Kodehyve is changing direction without losing sight of its origins. Founded in late 2019, it was then launched as a full-time venture in 2020 by Felix Hemmerling, CEO and founder, and Julien Casse, CTO and co-founder, the Luxembourg-based company initially established itself in a very specific sector: the digitalisation of property processes, particularly off-plan sales in Luxembourg. Five years on, the property market that had served as a testing ground has become one of the company’s main risk factors.

“In 2020, we realised there was a significant need in the Luxembourg market for the digitalisation of real estate processes,” recalls Felix Hemmerling. Kodehyve started out as a two-person team, quickly generated a positive cash flow, hired its first employee at the end of 2020 and grew to over 20 staff members in 2022. The company raised around one million euros in 2021 from Luxembourg business angels, then secured a second round of funding in 2022.

Covid… that catalyst

The Covid period has therefore acted as a catalyst. Property professionals need to sign, track, document and secure their transactions remotely. Kodehyve is developing several modules: Kodehyve Sign, dedicated to electronic signatures; Kodehyve Comply, focused on KYC/AML; and Kodehyve OS, a broader platform covering finance, compliance, document management, signatures and project management for developers.

But from 2023 onwards, the situation is set to change. “We’ve seen a rather strained market in Luxembourg, with customers paying late, some going bankrupt, and others simply stopping paying their bills altogether,” explains Felix Hemmerling. The off-plan sales crisis is hitting the historic heart of Kodehyve directly. “We are the final domino in the market. If the developer doesn’t sell, they no longer take out insurance or pay their bills.”

This situation has led the company to broaden its scope. The aim is no longer simply to remain a technology provider for property developers, but to focus on the most cross-functional building blocks: electronic signatures, compliance, KYC/AML and APIs. “Kodehyve Sign and Kodehyve Comply are fairly industry-agnostic solutions,” emphasises Felix Hemmerling. New clients could include solicitors, HR teams, car dealerships, caterers, florists or any business dealing with contractual documents or high-value transactions.

More automation, AI and product specialisation

The year 2024 also marks a more private episode: a strategic acquisition that fell through. Kodehyve was involved in a deal with an American company valued, according to Felix Hemmerling, at over €6bn. “The deal fell through five minutes before midnight,” he says. The agreements were, according to him, finalised, but the tax structure between the US and Luxembourg ultimately no longer made the financial sense the buyer had expected. This failure, combined with the property crisis, prompted Kodehyve to restructure its organisation.

The company does not disclose its turnover or recurring revenue. Felix Hemmerling stands by this decision for strategic reasons, whilst indicating that a more detailed financial update may be provided after the 2026 financial year. Instead, he emphasises the shift in business model: less focus on growth at any cost, fewer permanent staff, and greater reliance on automation, AI and product specialisation. “The era of ‘growth at all costs’, where you had to raise money, throw money at the problem and have large teams, is over,” he sums up.

This repositioning does not mean that we are moving away from the property sector. Kodehyve continues to serve this sector through its signature and compliance solutions. At the same time, the founders launched Habiata, with Misch Strotz and Torge Schwandt, to target another segment of the market: estate agents. Unlike Kodehyve OS, which is designed for developers, Habiata was conceived from the outset as a ‘fully AI-enabled’ platform.

Word of mouth: the ultimate form of marketing

For Julien Casse, artificial intelligence does not automatically make business software replicable. “AI is very good at producing demos,” he says, but building a complete operating system remains, in his view, a different matter altogether. The CTO draws a distinction between the rapid development of internal scripts, which is set to become more widespread, and the design of a robust, secure, integrated business platform tailored to specific use cases. “There’s AI that develops things, and there’s the integration of AI. They’re not on the same level.”

Security remains a sensitive issue. Kodehyve is not a PSF and does not, at this stage, work with banks, life insurance companies or regulated entities. Felix Hemmerling points out that the company is currently targeting unregulated sectors. Julien Casse states, however, that he applies standards drawn from his past experience in PSF environments: backup management, the principle of least privilege, tenant separation and vigilance regarding AI-related risks, particularly the exposure of security or encryption keys.

The sales strategy is also evolving. Large-scale property developments sometimes involved very long sales cycles, ranging from a few weeks to over two years. The Kodehyve Sign and Kodehyve Comply solutions are now designed to be used online, without the need for face-to-face interaction. “Today, to use Kodehyve Sign or Kodehyve Comply, you don’t even need to meet us,” explains Felix Hemmerling. Word of mouth also plays a part: some caterers or florists discover the solution after signing a property booking contract via Kodehyve.

More open APIs

Opening up APIs is another key focus. “It’s in our best interests to open up these APIs to enable interconnectivity,” explains Julien Casse. The aim is to enable SMEs to add an electronic signature or KYC/AML verification module to their existing tools, whether these are CRM, ERP or in-house solutions. For the CTO, the arrival of tools such as Cursor, Claude Code or n8n makes these connections more accessible, provided the APIs are simple and well documented.

Kodehyve does not, therefore, claim to compete with SAP or IBM on their own turf. The company targets specific use cases, SMEs and small teams. Felix Hemmerling mentions an average of eight to twelve users per platform. The model relies less on a general-purpose suite and more on a series of specialised modules that can be integrated and tailored to specific needs.

The property crisis therefore forced Kodehyve to move away from a single-vertical approach. “At a certain point, indecision is also a decision,” says Felix Hemmerling. According to him, the company initially focused on its traditional market before realising that the expected recovery was not materialising. “If the dip continues to dip, you have to accept it, then make the decision to move on.”

For Kodehyve, the challenge now is to turn an initial weakness – its reliance on the property sector – into a strategic advantage. The company is retaining its sector-specific expertise, but aims to become a digital services platform for businesses that sign, verify, document and automate. Less spectacular than a funding round or an acquisition, this pivot perhaps says more about the company’s maturity: learning to survive its first market in order to build the next one.