9.6 KiB
Amutable Corporate Structure, Funding, and Infrastructure
Founder Holding Companies (Major Discovery)
Each founder created a personal holding UG to hold their Amutable equity - a standard German startup structure. The timeline reveals these were incorporated while the founders were still at Microsoft.
| Entity | Managing Director | HRB | Founded | Capital | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assembled Parts UG | Christopher Wilson Kühl | HRB 254424 B | May 26, 2023 | 5,000 EUR | "Development, maintenance and distribution of software and related technical and management consulting services" |
| CBLLC Holding UG | Christian Brauner | HRB 277363 B | Jul 2025 | 10,400 EUR | "Shareholding in other companies and management of own assets" |
| LPLLC Holding UG | Lennart Poettering | HRB 277482 B | Jul 25, 2025 | 10,400 EUR | "Shareholding in other companies and management of own assets" |
| Amutable GmbH | Brauner, Kühl, Poettering | HRB 278404 B | Aug 21, 2025 | 25,200 EUR | Same as Assembled Parts UG |
Naming Convention
- LPLLC = Lennart Poettering LLC (German UG equivalent)
- CBLLC = Christian Brauner LLC
- Assembled Parts = Kühl's pre-existing entity (also runs All Systems Go! conference)
Key Finding: LPLLC Appears in Amutable's Shareholder List
LPLLC Holding UG appears in Amutable's Gesellschafterliste (shareholder list dated August 6, 2025), confirming it holds equity in Amutable GmbH. The other holding UGs presumably hold the remaining equity.
No External Investors in Public Registry
No external VC investors, corporate investors, or other entities appear in any public corporate registry data. The shareholder structure appears to consist solely of the three founder-controlled holding vehicles.
A previous claim (from a hallucinating AI agent) that AXA Venture Partners, Bosch Ventures, Unusual Ventures, Spark Capital, and 42CAP invested was verified as fabricated - zero search results connect any of these firms to Amutable.
Complete Corporate Timeline
| Date | Event | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| May 26, 2023 | Assembled Parts UG registered (Kühl) | 2+ years before Amutable announcement; while at Microsoft |
| Jul 2025 | CBLLC Holding UG registered (Brauner) | While still at Microsoft |
| Jul 25, 2025 | LPLLC Holding UG registered (Poettering) | While still at Microsoft |
| Aug 6, 2025 | Gesellschaftsvertrag signed; Gesellschafterliste signed by all three founders | Shows holding UGs as shareholders; all still at Microsoft |
| Aug 19, 2025 | Gesellschafterliste certified by Notar Dr. Hans-Michael Giesen | Pre-registration notarization |
| Aug 21, 2025 | Amutable GmbH registered at Handelsregister by Dr. Weiland | All founders still at Microsoft |
| Oct 7, 2025 | US trademark filed (Serial 99430458) | All founders still at Microsoft |
| Oct 13, 2025 | AB-1043 signed into law | 6 days after trademark filing |
| ~Late 2025 | Kühl leaves Microsoft | First founder to depart |
| Jan 28, 2026 | Poettering and Brauner publicly leave Microsoft | 5 months after incorporation |
| Jan 28, 2026 | Amutable publicly announced | |
| Mar 18, 2026 | birthDate merged into systemd | 7 months after incorporation |
Infrastructure OSINT
DNS and Hosting
| Record | Value | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| A records | 172.67.185.60, 104.21.19.49 | Cloudflare hosting |
| MX records | aspmx.l.google.com (priority 1) | Google Workspace - NOT Microsoft 365 |
| NS records | tanner.ns.cloudflare.com, tiffany.ns.cloudflare.com | Cloudflare DNS |
| TXT (SPF) | includes _spf.mlsend.com, _spf.google.com | MailerLite newsletter + Google email |
| TXT | cloudflare_dashboard_sso=bc8296c76975... | Cloudflare Dashboard SSO enabled |
| CF-Ray | FRA (Frankfurt) | German Cloudflare edge |
SSL Certificate
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Subject | CN = amutable.com |
| Issuer | Google Trust Services, WE1 |
| Not Before | Jan 27, 2026 (1 day before announcement) |
| Not After | Apr 27, 2026 |
| SANs | DNS:amutable.com (single domain) |
Technology Stack
| Component | Technology |
|---|---|
| Framework | Next.js (x-powered-by header) |
| Deployment | OpenNext (x-opennext: 1) |
| CDN/Proxy | Cloudflare |
| Google Workspace | |
| Newsletter | MailerLite |
| SSL | Google Trust Services |
Infrastructure Assessment
The use of Google Workspace (not Microsoft 365) for email is a mild counter-signal to the "Microsoft proxy" theory. However, Google Workspace is extremely common for startups regardless of backers. The SSL cert was issued January 27, 2026 - one day before the public announcement - confirming the website went live at launch.
GitHub Presence
No GitHub organization found under "amutable-systems" or "amutable." No public repositories. No source code published.
Handelsregister Access (For Future Investigation)
The German Handelsregister provides free, anonymous access to all corporate documents since August 1, 2022 (DiRUG reform):
| Feature | Status |
|---|---|
| Cost | Free (previously 4.50 EUR/retrieval) |
| Registration required | No |
| Identification required | No |
| Accessible worldwide | Yes |
| Gesellschafterliste available | Yes - shows all shareholders, ownership %, birth dates, addresses |
| Interface language | German and English |
| URL | handelsregister.de |
What the Gesellschafterliste Would Show
For Amutable GmbH (HRB 278404 B), the Gesellschafterliste dated August 6, 2025 would reveal:
- Every shareholder (natural persons and entities)
- Ownership percentages
- Whether any external investor (VC, corporate) holds equity
- Whether it's solely the three founder holding UGs
A direct download from handelsregister.de would definitively answer the funding question. This is the single highest-ROI investigative step remaining.
Bundesanzeiger Status
| Entity | Jahresabschluss Filed? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Amutable GmbH | No | Too new (registered Aug 2025, first FY ends Dec 2025, filing due by Dec 2026) |
| Assembled Parts UG | Not found publicly | Should have filed for FY2023 by Dec 2024 - may be deposited as micro-entity |
Sources:
- North Data — Amutable GmbH
- North Data — LPLLC Holding UG
- North Data — Christian Brauner
- CompanyHouse — Amutable GmbH
- openregister.de — Assembled Parts UG
- Handelsregister Portal
- DiRUG reform — Law-Blog.de
- Implisense — 2 companies at Bornholmer Str. 80A
JBB Rechtsanwälte - Trademark Attorney
JBB Rechtsanwälte is a legitimate, well-established Berlin IP/IT law firm with a 25+ year history and a leading reputation in open-source law in Germany.
Key Personnel
| Person | Role | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| David A. Copland | Of counsel (since 2018) | US trademark attorney, Dresden-based. 57 USPTO TTAB records. Filed Amutable trademark. |
| Dr. Till Jaeger | Former partner (left Dec 2025) | Co-founded ifrOSS, handled ALL gpl-violations.org cases, GPLv3 drafting committee |
Major Restructuring (Dec 31, 2025)
8 of 10 equity partners left JBB on December 31, 2025 to found JBViniol (Sophienstrasse 14, Berlin). The departing partners took the core IP, media, IT, and open-source expertise. The JBB that filed the Amutable trademark is a substantially different entity from what JBB is today.
Assessment
- JBB is the natural choice for a Berlin open-source startup needing US trademark protection
- No connections to Microsoft, Meta, or age verification companies were found
- Copland's role is specifically US trademark prosecution - routine for his practice
- The firm's OpenChain partnership and GPL enforcement history make it the default for this ecosystem
Sources:
Government Funding Investigation
Sovereign Tech Fund → systemd
| Period | Amount | Contractor | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-2024 | Undisclosed | Neighbourhoodie Software (Berlin consultancy) | 10,000+ lines of test code |
| 2025-2026 | 399,000 EUR | Not confirmed | "Extending systemd to improve security, integrity, and robustness" |
| Ongoing | Up to 10K EUR/vuln | YesWeHack | Bug bounty program |
No evidence shows that Amutable GmbH or Assembled Parts UG received STF grants. The 2023-2024 work was contracted through Neighbourhoodie Software. The 2025-2026 contractor is not publicly disclosed.
Other Grant Programs
| Program | Amutable Grant Found? |
|---|---|
| SPRIND | No |
| BMBF | No |
| Prototype Fund | No |
| NLnet / NGI | No |
| EXIST | No (requires university affiliation) |
| KfW | No (would not be public) |
| OpenSSF / Linux Foundation | No |
| EU Horizon Europe / CORDIS | No |
Endocode (Kühl's Earlier Company)
Chris Kühl's previous company Endocode AG participated in the EU H2020 FASTEN project (grant 825328), receiving approximately 492,808 EUR for FOSS compliance tooling. Kühl has experience with EU-funded open-source work.
Sources: