Cooperativa Charta

What Cooperativa Charta does

Cooperativa Charta is an Italian social cooperative (Cooperativa Sociale - onlus) headquartered in Mantova, Lombardy, operating since 1990 with 48 employees. It designs and manages socio-educational services for public cultural institutions, operating on-site at libraries, schools, archives, museums, documentation centers, and community aggregation and orientation centers throughout the Lombardy region.

The cooperative's service portfolio comprises nine core lines: library management (Biblioteche), professional cataloging (Catalogazione), archive management (Archivi), reading promotion and cultural events (Promozione alla lettura), museum and cultural heritage services (Musei e Beni culturali), a mobile traveling library (Bibliobus), interlibrary loan coordination (Prestito Interbibliotecario), cultural tourism and guided tours (Turismo e Visite guidate), and an online catalog of readings and workshops (Animazione). Delivery is performed by specialized staff — librarians, archivists, and cultural consultants — and is supported by a digital presence (corporate website, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube) for community engagement and outreach.

Commercially, the cooperative generates revenue through professional service contracts with public institutions, negotiated on a project or retainer basis and frequently awarded via public procurement processes accessible to entities listed in the Regional Register of Social Cooperatives (Albo Regionale cooperative sociali sez. A n. 1587). As a member-owned nonprofit cooperative, it has no external investors, parent company, or venture backing disclosed in the available data. No proprietary technology platform, AI tooling, or productized SaaS offering is described; the offering is labor-intensive, human-delivered socio-educational services.

Name

Cooperativa Charta

Legal name

CHARTA - Cooperativa Sociale - onlus

Website

https://chartacoop.it

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Cooperativa Charta is an Italian social cooperative based in Mantova, Lombardy that delivers professional library, archival, museum, reading-promotion, and cultural tourism services to public institutions across the region.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Mantova

HQ country

Italy

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Socio-educational service contracts: The cooperative generates revenue through service contracts with public institutions for managing libraries, archives, museums, schools, and cultural centers. Services include cataloging, reading promotion, interlibrary lending, and cultural event management.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Cooperativa Charta is an Italian social cooperative (Cooperativa Sociale - onlus) founded in 1990 and based in Mantua, Lombardy, that delivers socio-educational and cultural management services to public institutions. The cooperative operates libraries, manages cataloging projects, runs reading promotion programs, supports archival and museum/heritage activities, and provides traveling library (bibliobus) and interlibrary loan services to municipalities, schools, archives, museums, cultural centers, and documentation centers. It employs 48 people and is registered in the Regional Register of Social Cooperatives (Albo Regionale cooperative sociali sez. A n. 1587).

Product overview

Cooperativa Charta is a social cooperative that designs and manages socio-educational services for cultural institutions. The company operates a portfolio of nine distinct service offerings focused on libraries, archives, museums, schools, and cultural sites. The core services include: Library Services (Biblioteche), Cataloging (Catalogazione), Archives (Archivi), Reading Promotion & Events (Promozione alla lettura), Museums & Cultural Heritage (Musei e Beni culturali), a Traveling Library Bus (Bibliobus), Interlibrary Loan (Prestito Interbibliotecario), and Tourism & Guided Tours (Turismo e Visite guidate). Additionally, the cooperative offers an Animation/Proposals catalog featuring readings and workshops. These services are designed for public cultural institutions including libraries, schools, archives, museums, documentation centers, and community aggregation spaces.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Library Management and Operation
• Bibliographic Cataloging Services
• Archival Management Services
• Reading Promotion Programs
• Museum and Cultural Heritage Services
• Bibliobus (Traveling Library) Service
• Interlibrary Loan Services
• Tourism and Guided Tours
• Socio-Educational Services

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• OCLC: Global nonprofit library cooperative providing cataloging (WorldCat), metadata, resource sharing, and library-management services to libraries worldwide. Comparable to Charta in its cooperative structure and library-cataloging expertise, but operates at vastly greater scale and international scope with technology-driven rather than on-site service delivery.
• EBSCO Information Services: Major global provider of research databases, e-books, discovery services, and library-management tools to public, academic, and special libraries. Overlaps with Charta's library-services mission but serves as a content and technology vendor rather than an on-site cultural-services operator.

Others

• Ex Libris (Clarivate): Provider of Alma, Primo, and other library-automation and discovery solutions for academic, national, and research libraries globally. Adjacent technology enabler to Charta's library and archive management services, focused primarily on academic/research library contexts rather than the public-library and archive space Charta serves.
• SirsiDynix: Provider of integrated library systems (Symphony, BLUEcloud) used by thousands of public, academic, and special libraries globally. An adjacent technology enabler to Charta's library-management services, supplying the underlying software platforms that Charta's library clients rely on for cataloging and circulation.
• Innovative (Innovative Interfaces): Library technology vendor providing Polaris, Sierra, and Vega library-services platforms to public and academic libraries worldwide. Adjacent to Charta's library-management services through the technology stack that supports cataloging, circulation, and discovery operations at client libraries.

Direct peers

• CoopCulture: Italian consortium of cooperatives that manages cultural-heritage sites, museums, archaeological areas, and cultural services on behalf of public institutions nationwide. Directly comparable to Cooperativa Charta as an Italian cooperative providing outsourced cultural-heritage services to public-sector clients, though at significantly larger national scale.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCeVLecE06HlC56kp3gVhELw
• Facebookfacebook.com/chartacooperativa
• Instagraminstagram.com/charta_cooperativa
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/cooperativa-charta

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 Cooperativa Charta