Helpcheck, a legal tech company from Germany, has quietly piled up close to 10 million euros in losses over the past ten years. What started as a platform helping people deal with insurance claims hasn’t really paid off the way many expected. Now the company is trying something different. It is moving away from its earlier focus and putting more energy into handling traffic fine appeals. The idea is to rely more on AI tools to speed things up and cut costs.
It is a bit of a reset moment for Helpcheck. The losses are still there, and the pressure hasn’t gone anywhere. But the shift shows they are looking for a simpler, more scalable way to stay in the game.
What is really happening inside Helpcheck right now
A decade after its launch, legal tech firm Helpcheck is reshaping its business while sitting on mounting financial losses that run into the millions.
The Düsseldorf based company, founded ten years ago and employing around 30 people in the Golzheim district, built its name helping customers cancel life insurance contracts and enforce consumer rights. That work is now being phased out. Co founder and managing director Phil Sokowicz confirmed the company has stopped taking new insurance revocation cases and will instead focus almost entirely on traffic law, particularly appeals against speeding fines. The firm collects a fee only if the challenge succeeds.
The shift comes as the startup’s financial disclosures reveal the scale of its problems. In 2024 alone, Helpcheck recorded a deficit of more than 3 million euros. Since its founding, accumulated losses have reached nearly 10 million euros, meaning the company has never reported a profit in its ten year existence.
Sokowicz attributes the situation to continued expansion spending and product development. The company has poured money into online advertising and into building new software aimed at motorists contesting tickets. The system uses artificial intelligence to read official notices and quickly determine whether filing an appeal is financially worthwhile. Fighting a traffic fine in Germany can cost several hundred euros in legal fees, making many drivers hesitant to pursue a case.
AI Insight
The pivot toward AI powered traffic fine appeals reflects a broader trend in legal tech, where automation is being used to scale high volume, low value legal claims while reducing operational costs.
The new focus also puts Helpcheck in direct competition with established traffic fine portals such as geblitzt.de, which already operates in the same niche market.
Despite the losses, management insists the company has financial backing. Investors have injected more than 11 million euros in venture capital. Among them are Trivago co founder Rolf Schrömgens and entrepreneur Michael Marhofer, whose family is linked to the Essen industrial group IFM and ranks among Germany’s wealthiest according to Manager Magazin.
The developments come at a time when Düsseldorf’s startup scene is expanding rapidly. A recent report by the German Startups Association found the city now has one of the highest numbers of new businesses per capita in the country, behind only Munich and Berlin. Yet Helpcheck’s figures show that growth in the local ecosystem does not always translate into profitability, even after ten years in operation.
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