Heritage Institutions (Archives, Historic Houses, Monuments Foundations) (THAJADAI)

Keywords

• Metadata aggregation services
• Cultural heritage digitization
• Archaeological data sharing
• 3D heritage documentation
• Digital archive aggregation

Headquarters

HQ city

Dublin

HQ country

Ireland

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Membership Subscriptions: CARARE operates as a non-profit membership association. Annual membership fees are tiered by institution size and country GDP grouping. Three membership categories: Larger Institutions (25+ staff), Smaller Institutions (1-25 staff), and Individual members.
2. Aggregation Services: Provides technical services including metadata aggregation, mapping, harvesting, validation and publication to Europeana for member institutions and data partners.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

CARARE is a non-profit association and accredited Europeana aggregator that provides metadata aggregation services for digital archaeological and architectural heritage. Its offerings enable European heritage institutions to share digital content with Europeana through a suite of tools including the CARARE Metadata Schema, MINT Mapping Service, Repox Flow repository, and Share3D Dashboard for 3D content, supported by training, documentation, and EU-funded project collaboration.

Product overview

CARARE is a non-profit association and accredited aggregator for Europeana, providing a suite of metadata aggregation services focused on digital archaeological and architectural heritage and 3D cultural heritage. The core offering consists of the CARARE Aggregation Services platform, which integrates three main technical tools: the MINT Mapping Service for metadata mapping and ingestion (supporting CARARE, EDM, and LIDO schemas), Repox Flow for metadata harvesting, validation, transformation, and OAI-PMH publication to Europeana, and the Share3D Dashboard for enabling Sketchfab publishers to contribute 3D models to Europeana. CARARE also maintains its own metadata schema (CARARE schema v2.0) for heritage asset documentation. The legacy MORe Monument Repository was replaced by Repox Flow in 2020. The organization supports members with training, documentation, and EU-funded project collaboration.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• CARARE Aggregation Services Primary aggregation service enabling European heritage institutions to share digital archaeological and architectural content with Europeana, including metadata schema maintenance and access to MINT, Repox Flow, and Share3D tools.
• MINT Mapping Service

Quantifiable outcome

• 374,000+ archaeological records published on Europeana
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers9 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, core and key.

• 3D-4CH Competence Centre ConsortiumflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 February 20253D-4CH will establish an online competence centre in 3D for cultural heritage with funding from Digital Europe programme, running for three years from February 2025. CARARE is a partner alongside Volyn Foundation, KMKG, Highbury Research and Development, Athena Research Centre (ILSP division), Discovery Programme and Time Machine Organisation.
• Europeana FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2010CARARE is an accredited domain aggregator for Europeana with special focus on archaeology, historic buildings and 3D cultural heritage. Has been active as an aggregator since 2010 through various funded projects. Europeana is Europe's digital cultural heritage platform providing online access to cultural heritage material across Europe.
• ARIADNE Research Infrastructure AISBLcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerARIADNEplus established a research infrastructure for archaeological data, building on ARIADNE results and extending support to the research community. CARARE works with ARIADNE for sharing archaeological data internationally.
• Time Machine OrganisationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCARARE collaborates with Time Machine Organisation on multiple projects including 3DBigDataSpace and XRculture. Time Machine Organisation coordinates the 3DBigDataSpace project for prototyping long-term Europe-wide storage for 3D cultural heritage assets.
• National Technical University of Athens (NTUA)coreTechnology or IntegrationNTUA developed the MINT mapping service which CARARE deploys for its members to support metadata mapping and ingestion for cultural heritage content. MINT is a web-based platform designed to support metadata mapping for institutions with archaeological and architectural content.
• Talent SAkeyTechnology or IntegrationTalent SA is CARARE's technology provider and a full partner in the XRculture project, working on cutting-edge initiatives to enhance Europe's digital cultural space using 3D, AI and extended reality.
• University of Vilnius Faculty of CommunicationkeyStrategic or Co-development PartnerLed the Europeana Archaeology project (2019-20) with 15 partners. CARARE was an associated partner providing aggregation support for content to Europeana.
• Pixelated RealitieskeyStrategic or Co-development PartnerUkrainian non-profit dedicated to cultural heritage preservation through 3D scanning and photogrammetry. Collaborated with CARARE on XRculture and 3D-4CH projects to bring first-ever Ukrainian 3D heritage models to Europeana, including the Lions of Odesa.
• INCEPTIONkeyStrategic or Co-development PartnerINCEPTION coordinated the 3D-4CH Competence Centre project. CEO Marco Medici serves as project coordinator and describes the platform as a living starting point for Europe's 3D cultural heritage community.
• LoCloud Consortium (31 partners)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLoCloud (2013-16) was a Best Practice Network of 31 partners co-funded under CIP ICT-PSP programme, focusing on cloud computing for enhancing Europeana and supporting small and medium institutions.
• Poznań Supercomputing and Networking Center (PCSS)keyTechnology or IntegrationPCSS provides tools and technologies for the 3DBigDataSpace project, including 3D viewers, geolocation services, and classification tools. Expert in advanced 3D digitisation techniques.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Regional players

• Trove (National Library of Australia): Australian single-point discovery service aggregating content from libraries, museums, archives and research repositories. Comparable as a regional aggregator for cultural heritage across heterogeneous institutional sources with a similar metadata-harmonization role.

Broad incumbents

• Internet Archive: Non-profit digital library preserving cultural artifacts (web pages, books, audiovisual media). Comparable as a major non-profit digital preservation and aggregation effort with similar mission-driven ethos and reliance on grants/donations.
• Europeana Foundation: Operator of Europe's flagship digital cultural heritage platform and the ecosystem CARARE aggregates into. Comparable as the upstream platform orchestrator of which CARARE is an accredited domain aggregator; closely aligned mission and funding sources.
• Google Arts & Culture: Commercial platform partnering with cultural institutions globally to publish high-resolution imagery, 3D scans, and exhibits. Comparable as a destination for digitized cultural heritage content and a potential competitor for institutional partnerships and 3D content.
• Wikimedia Foundation: Operator of Wikipedia, Wikidata, and Wikimedia Commons — large-scale open cultural reference and media repositories. Comparable as a much larger open-knowledge platform aggregating cultural heritage content for global discovery and reuse.

Direct peers

• ARIADNE Research Infrastructure AISBL: Research infrastructure for archaeological data that shares content with CARARE and Europeana. Comparable as a parallel aggregation/infrastructure layer serving the same archaeological research community with overlapping membership.
• APEF (Archives Portal Europe Foundation): Federated archival aggregator for Europeana covering historical archives. Comparable as another accredited Europeana domain aggregator operating a similar aggregation-and-publication model, though focused on archives rather than archaeology/architecture.
• EUScreen Foundation: Accredited Europeana aggregator for audiovisual heritage content. Comparable as a sibling domain aggregator with the same institutional model (foundation, member-based) and shared reliance on Europeana's ingestion pipeline.

Emerging players

• OpenGLAM: Initiative advocating open access to cultural heritage data held by galleries, libraries, archives and museums. Comparable as a community-driven counterpart promoting open cultural data practices aligned with CARARE's aggregation mission.
• Time Machine Organisation: European project organization focused on digitizing and 'time-layering' cultural heritage using AI and Big Data. Comparable as a partner in 3DBigDataSpace/3D-4CH projects and an adjacent 3D heritage digitization effort with overlapping institutional backers.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubevimeo.com/user124611809
• Facebookfacebook.com/groups/carare
• Xx.com/ProjectCARARE

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 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 Carare