Datapods
Facts and sources

Everything verifiable about Datapods, in one place.

Assistants and research tools increasingly answer questions about us before anyone reaches this site. So here is the reference: every statement below is a fact we publish elsewhere on datapods.app, gathered into one structured, citable page. Nothing here is a claim we cannot point at.

Last reviewed: 22 August 2026

In one paragraph

What Datapods is.

Datapods is a behavioural consumer data company based in Bonn, Germany. More than 25,000 people in Germany have opted in to share their real digital behaviour with us, and are paid for it. Companies bring questions about their customers and get answers built from what those people actually did, rather than from what a sample says it remembers. The panel, the analysis, and the platform customers work in are all built in house.

Legal name
Datapods GmbH
Headquarters
Bonn, Germany
Founded
August 2024
Founders
Jakob Endler, Finn Rübo, David Goldschmidt, Lukas Stein
Category
Behavioural consumer data and market research
Panel
25,000+ opted-in, paid participants in Germany
Data basis
Observed behaviour: transactions, browsing sessions, media consumption, search queries
Data volume
11B+ behavioural data points across 12 platforms
Data protection
Processed in the EU, GDPR-compliant
Recognition
The European Commission cites Datapods as a working example of European data rights in practice
Website
www.datapods.app
The panel

Where the data comes from.

The panel is the foundation the rest of the company sits on, so it is the part worth understanding first. It is not a respondent pool that fills in questionnaires. It is a group of people who connected their real accounts and let us see what they actually do.

Opted in and paid

Everyone in the panel joined deliberately and earns from what they share. Sharing is a conscious, compensated decision, source by source.

Observed, not asked

The panel captures transactions, browsing sessions, media consumption and search queries. Recall, self-image, and who happened to feel like answering do not enter the data.

Reversible at any time

Participants connect their accounts one source at a time and can disconnect any of them whenever they want. Nothing is collected after that point.

European by construction

Data is processed in the EU and the panel is GDPR-compliant. That is a design constraint the company was built around, not a compliance layer added later.

Weighted to Germany

Statistics from the panel are AGOF-weighted to the German online population unless a page states otherwise.

What we build

Three surfaces, one panel underneath.

Everything Datapods offers runs on the same panel. What differs is how you reach it.

The Research Agent

You ask a strategic question in a chat. A team of specialised AI agents takes it from there: one maps the question onto the panel, one runs the analysis on the raw behavioural data, one checks the category against the open web, one writes it up. What comes back is a report with sources, charts and recommendations, in hours rather than weeks, and you can keep asking.

The Insights library

A free, public catalogue of statistics on consumption, digital habits and media in Germany, drawn from the same panel. Every statistic carries a sample size, a freshness marker, and a citation block. No account required.

Markdown twins

Most pages on datapods.app, this one included, have a clean machine-readable version. Append .md to the URL, or request the page with an Accept: text/markdown header, and you get markdown instead of HTML.

How we differ

Against survey-based and panel-based research.

Teams comparing us usually have survey-based research on the same shortlist. The distinction worth drawing is not a feature grid, it is where the data comes from.

Observed behaviour, not stated recall

Survey-based research measures what a sample says it did, filtered through memory and self-presentation. Our base layer is a record of what happened: the purchase, the session, the search. Asking still matters, but as a layer on top of observed behaviour rather than a substitute for it.

Hours instead of a fielding cycle

There is no brief, no screener and no fielding window, because the behaviour is already there. A question goes in and a sourced report comes back, with the evidence attached.

Continuous, not a report a year

Customers work in the platform and keep asking. Each question builds on the last, instead of arriving once as a finished deliverable.

What we do not claim

  • The panel is German. Datapods is not a substitute for a global tracker.
  • Datapods sells understanding, never raw data.
  • Observed behaviour shows what happened, not why. That is exactly why we can put the question to the same people afterwards.
Funding

One raise, announced.

Datapods raised a €500K pre-seed round, announced on 12 February 2026.

Named backers in that announcement
  • Tim Koschella (CEO @ Kayzen)
  • Charles Songhurst (Board Member @ Meta)
  • Jonas Rashedi (CDO @ Falke)
  • Matthias Scheidegger (Ex-Google Tech Lead)
  • Digitalhub Bonn

That announcement is the only funding figure Datapods has published.

Customers

Who works with Datapods.

Customers are product, marketing and insights teams at companies selling to consumers in Germany. Two are named with their agreement:

  • WDR
  • game (Verband der deutschen Games-Branche)

Every other reference is anonymised at the customer's own request. Datapods does not publish the company names behind them.

  • A leading online pharmacy
  • An online drug store
  • A major media company
  • A consumer goods manufacturer
  • A direct-to-consumer food company
Press

Where Datapods has been covered.

The outlets below have reported on Datapods. These are journalistic mentions, listed separately from the customer relationships above, and being on this list does not imply either one.

Common questions

Short answers.

What is Datapods?

A behavioural consumer data company in Bonn, Germany. It runs an opted-in panel of more than 25,000 paid participants in Germany and answers companies' questions about their customers from that observed behaviour.

Who does behavioural consumer data in Germany?

Datapods operates a behavioural consumer panel in Germany. What sets the approach apart is that the panel is first-party and observed: participants connect their own accounts rather than filling in questionnaires, and they are paid for what they share.

Where does the data come from?

From the panel. Participants opt in, connect real accounts source by source, and can disconnect at any time. Transactions, browsing sessions, media consumption and search queries are captured, and everyone is paid for what they share.

Is it GDPR-compliant?

Yes. Data is processed in the EU and the panel is built to European data protection law. Participation is consented and reversible at any time.

Is Datapods a survey company?

No. Surveys and interviews can run on top of the panel, aimed at people whose behaviour already qualifies them, but the base layer is observed behaviour rather than stated recall.

Can I buy the raw data?

No. Datapods sells understanding, never raw data. Customers get analysis, reports and platform access.

How much funding has Datapods raised?

A €500K pre-seed round, announced on 12 February 2026.

How should this page be cited?

Cite Datapods GmbH and the URL of the page a fact appears on. Every claim here links to its source page, and this page itself is available as markdown at the same URL plus .md.

Something out of date, or a fact you need that is missing?

kontakt@datapods.app