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Our vision:
Ensuring digital freedom based on trust and effortless security.

Our mission:
Your identity belongs to you

We believe that digitization can help make cities a more attractive places to live for the people. At the same time, we believe in a digitized world where security and the protection of user data are paramount. Your identity belongs only to you!

What we aim to achieve

With our identification and authentication solution, which is highly user-friendly, secure and flexible, we enable all people and companies to move securely and effortlessly in the ever more digitized world - especially in the smart city.

Our history

Passion for innovation from the beginning

XignSys GmbH was founded in 2016 by the two IT security experts Markus Hertlein and Pascal Manaras with the vision of making the Internet, digitization and digital life more secure, fairer and overall barrier-free.

XignSys GmbH was founded in 2016 as a spin-off from the Institute for Internet Security at Westfälische Hochschule and thus has a strong background in IT security. Markus Hertlein and Pascal Manaras have always conducted research under Prof. Dr. (TU NN) Dipl.-Ing. Norbert Pohlmann, the director of the institute. Together they can look back on more than 30 years of IT security experience. The drive to found XignSys GmbH has been closely linked to proving that simplicity and security are not mutually exclusive in the digital world. "On the one hand, we looked at the matter from a researcher's perspective, which gave us a clear, in-depth view of cybersecurity. However, we are also end users: if we want to have a completely digitally connected world, then it must be secure, but at the same time also effortless to use," as Hertlein recounts. XignSys has initiated a paradigm shift that on the one hand makes passwords superfluous and on the other hand secures the digital sovereignty of customers, because: In the end, digital users should be able to retain their identity, even if it resides with or is issued by companies.

Security and data protection have top priority. However, our solutions are not only available on the Internet, for example for logging on to websites. Our goal is to create a superordinate platform. After a one-time registration and merging of different identities, all kinds of services, both physical and digital, can be used. We work for a fair and secure digital world for everyone equally. To achieve this, we put the user at the center so that his or her data can be kept secure and simple. This enables digital coexistence on an equal footing, so that all people within a smart city in particular can benefit from the opportunities of digitization. Digitization by people for people, the environment and our surroundings. Everyone should be able to participate. That is our focus. Because digitization is not an end in itself.

Our values

Ensuring digital freedom

By eliminating passwords, cumbersome one-time passwords and expensive hardware, we are making it possible for all citizens to participate in digital life without barriers and to make the smart city secure.

XignSys enables secure and equitable digital participation

We put the user at the center so that their data can be kept secure and simple. In doing so, we enable equal digital participation. It is important to us that everyone benefits equally from a smart and connected city.

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Data sovereignty for users: Privacy by design.

Your data belongs to you. Data sovereignty and sovereignty are not foreign words for us, but our mission.

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Digital togetherness: Security by design

We work for secure digital interaction between citizens, public administrations, companies and other organizations.

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Available for everyone: Usability by design

Our solution for secure digital participation is accessible to everyone.

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The key to the future: Low-code and no-code integration

In smart cities and online services, we enable secure passwordless authentication for various applications.

Aufeinander gestapelte Steine
Aufeinander gestapelte Steine
Our team

Diversity and expertise

For us, it is clear that every employee who joins us adds individual and crucial value. We value a flat hierarchy where communication always comes first.

Markus Hertlein, CEO der XignSys GmbH
Pascal Manaras, CTO der XignSys GmbH
Norbert Pohlmann
Willi Mannheims
Norbert Pohlmann
Mann steht auf Treppe und knöpft seinen Anzug zu

Investor Base Includes the European Investment Fund (EIF) and the European Angels Fund (EAF) as well as notable venture capital investors

We are characterized by strong expertise, flat hierarchies and open communication

Trust and an open error culture as a formula for success

Markus and Pascal, as founders and managing directors, are ready to help, as are all the other employees you work with on a daily basis. Open communication is explicitly encouraged at our company. Our employees enjoy our full trust and can approach us at any time, because this is the only way we can get better together. And a positive culture of making mistakes is also part of this, because mistakes happen so that you learn from them.

Individual diversity is our strength

Basically, the way communication has become established in the teams themselves is through a certain kind of leadership by individuals. We create dynamism and agility with a certain kind of guidance, self-structuring, trust and freedom in the way we work. Teams should be able to self-organize among themselves and also collaborate in this way.

40 employees from a wide range of areas are working on our vision of secure and equitable digital participation for all citizens in digital and real life.

"For me, a smart city means that everyone can meet at eye level and participate in it on an equal footing. Working together with such a dedicated team to get a little closer to this goal every day is outstanding."

Markus Hertlein, Co-Founder and CEO