Ecosia
Verified“EU-owned by design, US-search under the hood.”
- Founded
- 2009
- Users
- 20M+
- Revenue
- ~EUR 43.2M
- Trees
- 250M
75 = midpoint of Control 91 & Data 59
Sovereignty Quadrant
Control ↑ who owns & governs the company · Data → where your data lives. Every dot is a company — click to open it.
Every number below traces to 13 sourced facts across 10 independent sources, last verified 2026-06-12. 4 open questions hold confidence at 82% — they lower confidence, never the score.
Control ↑
Who legally and economically controls the company
Legal & Jurisdiction
92
Incorporated and operated entirely in Germany as Ecosia GmbH (Amtsgericht Charlottenburg, HRB 170873 B), no foreign parent. Fully within EU/German jurisdiction and GDPR enforceability. The only non-EU legal wrinkle is contractual reliance on US providers (Microsoft, AWS) for parts of the service.
Why 92? 3 sourced facts · click to expand
Legal entity is a German limited-liability company registered in Berlin
Handelsregister / online-handelsregister.de · as of 2026-06-12
Share capital and managing director on record
NorthData company record · as of 2026-06-12
Headquartered and operated in Berlin, Germany since founding
Wikipedia (Ecosia) · as of 2026-06-12
Control & Ownership
90
Steward-ownership since 2018: shares held under a Purpose Foundation golden/veto-share model. No one holds economic rights, the company cannot be sold, and profits are mission-locked. Control sits permanently with people inside the mission, all EU-based. Not listed anywhere. The Paris-based EUSP joint venture (50/50 with Qwant) sits outside steward-ownership and can raise external capital, a small future dilution risk for that subsidiary but not for Ecosia GmbH itself.
Why 90? 3 sourced facts · click to expand
Steward-ownership: shares held via Purpose Foundation, no economic rights for any individual
Purpose Economy (company profile) · as of 2026-06-12
Golden/veto share locks mission and prevents sale
Purpose Economy · as of 2026-06-12
EUSP search-index JV sits outside steward-ownership and may take external capital
Qwant / Better Web (announcement) · as of 2026-06-12
Data →
Where your data lives and who can reach it
Data & Infrastructure
38
The weak point. Most organic search results are served by Microsoft Bing (and Google in some regions/browsers) — core service depends on US providers. Some user data is hosted on AWS eu-west-1 (Ireland): EU region, but a US hyperscaler subject to the CLOUD Act. Mitigations are real but partial: sync data is encrypted and self-hosted in an EU data centre, IP/search data is anonymized within 7 days, and Ecosia is building its own European index (Staan via EUSP) which already serves a portion of French queries. Until Staan scales beyond France, the search backbone remains foreign.
Why 38? 4 sourced facts · click to expand
Organic results come from US providers Microsoft Bing and Google, plus own EUSP index
Ecosia Help Center (Search Result Providers) · as of 2026-06-12
Some user data hosted on AWS in Ireland (US hyperscaler, EU region, CLOUD Act exposure)
Ecosia Privacy / Help Center (GDPR) · as of 2026-06-12
Building independent European search index to cut US/China dependence
Ecosia blog (European search index launch) · as of 2026-06-12
Search/IP data anonymized quickly; renewable-powered infrastructure
Ecosia Regeneration Report 2024 · as of 2026-06-12
Operations & People
90
Operations are squarely EU-centered: HQ in Berlin with a Brussels office, German founder/CEO leading, EUR reporting, and a European-focused mission (tree-planting, climate, EU digital sovereignty). 20M+ users and ~EUR 43M revenue. Tree-planting is executed via a global network of 125+ local partner organizations and 200,000+ planters, but the company itself is run from Germany/Belgium.
Why 90? 3 sourced facts · click to expand
HQ in Berlin with Brussels office; German leadership
Wikipedia (Ecosia) · as of 2026-06-12
Revenue and user base reported in EUR, European-centered
Wikipedia (Ecosia) · as of 2026-06-12
Mission and impact reporting centered on Europe and climate; monthly financial transparency
Ecosia blog (250 Million Trees) · as of 2026-06-12
Aligned to the EU Commission’s official Cloud Sovereignty Framework (SEAL, Jun 2026) →
What we don’t know
4 open questions — they lower confidence, never the score
- ?
Exactly which user-data categories sit on AWS eu-west-1 versus Ecosia's self-hosted EU data centre, and the current split
Determines true CLOUD Act exposure; could raise or lower the infra score if a fuller breakdown were available
- ?
Share of total global queries now served by the EUSP/Staan European index versus Bing/Google as of mid-2026
If Staan has scaled well beyond France, infra dependence on US providers is lower than scored
- ?
Precise current headcount and full leadership/board composition
Operations score assumes German/EU-centered staffing; a large non-EU workforce would lower it
- ?
Whether EUSP has taken any external (potentially non-EU) investment yet
Could introduce foreign economic interest into the search-index subsidiary, affecting ownership at the JV level
EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework lens
SEAL targets cloud/hosting providers; applied here as an analogous sovereignty mapping for a search engine, not a certification.
Strategic
Mission-locked EU company explicitly pursuing European digital sovereignty; building its own index to cut US/China dependence.
Legal & jurisdictional
German GmbH, fully within EU/GDPR jurisdiction, no foreign parent.
Data & AI
Search results largely from US Bing/Google; some data on AWS Ireland (CLOUD Act); own EUSP index emerging but partial.
Operational
Run from Berlin/Brussels, German leadership, EUR reporting, European-focused mission.
Supply chain
Core search supply chain depends on Microsoft and Google APIs and AWS infrastructure; EUSP/Staan mitigates only in France so far.
Technological
Now developing proprietary European search index (Staan) via Paris JV, but still reliant on hyperscaler tech for most queries.
Security & compliance
GDPR-aligned, fast anonymization (7 days), encrypted self-hosted sync; reliance on US sub-processors remains a residual transfer risk.
Environmental sustainability
200% renewable energy (2024), 100% surplus to climate, 250M trees; sustainability is the core mission.
EU alternatives
French search engine and Ecosia's 50/50 partner in the EUSP/Staan European index; historically also relied on Bing, but co-owns the new EU index.
Dutch, privacy-focused and EU-based, but serves Google results, so search backbone is still US-dependent.
Runs its own independent crawler/index (no Bing/Google), but is UK-based (post-Brexit, outside the EU).
How the method works
Methodology v2 (provisional): the score is the midpoint of two axes — Control (who owns and governs the company) and Data (where your data lives and who can reach it). Each axis is scored only on verified evidence; unknowns reduce confidence, never the score. Every input below is sourced; the weights and judgments are open to challenge.
Spotted an error? Every claim is sourced — challenge it and we correct the record.
- 2026-06-12 — Initial golden profile, authored from primary sources (human + AI review).
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Verified 2026-06-12 · Human + AI joint review (sources independently checked) · Methodology