🇩🇪 Germany

Ecosia

Berlin search engine that spends its advertising profits on tree planting. The company is held under a steward-ownership structure that prevents its shares being sold at a profit or profits being taken out, though sources differ on how much of it the Purpose Foundation actually holds.

ecosia.org →

Ownership & control

Disputed

EU foundation, cooperative or non-profit

Disputed, and deliberately not resolved here. Ecosia's own FAQ says the majority of its shares sit with an external non-profit, the Purpose Foundation. The Purpose Foundation's own site describes a golden-share arrangement in which nobody holds economic rights and control stays with people working inside the company — a veto share, not a majority. Neither source states which country the Purpose Foundation is incorporated in, so the "eu-" in eu-foundation is inferred rather than sourced. The German commercial register would settle it; handelsregister.de could not be fetched.

Legal & registration

Verified

Legal name: Ecosia GmbH
Incorporated in: Germany
Founded: 2009
Record updated: 2026-07-29

1 product in the library

DigitalSearch & browsers

Ecosia

Berlin search engine that puts its ad profits into planting trees

Alternative to Google Search, Bing

EEU-ness21