element 5 AG

element 5 AG was a German e-commerce and digital-distribution company founded in 2000 and headquartered in Cologne, Germany. It operated a platform that let software developers and publishers sell their products and licenses directly to customers online, growing to more than 10,000 clients across 150 countries and becoming one of Europe's leading software e-commerce providers. element 5 was acquired by U.S.-based Digital River (its direct competitor) for roughly $120M and subsequently absorbed and renamed Digital River GmbH, ceasing to operate as an independent company. It was an early Earlybird Venture Capital portfolio company; this profile records its identity and exit. No live independent API or developer surface remains to enrich.

element 5 AG is profiled on the APIs.io network. Tagged areas include Company, E-Commerce, Software Distribution, Digital Goods, and Payments.

📡 Source on GitHub

0 APIs

Company E-Commerce Software Distribution Digital Goods Payments Germany Acquired

Resources

Other 1

Properties that don't map to a standard resource type

EarlybirdPortfolio

EarlybirdPortfolio

Source (apis.yml)

aid: element-5
deliveryModel:
  model: unknown
  open_source: false
  commercial: false
  callable_host: false
  label: Delivery model not determined — needs a product licence on record
  confidence: low
  source:
  - none
  generated: '2026-08-28'
  method: derived
accessModel:
  pricing: unknown
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Unknown
  confidence: low
  source: []
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/element-5.png
name: element 5 AG
description: element 5 AG was a German e-commerce and digital-distribution company founded in 2000 and headquartered in Cologne,
  Germany. It operated a platform that let software developers and publishers sell their products and licenses directly to
  customers online, growing to more than 10,000 clients across 150 countries and becoming one of Europe's leading software
  e-commerce providers. element 5 was acquired by U.S.-based Digital River (its direct competitor) for roughly $120M and subsequently
  absorbed and renamed Digital River GmbH, ceasing to operate as an independent company. It was an early Earlybird Venture
  Capital portfolio company; this profile records its identity and exit. No live independent API or developer surface remains
  to enrich.
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/element-5/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
x-type: company
x-source: vc-portfolio
x-backed-by:
- earlybird
x-tier: stub
x-tier-reason: defunct-acquired
x-status: defunct
x-acquired-by: Digital River (renamed Digital River GmbH)
x-founded: '2000'
x-headquarters: Cologne, Germany
x-enrichment-note: Earlybird's portfolio company element-5-ag is the defunct German software e-commerce firm (acquired by
  Digital River ~2004-2006). A live API exists at api.e5.ai, but that belongs to a DIFFERENT, unrelated US healthcare-automation
  company (Element5, San Jose) that is NOT an Earlybird portfolio company, so it is deliberately not attached here. No live
  domain (element5.com unresolved, element5.de parked on Sedo), docs, packages, or spec surface exists for this entity. Nothing
  to enrich without fabrication.
specificationVersion: '0.23'
created: '2026-07-17'
modified: '2026-07-19'
tags:
- Company
- E-Commerce
- Software Distribution
- Digital Goods
- Payments
- Germany
- Acquired
common:
- type: EarlybirdPortfolio
  url: https://earlybird.com/companies/element-5-ag
apis: []
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com
- FN: APIs.json
  email: info@apis.io
x-enrichment:
  date: '2026-07-19'
  status: backfilled
  pass: local-v1
  note: backfilled from .gitignore signal + verified work evidence

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