infoapps

What infoapps does

infoapps GmbH is a privately held German software company headquartered in Munich with a branch office in Velden, founded in 2005 to develop AI-augmented patent search and monitoring software. The platform enables enterprise patent departments and R&D teams to search across a global corpus of more than 200 million patent documents, monitor patent families for changes, classify filings automatically, and perform specialized material and chemical property lookups (notably via the STEELmaker module). It also incorporates access to a large non-patent literature (NPL) market used to support nullity actions and freedom-to-operate analyses, and offers interactive dashboards, intelligent workflow automation, project workspaces, and drag-and-drop data enrichment.

The company's technical stack combines traditional patent search and monitoring infrastructure with AI components developed over approximately two decades, including semantic AI Search, an autopilot-style AI Classifier for taxonomy assignment, and STEELmaker for standardized chemical and material property retrieval. Deployment options are enterprise-focused and limited to inhouse installations or a private cloud All-In-One configuration, with servers located in Germany under TÜV and ISO certified data centers and a guaranteed 99.9% availability via geo-redundant backup. The platform is bilingual (German/English) and the company operates a niche GTM motion anchored on direct enterprise sales, demo/test access, and periodic User Days events.

Commercially, infoapps sells annual subscription licenses to enterprise buyers, primarily patent and R&D functions at German industrial firms. Named customers include Thyssenkrupp Presta, Heraeus Holding, Eberspächer, MB Automation, Biedermann Technologies, Salzgitter AG, AIXTRON, and Onward Medical, spanning automotive, materials, steel, semiconductor equipment, and medical technology verticals. Pricing is quote-based and not publicly disclosed, and the company is reported at 1-10 employees with no disclosed funding rounds or external investors.

Name

infoapps

Legal name

infoapps GmbH

Website

https://infoapps.de

Company type

Private

Founded year

1990

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

infoapps GmbH is a German software provider that sells AI-powered patent search, monitoring, and analysis tools to enterprise patent and R&D departments across automotive, materials, steel, semiconductor, and medical technology industries.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Patent Intelligence Software

NAICS

Software Publishers (513210)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

IP Management, Patents & Trademark Software (BPAEAPAN)

akta.pro secondary industries

IP Search, Watch & Competitive Intelligence (BPAHAMAI), IP & Patent Information Publishing (Patent/Litigation Analytics, Prior Art) (MPAJACAK)

Keywords

• Patent search software
• Patent monitoring tools
• AI patent analytics
• Non-patent literature database
• Material patent search

Headquarters

HQ city

München

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Software Licensing (Inhouse/Private Cloud): Annual subscription licensing for enterprise software solutions including inhouse installations and private cloud deployments. Customers receive patent monitoring, search capabilities, and AI-powered analysis tools.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

infoapps GmbH develops and licenses strategic patent software that enables global patent search across 200M+ documents, automated patent portfolio monitoring, AI-powered classification and idea validation, and specialized material/chemical search. The platform is sold under annual subscription licensing for inhouse installations or private cloud deployments, targeting enterprise patent departments and R&D teams at industrial manufacturers.

Product overview

infoapps offers a suite of strategic patent software products comprising a unified platform with specialized modules. The core platform includes Patentrecherche for global patent search across 200M+ documents and Patentüberwachung for automated patent monitoring. Specialized add-on modules include STEELmaker for material and chemical property search (particularly for steel and polymers), AI Classifier for automatic document classification using autopilot functionality, and AI Search for AI-powered idea validation and discovery. The platform also features analysis dashboards, intelligent workflow automation, project collaboration tools, and NPL (Non-Patent Literature) access. Deployment options include in-house solutions or Private Cloud All-In-One configurations.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• STEELmaker: Chemical elements and material properties search tool for global patents, particularly focused on steel, polymers, and other materials.
• AI Classifier
• AI Search

Products and services

• Patentrecherche (Global Patent Search) Core patent search product that enables users to search more than 200 million global patent documents using multiple search strategies, create research projects, and surface relevant patents with AI support. Designed for enterprise patent departments and R&D teams conducting global prior-art, freedom-to-operate, and landscape analyses.
• Patentüberwachung (Patent Monitoring) Automated patent monitoring solution that delivers continuous updates on every change to monitored patent families, alerting enterprise IP teams to new filings, status changes, and portfolio movements. Targets patent departments and competitive intelligence teams at industrial enterprises.
• STEELmaker Specialized material search module that locates chemical elements and material properties across all value ranges and units within global patents, with particular focus on steel, polymers, and other engineered materials. Serves materials scientists and process engineers in industrial manufacturers and material suppliers.
• AI Classifier AI-powered add-on module that automatically classifies patent documents without manual effort, functioning as an autopilot for document categorization with individually adjustable AI properties. Aimed at enterprise patent teams that need to classify high volumes of patent documents accurately and consistently.
• AI Search AI-powered search add-on module that lets users quickly validate ideas or discover new insights inside patent databases through semantic, natural-language-style queries. Targets R&D and innovation teams at industrial enterprises seeking fast prior-art and idea-validation checks.

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 200 million patent documents searchable
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability4 records

Feature9 records

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Questel: Established IP management and patent analytics vendor offering Orbit Intelligence-class search plus portfolio management software. Overlaps with infoapps on patent search and monitoring for enterprise IP departments, particularly in Europe.
• Clarivate (Orbit Intelligence / Derwent): Global IP analytics incumbent offering Orbit Intelligence and Derwent patent databases with AI search, classification and analytics. Directly comparable on enterprise patent search and monitoring, but at significantly greater scale and with broader content portfolio.
• Anaqua: IP management software platform for corporate IP departments covering portfolio management, docketing and analytics. Adjacent peer for the workflow and portfolio management layer that infoapps' intelligent workflow features compete against.
• Google Patents: Free global patent search platform with massive scale and translation coverage. Represents the lower-bound competitive alternative for basic prior-art search, though lacking enterprise workflow, monitoring and AI classification depth.

Direct peers

• Relecura: AI-powered patent analytics platform offering patent search, classification, valuation and competitive intelligence. Comparable on AI-driven patent classification and analytics for IP and R&D teams.
• Minesoft: Specialist patent search and monitoring software provider serving patent attorneys and corporate IP teams with tools for global patent search, alerting and analytics. Direct competitor in enterprise patent search and monitoring workflows.
• PatSnap: AI-driven patent analytics SaaS platform covering search, landscape, competitive intelligence and workflow for R&D and IP teams. Closest direct competitor in product scope (AI search, classification, monitoring) and target buyer (enterprise patent and R&D departments).
• IFI Claims: US patent data and analytics provider with deep patent corpus, classification and search tools. Comparable as a patent database/search vendor targeting corporate IP and legal stakeholders.

Emerging players

• The Lens: Open patent and scholarly knowledge platform with global patent search and analysis. Comparable on global patent search and analytics, primarily overlapping for prior-art and landscape use cases.
• AULIVE Cipher: AI-driven patent classification and analytics platform focused on automated categorization and competitive intelligence. Closely comparable to infoapps' AI Classifier add-on and patent analytics capabilities.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/infoapps-gmbh

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 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 infoapps