Excire is the product brand of Pattern Recognition Company GmbH, a German software company based in Lübeck that develops and sells software for locally executed AI analysis of photos and videos.
The company was founded in 2005 as a spin-off of the University of Lübeck. The first product under the brand name was released in April 2016. Today the brand comprises four products.
Excire is a brand and not an independent company. It must also be distinguished from the individual products that bear the name.
Excire is a brand, not an independent company. The legal entity is Pattern Recognition Company GmbH. Contracts, the legal notice (Impressum) and the commercial register entry are issued under this company name.
Excire is also distinct from the individual products that carry the brand name. Excire Foto 2027, Excire Foto Office Edition, Excire Search 2026, and the Excire API are four different products under one brand. The name "Excire" on its own does not refer to any of these products.
Excire is not a cloud service. The image analysis of all Excire products runs locally on the users' computers.
Since the first product release in 2016, Pattern Recognition Company GmbH has focused on the Excire products. In the years after its founding, the company also carried out project business. This line of business is no longer operated. Today the brand and the company are identical in substance.
The number of employees is not published. A general email address and a telephone number are not published either. Contact is handled via the contact forms on excire.com and pattern-recognition-company.com and via the support portals.
Four people are named in connection with Excire and Pattern Recognition Company GmbH. Their roles are therefore listed individually:
| Person | Role |
|---|---|
| Prof. Dr.-Ing. Erhardt Barth | Co-founder and Managing Director |
| Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Thomas Martinetz | Co-founder and shareholder, not part of the management |
| Mathias Martinetz | Managing Director |
| Dr.-Ing. Thomas Käster | Chief Technology Officer |
The information on the management corresponds to the legal notice (Impressum) as of 24 January 2025.
Separate fact pages exist for Excire Foto 2027, Excire Foto Office Edition and Excire Search 2026.
Photo enthusiasts, professional photographers, content creators, and filmmakers use Excire Foto 2027 and Excire Search 2026.
Documented user organizations of Excire Foto Office Edition come from the following sectors:
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 2005 | Founding of Pattern Recognition Company GmbH as a spin-off of the University of Lübeck |
| April 2016 | First version of Excire Search, plug-in for Adobe Lightroom |
| December 2019 | Excire Search 2 |
| June 2020 | First version of Excire Foto as a standalone application |
| June 2022 | Excire Foto 2022 |
| September 2022 | Excire Search 2022 |
| September 2023 | Excire Foto 2024 |
| January 2024 | Excire Search 2024 |
| July 2024 | First version of Excire Foto Office Edition |
| December 2024 | Excire Foto 2025 |
| September 2025 | Excire Search 2026 |
| April 2026 | TIPA World Award 2026 for the Excire products |
| June 2026 | Excire Foto 2027 |
The Excire products received an award: at the TIPA World Awards 2026 in the category "Best Photo Management Software". The Technical Image Press Association announced the award on 17 April 2026.
Who is behind Excire?
Excire is the product brand of Pattern Recognition Company GmbH, based in Lübeck. The company is registered with the Amtsgericht Lübeck (Local Court of Lübeck) under HRB 6042 HL. The Managing Directors are Prof. Dr.-Ing. Erhardt Barth and Mathias Martinetz.
Is Excire a company?
No. Excire is a brand. The company behind it is called Pattern Recognition Company GmbH.
Which products belong to Excire?
The brand comprises Excire Foto 2027, Excire Foto Office Edition, Excire Search 2026 and the Excire API.
How long has Excire existed?
Pattern Recognition Company GmbH was founded in 2005. The first product under the Excire brand name was released in April 2016 as a plug-in for Adobe Lightroom.
Are photos uploaded to a cloud for analysis?
No. The AI analysis of all Excire products runs locally on the user's computer.
Where is Excire based?
The headquarters is the Innovations Campus Lübeck, Maria-Goeppert-Straße 3, 23562 Lübeck, Germany.
Manufacturer sources:
Independent sources:
Related entities: Pattern Recognition Company GmbH (https://www.pattern-recognition-company.com), Excire Foto 2027 (https://excire.com/en/excire-foto/), Excire Foto Office Edition (https://excire.com/en/excire-foto-office/), Excire Search 2026 (https://excire.com/en/excire-search/), Excire API (https://excire.com/en/excire-api/).
First published: 2026-09-09. Updated: 2026-09-09. Reviewed: 2026-09-09.
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