excire
Excire, a brand of Pattern Recognition Company GmbH (Lübeck, Germany), builds AI-powered photo and video management software — including Excire Foto 2027, Excire Search 2026 for Adobe Lightroom Classic, Excire Foto Office Edition, and an Excire API — serving photographers, Lightroom users, and SMBs via on-premise perpetual licenses.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2015
- HeadquartersLübeck, Germany
- Headcount—
- GTM typeB2B and B2C
- OfferingSoftware
What excire does
Excire develops AI-powered photo and video management software for photo enthusiasts, professional photographers, Adobe Lightroom Classic users, and small-to-medium businesses. Its core products are Excire Foto 2027 (standalone desktop application), Excire Search 2026 (Adobe Lightroom Classic plugin), Excire Foto Office Edition (team/business version with role-based permissions), and an Excire API for third-party Digital Asset Management and imaging software integrators. The underlying technology is proprietary computer-vision and natural-language AI built by Pattern Recognition Company GmbH (PRC), the German operating entity headquartered in Lübeck with origins at the University of Lübeck. Capabilities include automatic keywording, face and person recognition, similarity search, free-text natural-language search, GPS-based search, OCR for visible text in photos, AI-assisted culling, and aesthetic scoring, all executed on-device rather than in the cloud.
The business operates almost entirely on a one-time perpetual license model with no subscription and no cloud requirement — Excire explicitly markets 'No Abo. Keine Cloud.' — combined with B2B and OEM licensing through the Excire API. Consumer and SMB customers purchase directly via the Excire online shop (processed through FastSpring) or via the dedicated business shop, with a 14-day free trial across all products. The company has a hybrid go-to-market combining product-led growth (trial downloads, SEO-led content, YouTube tutorials) and API-first partnerships with DAM manufacturers such as Cavok DAM. Distribution spans 178 countries with more than 200,000 cumulative installations, and the brand is supported by external recognition including the 2026 TIPA World Award for Best Photo Management Software and the 2025 Photography News Best Imaging Software Award.
Excire is organized as a brand of Pattern Recognition Company GmbH, a privately held German GmbH with two named managing directors (Dr.-Ing. Erhardt Barth and Mathias Martinetz) and no disclosed external venture capital, private equity ownership, or public listings. The company holds GDPR and CCPA compliance certifications, leverages an Intel technology partnership for on-device AVX acceleration, and integrates commercially with Adobe (Lightroom Classic plugin), 10Duke (license activation), Google Analytics, and MailChimp as supporting infrastructure. Customer evidence centers on German and European SMB case studies in tourism, industrial/manufacturing, science parks, marketing agencies, and public-sector press offices.
excire firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- excire
- Legal name
- Pattern Recognition Company GmbH
- Website
- https://excire.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2015
- Operating status
- Operating
- Short description
- Excire, a brand of Pattern Recognition Company GmbH (Lübeck, Germany), builds AI-powered photo and video management software — including Excire Foto 2027, Excire Search 2026 for Adobe Lightroom Classic, Excire Foto Office Edition, and an Excire API — serving photographers, Lightroom users, and SMBs via on-premise perpetual licenses.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
excire industry classification
Industry- Product category
- AI Photo Management Software
- NAICS
- Software Publishers (5132)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- AI Application Enablement Platforms (Copilot/Agent Frameworks, SDKs) (HDAEANAJ)
Keywords
Where excire is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Lübeck
- HQ country
- Germany
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices1 record
Markets served
excire business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B and B2C
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Software License Sales: Excire sells perpetual software licenses for their products (Excire Foto, Excire Search, Excire Foto Office Edition). There is no subscription or cloud requirement - customers purchase a one-time license. The company offers business/enterprise licenses for teams with unlimited users.
- API/Licensing to Third Parties: Excire licenses their AI technology to other software companies and DAM manufacturers through the Excire API, enabling on-premise or cloud-based integration of their image analysis capabilities.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| One time/ perpetual license | Multi-year contract | Excire Foto 2027 - Standalone photo management software for individual photographers |
| One time/ perpetual license | Multi-year contract | Excire Search 2026 - Lightroom Classic plugin |
| One time/ perpetual license | Multi-year contract | Excire Foto Office Edition - Business team license |
| Other | Multi-year contract | Excire API - Technology licensing for software companies |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels7 records
excire product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Excire develops and sells AI-powered photo and video management desktop software, an Adobe Lightroom Classic plugin, a team/business edition, and a licensed API for third-party software developers. Its core offering is on-premise AI image analysis for automatic keywording, face recognition, similarity search, free-text natural-language search, GPS search, OCR, and aesthetic scoring, sold as one-time perpetual licenses with no subscription or cloud requirement. Products are designed for individual photographers, photo-enthusiast Lightroom Classic users, business teams needing GDPR-compliant image management, and DAM/software vendors that want to integrate Excire's AI into their own products.
Product overview
Excire is a photo management software company offering a product portfolio centered on AI-powered image organization and search. The core lineup includes Excire Foto 2027 (standalone photo/video management application), Excire Search 2026 (Lightroom Classic plugin), and Excire Foto Office Edition (business/team version), plus an API product for third-party DAM integrations. All products leverage proprietary AI for features including automatic keyword tagging, face/person recognition, similarity search, free-text search, and aesthetic scoring. The company operates on a perpetual license model with no subscription or cloud requirement.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Excire Foto: AI-powered photo and video management software for photo enthusiasts and professional photographers.
- Excire Search
- Excire Foto Office Edition
- Excire API
Products and services
- Excire Foto 2027 Standalone desktop photo and video management application for individual and professional photographers featuring AI-powered search (free-text, keywording, face, similarity, GPS, OCR), automatic tagging, AI-assisted culling, and aesthetic scoring. Runs locally without cloud or subscription.
- Excire Search 2026 Adobe Lightroom Classic plugin that adds AI-powered keyword search, automatic tagging, face detection, person search, similarity search, free-text search, and aesthetics search to the user's existing Lightroom catalog. Requires Lightroom Classic version 6 or newer.
- Excire Foto Office Edition Business/team photo management product with multi-user access, role-based permissions, hide options for sensitive keywords, SFTP sharing, usage-rights metadata, folder-to-keyword mapping, and shared database on network drives. On-premise deployment with full GDPR compliance and unlimited users per corporate license.
- Excire API API that packages Excire's AI image analysis technology (automatic keywording, similarity search, person search, free-text search, and aesthetics scoring) for integration into Digital Asset Management systems, photo platforms, archival solutions, and imaging applications. Supports both on-premise and cloud deployment models.
Quantifiable outcome
- Users with >75,000 images in Lightroom catalog can find specific photos within seconds
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use excire
Customer profileNamed customers7 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
excire technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration1 record
AI capability8 records
Feature9 records
excire partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- Cavok DAMcoreCavok DAM, a Digital Asset Management solution provider, integrated Excire AI technology into their platform. This integration brings AI-powered search, full data control, and secure image management capabilities to Cavok DAM customers. Both on-premise and cloud deployment options are supported.
- IntelcoreDeepened partnership with Intel for technology optimization. Excire software is optimized to work with Intel processors, leveraging AVX instruction set support for enhanced performance in AI image analysis tasks.
- Adobe (Lightroom Classic)coreExcire Search operates as a plugin for Adobe Lightroom Classic, integrating AI-powered search and organization features directly into the Lightroom workflow. This is a core product integration for the photography market.
- FastSpringminorFastSpring provides e-commerce and payment processing services for Excire's online shop, handling checkout, payment processing, and digital delivery of software licenses globally.
- MailChimp (Rocket Science Group)minorMailChimp is used for newsletter distribution to Excire customers, managing email campaigns about product updates, tips, and company news.
Scale indicators5 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
excire competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Photo Mechanic: Photo Mechanic is widely used by professional photographers for fast culling, browsing, and metadata handling of large image batches. It competes directly with Excire Foto's AI-assisted culling workflow, especially for sports, wedding, and event photographers.
- Skylum (Luminar Neo): Luminar Neo offers AI-driven photo editing, culling, and organization tools aimed at enthusiast and professional photographers. It overlaps with Excire Foto on AI-assisted selection and is sold as a one-time/perpetual-style license, making it a close competitor for the same prosumer segment.
- Mylio: Mylio is a cross-device photo organization and management platform for enthusiasts and professionals, offering face recognition, tagging, and cataloging across devices. It targets the same photo-management workflow Excire Foto addresses and competes on local-first privacy positioning.
- ACDSee: ACDSee provides professional photo management, cataloging, and editing software with face recognition and tagging features. It is a direct competitor to Excire Foto for photographers seeking a perpetual-license alternative to subscription tools.
- Magix (Photo Manager / Xara): MAGIX sells photo management and editing software (Photo Manager, Photo Designer) targeted at enthusiasts and prosumer users. Its perpetual-license photo cataloging products overlap with Excire Foto's positioning in the European market.
- Cavok DAM: Cavok DAM is a Digital Asset Management platform that has integrated Excire's AI image analysis API. It is both a partner and a peer — competing for enterprise media-management budgets while licensing Excire's AI under the hood.
- Tonfotos: Tonfotos is an AI-powered family photo organization tool offering face recognition and automatic tagging on a free/perpetual model. It targets the same personal photo-management use case as Excire Foto at a lower price point.
Broad incumbents
- Adobe (Lightroom / Sensei AI): Adobe ships AI-powered tagging, search, and selection features in Lightroom Classic and Lightroom (cloud), directly overlapping with Excire Foto and Excire Search. As a much larger incumbent with subscription economics, it is the most consequential competitor for Excire's prosumer customer base.
- Google Photos: Google Photos is a free, cloud-native photo management service with AI-driven search, face grouping, and memories. It is the most ubiquitous alternative for general consumers and exerts pricing pressure on Excire's consumer-facing products.
- Apple Photos: Apple Photos ships AI-powered search, face recognition, and Memories on macOS and iOS. It is a default photo management solution on Apple devices and competes indirectly with Excire Foto by being bundled free of charge.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
excire social profiles
Digital presenceexcire compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance2 records
excire financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
excire leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles2 records
excire funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
excire M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about excire
What does excire do?
Excire develops and sells AI-powered photo and video management desktop software, an Adobe Lightroom Classic plugin, a team/business edition, and a licensed API for third-party software developers. Its core offering is on-premise AI image analysis for automatic keywording, face recognition, similarity search, free-text natural-language search, GPS search, OCR, and aesthetic scoring, sold as one-time perpetual licenses with no subscription or cloud requirement. Products are designed for individual photographers, photo-enthusiast Lightroom Classic users, business teams needing GDPR-compliant image management, and DAM/software vendors that want to integrate Excire's AI into their own products.
Is excire a public or private company?
excire is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was excire founded?
excire was founded in 2015.
Where is excire based?
excire is headquartered in Lübeck, Germany, in the Europe region.
How does excire make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Software License Sales are the primary driver. The others are API/Licensing to Third Parties.
Who are excire's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Photo Mechanic, Skylum (Luminar Neo), Mylio, ACDSee, Magix (Photo Manager / Xara), Cavok DAM and Tonfotos. Broad incumbents are Adobe (Lightroom / Sensei AI), Google Photos and Apple Photos.
Does excire have an API?
Yes. The Excire API integrates the company's AI-powered image analysis technology into third-party products. It is suitable for Digital Asset Management (DAM) systems, photo platforms, archiving solutions, and imaging applications. Available for both on-premise and cloud deployment. Features include automatic keyword tagging, similarity search, person search, free-text search, and aesthetics scoring. Developer documentation is at excire.com/excire-api.
What industry is excire in?
excire's product category is AI Photo Management Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAEANAJ, AI Application Enablement Platforms (Copilot/Agent Frameworks, SDKs). Its NAICS code is 5132 and its SIC code is 7372.