About Softcrow
Since 1991
Softcrow has existed since 1991. Early in the era of business software we saw what was at stake: companies were becoming ever more dependent on on-premise software, and with it on the suppliers behind it. What if such a supplier falls away? Softcrow was founded to answer precisely that question.
In more than thirty years we have seen the market change, from software on your own servers to SaaS and cloud services, and we have grown along with it. What has not changed: our position as neutral custodian. No interest in the contents of what we store. No access to what our clients entrust to us. That was the basis in 1991, and it still is.
International
Softcrow is based in the Netherlands and works primarily under Dutch law. Our standard agreements are drafted in Dutch and available in English. Most of the clients we serve come from the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. But internationally we know no borders: we have clients across Europe, North America, Africa and Asia-Pacific. Wherever a supplier or beneficiary is based, we arrange the escrow.
Our clients
Softcrow works for users and suppliers of software, in the Netherlands and beyond. Our clients are active in a wide range of sectors, a selection:
- Financial services, including banks, insurers and pension funds
- Government and the public sector
- Housing associations and property management
- Mobility and transport, including software for the development of trains and infrastructure
- Logistics and industry
- Healthcare and education
- Technology and software development
Our clients include NS, ASML, ING, Rabobank, Achmea, Philips, PostNL, Maersk, Holland Casino, Port of Rotterdam and the Dutch Ministry of Finance, among others. Both large organisations and growing software companies find at Softcrow what they are looking for: certainty, without fuss.
Only escrow
Softcrow does one thing: escrow. No security consulting, no IT audits, no platform services that plug into what we store. That is a deliberate choice.
Two patterns are visible in the market:
- Large IT service providers that offer escrow as part of a broad package, escrow as a front door for other assignments.
- Providers that stretch the concept of escrow into adjacent services, so that it appears to cover more than it does.
Softcrow does neither. Escrow requires a neutral custodian without other interests. As soon as a custodian is also a consultant, auditor or platform provider, that neutrality is at stake, not necessarily through bad intent, but structurally, by the nature of the relationship.
Focusing on one discipline also means: every escrow situation is a main concern for us, not a by-product.
How we work
Softcrow is a sovereign, independent escrow provider under Dutch law and a zero-knowledge escrow agent. That means: we stand between supplier and user, without taking sides, and we never have access to the contents of what we store. Our neutrality is not a marketing term. It is the legal and technical basis of everything we do.
Our storage infrastructure is fully EU-hosted, CLOUD- and USA PATRIOT Act-free: the data sits in EU data centres under EU law and falls outside US jurisdiction. Underneath all our services lies SecureStorage, our own zero-knowledge storage infrastructure based on End-to-End Encryption: the supplier encrypts client-side with AES-256, storage is append-only and Softcrow holds no keys. The data is therefore mathematically unreadable for Softcrow and for the hosting parties.
Zero-knowledge is no side matter in this. Softcrow never holds the key to the deposits we store. What is in a deposit is none of our business. That way conflicts of interest can never arise, and we remain what we must be: fully independent.
Our service rests on two pillars: legal expertise and technical knowledge. Those two worlds touch constantly in software escrow. The ability to master both is what sets us apart.
Our agreements are available as a tripartite agreement, between Softcrow, supplier and a single beneficiary, and as a collective agreement, in which multiple beneficiaries can take part within one agreement. That way our solution fits every situation, from a single client relationship to a supplier with a large user base.
Escrow does not sound very hip or exciting
Nobody searches for escrow because they get excited about it in itself. It is a necessary safeguard, comparable to fire insurance. You want it well arranged in advance. After that you do not want to spend much time on it. But if that situation arises, a great deal turns out to depend on it.
We understand this. Our platform and processes are built to fit in as seamlessly as possible. Both with the supplier’s way of working and with the beneficiary’s expectations. With what really matters if it ever comes to that. Well arranged, and then out of sight.
That is precisely why we do work on it with passion.
Softcrow’s own continuity
The online escrow services are provided by Softcrow Trusted Electronic Services B.V. That company applies the same principle to itself as to its clients: the entire service environment is placed in a CloudSecure® scheme, with Stichting Softcrow Continuïteit Services acting as custodian.
Should Softcrow Trusted Electronic Services B.V. ever go bankrupt, the foundation can, on the basis of that scheme, take over and continue the full service. Operational continuity of the entire service via CloudSecure, also for the escrow agent itself.
Open-source principle
The Softcrow platform is built entirely on open-source software, with Debian Linux at its beating heart. That is a deliberate choice that fits our open approach well. Open-source software is publicly auditable: anyone can view, check and assess the code. No hidden components, no backdoors, no dependence on a single supplier.
The same mindset that drives our E2EE and zero-knowledge principle, security you can verify rather than merely trust, applies to the whole technical infrastructure of Softcrow.