DRK-Blutspendedienste

What DRK-Blutspendedienste does

DRK-Blutspendedienste is the collective organization of five regional, nonprofit blood donation services operating under the umbrella of the German Red Cross (Deutsches Rotes Kreuz). Together, the five entities — DRK-Blutspendedienst Baden-Württemberg – Hessen (HQ Mannheim), Blutspendedienst des Bayerischen Roten Kreuzes (Munich), DRK-Blutspendedienst Nord-Ost (Dresden), DRK-Blutspendedienst NSTOB (Springe), and DRK-Blutspendedienst West (Hagen/Ratingen) — supply approximately 75% of Germany's blood product demand and organize roughly 40,000 donation events per year, with up to 200 daily appointments offered nationwide. Each entity is structured as a gemeinnützige GmbH (nonprofit limited liability company), is governed by separate commercial and medical managing directors, and operates under a cost-covering rather than profit-oriented model.

The core service is blood collection, processing, and supply to German hospitals and medical practices for transfusion medicine. Surrounding the physical donation infrastructure is a digital donor services stack: the Blutspende-App (iOS/Android) and spenderservice.net portal for appointment booking, donation history, and digital donor IDs; the Spende-Check online eligibility questionnaire; a postal-code-based appointment finder; HERE Maps integration for location services; and Sendinblue/CookieFirst/Friendly Captcha for email, consent management, and bot protection. The organization also runs the annual #missingtype awareness campaign around World Blood Donor Day (June 14), which has reportedly generated over 165 million impressions through corporate partner activations.

DRK-Blutspendedienste is not investor-backed; it does not raise venture or private equity funding, has no public shareholders, and operates exclusively on cost-covering fees charged for blood products delivered to hospitals. Its customer base is B2B (German hospitals and medical practices) for the supply side and B2C/donor-side (individual German blood donors) on the acquisition side. Germany requires approximately 14,000 donations per day to meet patient demand, yet only about 3% of the eligible population donates, indicating both the structural necessity of the organization and a persistent supply-constraint challenge.

Name

DRK-Blutspendedienste

Legal name

DRK-Blutspendedienste (Collective of five regional gemeinnützige GmbH entities under the German Red Cross)

Website

https://drk-blutspende.de

Company type

Private

Founded year

1952

Operating status

Operating

Short description

DRK-Blutspendedienste is the collective of five regional nonprofit blood donation services under the German Red Cross, supplying approximately 75% of Germany's blood products through roughly 40,000 donation events per year to hospitals and medical practices nationwide.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Blood Banking & Transfusion Services

NAICS

Blood and Organ Banks (621991), Voluntary Health Organizations (813212)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300), Wholesale-Medical, Dental & Hospital Equipment & Supplies (5047)

akta.pro primary industry

Blood, Organ & Tissue Donation Organizations (BPAGACAJ)

akta.pro secondary industries

Transfusion Medicine & Immunohematology (Blood Bank) (HLAFAMAG), Blood Bank, Transfusion Medicine & Immunohematology (HLAHAAAH)

Keywords

• Blood donation services
• Transfusion medicine
• Blood product supply
• Nonprofit healthcare
• Donor management

Headquarters

HQ city

Mannheim

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices6 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Blood Product Fees: Cost-covering fees for blood products supplied to hospitals and medical practices. DRK-Blutspendedienste operates as a non-profit organization (gemeinnützige GmbH) and is not profit-oriented but supply-oriented.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

DRK-Blutspendedienste is the collective of five regional nonprofit blood donation services under the German Red Cross, providing blood collection, processing, testing, and supply of blood products to hospitals and medical practices across Germany. The organization supplements its nationwide donation infrastructure with digital tools including the Blutspende-App, Spende-Check eligibility tool, and digital blood donor ID cards to support donor engagement and appointment management.

Product overview

Die DRK-Blutspendedienste bieten ein integriertes Ökosystem für Blutspendedienstleistungen bestehend aus der Blutspende-App (Spenderservice App) als zentrale digitale Plattform mit Funktionen zur Terminbuchung, Spendehistorie und digitalem Blutspendeausweis; dem Spende-Check zur Selbsteinschätzung der Spendefähigkeit; der Blutspendetermin-Suche für die ortbasierte Terminbuchung; sowie dem Digitalen Spenderservice (Meine Blutspende) als Online-Portal. Ergänzt wird das Angebot durch die #missingtype Kampagne zum Weltblutspendertag. Das System organisiert über 40.000 Blutspendetermine jährlich in ganz Deutschland mit einem strukturierten 8-Schritte-Spendeprozess.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Blutspende-App / Spenderservice App: Digital donor service application for blood donors
• #missingtype

Quantifiable outcome

• ~75% of Germany's blood supply needs met by DRK-Blutspendedienste
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Corporate Partners for #missingtype CampaigncoreGTM or Marketing PartnerCompanies participating in the annual #missingtype campaign by removing A, B, O letters from their communications on World Blood Donor Day to raise awareness for blood donation. Campaign has achieved over 165 million impressions.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Haema AG: Largest private competitor blood and plasma donation service in Germany operating donor centers; directly comparable as a for-profit counterpart collecting whole blood and plasma for the same hospital channel.
• Sanquin Bloedbank: Dutch national blood bank operating as a nonprofit foundation; comparable as a European nonprofit blood collection, processing, and transfusion medicine organization serving a single national market.
• NHS Blood and Transplant: UK national blood and organ service operating under a public-sector nonprofit model; highly comparable as a large-scale, single-country public blood service with volunteer donors and hospital customers.
• Établissement Français du Sang (EFS): French national blood service operating as a public entity; directly comparable as a national blood collection and transfusion medicine organization supplying hospitals across an entire country.
• Blutspende SRK Schweiz: Swiss Red Cross blood transfusion service; comparable as a Red Cross-affiliated national blood service with volunteer donors and a nonprofit operating model similar to DRK-Blutspendedienste.
• American Red Cross Blood Services: US Red Cross blood program collecting and processing approximately 40% of the US national blood supply; comparable as a sister Red Cross affiliate operating a national volunteer-donor blood collection network.

Broad incumbents

• CSL Plasma (CSL Behring): Global plasma collection network owned by CSL Behring; comparable as a large-scale plasma and blood products operator with overlapping supply-chain capabilities and hospital-facing products.
• Octapharma: Global plasma protein therapeutics company with plasma collection operations; comparable as a vertically integrated blood/plasma collector and fractionator supplying hospital products.
• Grifols: Global plasma-derived therapies company operating one of the world's largest plasma collection networks; comparable as a major blood-plasma collector and downstream therapeutics producer with hospital channels.
• BioLife Plasma Services (Takeda): US plasma collection network owned by Takeda; comparable as a high-volume, compensated-donor plasma collection operation focused on source plasma for fractionation.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/DRKBlutspendedienste
• Facebookfacebook.com/DRK-Blutspendedienste-285230592019068
• Instagraminstagram.com/drkblutspende
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/drk-blutspendedienste

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles10 records

Subsidiaries5 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 DRK-Blutspendedienste