Hidden License Traps in 89% of All Codebases – Identify License Risks, Avoid Liability
Detect Compliance Gaps Before They Become a Problem: Our Experts Review Your Software for License Violations, Compatibility Issues, and Copyleft Traps.
“Just last month: a deal with an enterprise value of €50 million was canceled because three AGPL licenses were found during technical due diligence. With a professional license audit, this could have been easily avoided.”
Florian Weigand
Founder BitFlow, 50+ Technical Due Diligence Projects
This Happens More Often Than You Think
AGPL and Copyleft Risks
Undetected copyleft licenses like AGPL-3.0 can force proprietary code into open source, invalidating IP ownership. In Sebastian Steck v. AVM, AGPL contamination triggered costly litigation and code disclosure.
Operational Disruptions Due to Compliance Violations
Incomplete SBOMs or undetected license conflicts can halt software releases and block updates. According to studies, compliance issues cause operational delays in 31% of cases, averaging 8 weeks and resulting in direct financial losses.
Failed M&A Deals
23% of all tech acquisitions are delayed or fail because license problems are only discovered during technical due diligence. On average, this results in a delay of about 12 weeks and jeopardizes the success of the deal.
Liability for Management and Compliance Officers
From July 2025, violations of the EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) can result in personal liability for board members and compliance officers - in addition to fines of up to 4% of global revenue.
Beyond Automated Scanning Tools
The Critical Advantage Over Automation
Audits Trusted by Software and Legal Teams
BitFlow combines former PwC compliance specialists and CTOs to deliver legally robust audits without access to source code.
No Source Code Required
We review your software for license risks without needing access to your source code. Using advanced analysis methods, all relevant dependencies and open source components are identified while your intellectual property remains fully protected. Your sensitive data never leaves your company.
Deep Legal & Technical Expertise
Our interdisciplinary team of specialized lawyers and experienced software architects evaluates not only complex open source licenses like GPL-3.0 or Apache-2.0, but also commercial license models from providers such as SAP or Microsoft. We analyze all relevant license terms in the specific business context and develop individual, legally sound and technically feasible solution strategies for your company.
Audit-Ready for All Regulatory Requirements
We ensure your software always meets the requirements of GDPR, CCPA, and the EU Cyber Resilience Act - with ISO/IEC 5962 - compliant SBOMs and tailored compliance policies. Our documentation serves as a legally secure basis for regulatory audits, due diligence processes, or legal disputes.
Trusted by
Legal Teams
Here’s what our clients say about our compliance services
Michael Czermak
Managing Director
Legal Affairs & Compliance of Österreichische Lotterien Gesellschaft
“BitFlow offers far more than just a tool – they deliver a complete solution for our licensing and security requirements. The combination of technical precision and legal expertise is exactly what we were looking for. We especially appreciated the overview of dependencies and the risk assessment provided.”
Sowmyan Rajagopalan
CEO of Thalia Design Automation
“BitFlow helped us achieve complete transparency over all open-source dependencies in our circuit design tools, AMALIA. Through our collaboration with BitFlow, we were able to replace critical libraries in time and make our development processes significantly safer and more efficient.”
Anonymous CTO
CTO of well known software company
“Two undiscovered GPL 3.0 dependencies almost cost us our Series B funding round. During technical due diligence, BitFlow not only identified the critical licenses in our Kubernetes infrastructure, but also immediately initiated an emergency migration. Within 72 hours, we replaced the problematic components with MIT-licensed alternatives.”
Thomas Kühn
CEO of Farminsect
“BitFlow continuously generates and updates our SBOM, so we always have a complete and up-to-date overview of our software components. This foundation was important for us to fulfill a key regulatory requirement of the Cyber Resilience Act. In addition, the expert team ensures that we are immediately informed if a security vulnerability is found in a dependency we use.”
Alexander Braun
CEO of Airtime Software AG
“When we started with BitFlow, my main goal was to achieve transparency over our open-source components and their licensing situation. What we got was much more: the team not only automatically analyzed our entire microservice landscape, but also prepared all findings in a way that was understandable for both our management and developers. The legal classification of risks and the direct implementability of the recommendations were particularly helpful.”
Otto Lang
CEO of Tendex
“BitFlow provided enormous support to our DevOps team during a critical phase. During a security audit before a major release, they identified several critical dependencies for us. I was particularly impressed by how quickly they not only highlighted the risks but also suggested concrete alternatives and migration paths. Integration into our GitHub workflows was seamless.”
Trusted by industry leaders
Tailored to Your Needs
Seamless integration of our audits into due diligence phases and directly into your software development – confidential, compliant, and fast.
CI/CD Integration with Escalation Management
Real-time license checks in GitHub/GitLab workflows with automatic escalation to BitFlow open source lawyers.
Complete Documentation
Court-admissible reports with license obligations, vulnerabilities, and remediation plans.
Due Diligence Express Audit
48-hour express analysis for urgent due diligence cases.
Our team of professionals
Each specialist in their field does their part to achieve quick and lasting results
Florian Weigand
Cybersecurity・Blockchain・CTO
Ralf Vogler
Algorithmic Software Verification
Andre Freitag
AI・Robotics・CTO
Simon Grötzinger
Full-stack development・CTO
Tina Trugge
Finance・Accounting
Florian Weigand
Cybersecurity・Blockchain・CTO
Florian is characterised by pioneering projects that he realised during his studies with well-known companies such as Siemens, Bosch and Munich Airport. After successfully completing his Master's degree at the Technical University of Munich, he took on a key role in an up-and-coming tech start-up as Lead Developer at Foodora.
With sound knowledge and practical experience, Florian took the plunge into founding a company. He gained valuable experience in various start-ups, such as Planerio GmbH, a health tech start-up whose management landed a multi-million euro exit last year. He then became CTO of Bernstein Technologies GmbH, a VC-funded start-up specialising in the protection of intellectual property through blockchain.
Following this technically challenging path, he ultimately founded BitFlow GmbH. Today, BitFlow provides world-class due diligence services for venture capital and private equity firms. Florian's impressive journey reflects not only his technical expertise, but also his ability to precisely fulfil the technological requirements of our clients through innovative solutions.
Ralf Vogler
Algorithmic Software Verification
Ralf holds a Master's degree in Computer Science from the Technical University of Munich and a PhD in Software Verification. His impressive experience spans projects with well-known companies such as BMW, msg systems, SurgicEye and Munich Airport, which underlines his in-depth expertise and hands-on approach.
Ralf's multifaceted expertise spans a wide range of projects in which he has developed innovative solutions. His research in the field of software verification has led to the development of state-of-the-art static analysis tools. Ralf's particular fondness for functional programming, the use of complex type systems and metaprogramming is testament to his love of innovation.
Ralf always keeps his finger on the pulse of the latest trends and technologies in his spare time. His involvement ranges from web application development to creative experiments with electronics and CAD for IoT/smart home projects. His multi-faceted skills and constant dedication to innovation make him a valuable source of inspiration for our customers.
Andre Freitag
AI・Robotics・CTO
During his bachelor's degree, André started early by pioneering a cutting-edge framework for wireless sensor networks at Technische Universität München. Building on this foundation, he pursued Master of Science in Informatics, diving deeper into software engineering, artificial intelligence, and robotics.
After completing his studies, he started as a software developer at Salesperformer GmbH, where he built a backend development platform for mobile applications. He then co-founded and worked as a cloud architect and lead developer at Open as App GmbH.
In his career, he helped scale companies to over 30 employees, achieving top 25% ratings from DueDive despite challenges like limited staff and complex projects (~175K lines of code). André successfully led the migration of an outdated codebase from Ruby on Rails on Heroku to React with REST on AWS, highlighting his skills in modernizing and optimizing technical infrastructures.
Simon Grötzinger
Full-stack development・CTO
Simon completed his Bachelor's and Master's degree in Computer Science at the Technical University of Munich, specializing in Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. During this time, he mastered key technologies such as Python, Java, C++, LISP, JavaScript, probabilistic models and more.
He began his professional career as a full stack developer at Salesperformer GmbH. Together with André, he then co-founded the no-code platform Open as App GmbH, which now has over 70,000 active users.
Following this success, Simon co-founded the Brainchimps platform and has been working on various innovative projects. These include IoT solutions for an electric car rental company and a product information management system for a large German wholesale company.
Tina Trugge
Finance・Accounting
Tina is our expert in the field of finance and accounting. She completed her training as an industrial clerk at the renowned international IT company Diebold Nixdorf. She then completed a dual business studies programme with practical placements in London, Frankfurt and Hamburg. After successfully completing her studies, Tina worked in Sales Administration for Diebold Nixdorf in Munich for several years and supported the Free State of Bavaria in cost and performance accounting. Her broad expertise and practical experience make Tina a reliable contact for our customers.
Our Completed
Projects
Explore our portfolio of projects, which will give you an insight into our work and our expertise.
Case Study
License Verification & Dependency Management at Thalia
For Thalia, we identified critical license risks, optimized dependency management, and sustainably improved compliance – without access to source code.
1. Structured management of software dependencies
2. Automated and manual license review
3. Resolution of critical license risks
Visit us in the heart of Munich
This is where we work and we invite you to visit us
FAQs
Here you will find an overview of the most frequently asked questions about our Open Source License Check. If your question is not answered here, please contact us. We are happy to discuss your requirements and questions in a 30-minute conversation.
A license audit is a thorough review of all of a company's software licenses to ensure that they are acquired, used, and managed correctly. Whether you are a start-up, a medium-sized company, or a giant player, this is important to ensure legal security, avoid unnecessary costs and minimize the risk of legal problems.
A license audit offers a number of benefits, including legal security and compliance, optimized resource utilization, improved IT security and risk mitigation, and increased attractiveness to investors.
It is recommended to conduct regular license audits, at least once a year or when major company changes, such as mergers, acquisitions, or IT infrastructure changes.
To ensure that your software licenses are legally protected in the future, it is important to set up an effective license management system and carry out regular license audits. In addition, it is advisable to check the license status in the event of changes in the company or software usage and to make adjustments if necessary.
To ensure that your software licenses are legally protected in the future, it is important to set up an effective license management system and carry out regular license audits. In addition, it is advisable to check the license status in the event of changes in the company or software usage and to make adjustments if necessary.
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