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Private company

Lexware

Logo: Lexware, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3

German accounting and business software brand founded in 19891

Lexware is a German software brand owned by the Haufe Group. Based in Freiburg im Breisgau, it offers accounting, invoicing, payroll and tax software for the self-employed and small businesses. Its products include desktop software and the online accounting suite Lexware Office.2 Its chief executive is Christian Steiger (since 2019).1 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1989Founded1

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Lexware is a German software brand owned by the Haufe Group. Based in Freiburg im Breisgau, it offers accounting, invoicing, payroll and tax software for the self-employed and small businesses. Its products include desktop software and the online accounting suite Lexware Office.2

Corporate structure

Lexware sits at the top of its group. 1 entity, 1 country on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

  • Lexware
    • Tell Your Story Owned · Germany

Built from subsidiaries, stakes and holdings from Wikidata (CC0); major holders from Schedules 13D and 13G. Each entity in the chart links to its source.

What it owns

What Lexware reports owning in its annual reports to the SEC: buildings, land and equipment, real estate and locations, investments, intangible assets and inventory, at the end of its latest fiscal year and a year before.

Stakes and holdings (Wikidata)

  • Tell Your Story

Things Wikidata records the company as owning, with the share when stated.1

The story

Wessendorf founded the business in Freiburg in 1989. Its first product, Voyage, was a program for calculating travel expenses. The Rudolf Haufe Verlag acquired a majority stake in 1993, and Wessendorf sold his remaining interest to the publisher in 1997.

An agreement with the American software company Intuit in 1999 gave Lexware responsibility for marketing, distribution and customer service for Intuit's products in Germany.

By 2005, Lexware sold programs for accounting, payroll, inventory management and travel expenses, both separately and as software suites. Its business focused on ready-made software for small businesses, distributed online and through retailers.

Lexware expanded into cloud-based accounting in 2012 with the launch of lexoffice, an online service for self-employed people and small businesses. Lexoffice was renamed Lexware Office in 2024.

From Wikipedia’s article on Lexware, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Leadership

Who has led Lexware, and when. Pick a name to see everywhere that person has worked.

Chief executive

  1. Christian Steiger2019–2025
  2. Carsten Block2025–now
19901995200020052010201520202025

Products and brands

  • accounting software

Listed on Wikidata.1

Lexware offers desktop programs for bookkeeping, payroll, invoicing, inventory management and travel expenses.

Lexware Office

Lexware Office is a cloud-based accounting service. Users can create invoices, record income and expenses, manage receipts and connect bank accounts. Payroll is available as an additional service. A mobile app allows users to photograph receipts, and tax advisers can be given access to the accounting records.

Accounting data can also be transferred to smartsteuer, an online service for preparing German tax returns.

From Wikipedia’s article on Lexware, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Subsidiaries and ownership

Also owns

  • Tell Your Story

From Wikidata.1

Timeline

  1. Apr 1, 2025New chief executive Carsten Block becomes CEO1
  2. Jul 2019New chief executive Christian Steiger becomes CEO1
  3. 1989Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

  1. 1
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