8 April marked a big milestone for us at CoCoCo. It was our first anniversary! Founded by industry veterans Andreas Aplien, Karl Ciz and John Maxwell, CoCoCo launched with a clear mission: to change the way the print industry works through intelligent integration.
In twelve months, CoCoCo has quickly become a bold new voice in print, built on ideas that make a real difference on the shop floor. Our platform helps print shops connect, combine and collaborate, the very values behind our name.
Our vision: open, universal and easy integration
From the start, CoCoCo set out to be the pioneering, vendor-neutral, open platform for print. Our goal was simple: make integration easy for every print business, so they get the full value from the technology they’ve already invested in, whatever the manufacturer or system.
Our founders have spent decades in print. They know what it’s like to wrestle with fragmented systems and a mix of data formats, from JDF (Job Definition Format) and XML to APIs that keep changing.
Rather than pushing costly rip-and-replace projects, CoCoCo set out to be the “Rosetta Stone” of print technology. We translate the chaos of different data formats into one unified language, so data flows freely across every platform and device.
Early market validation at drupa
We made an early debut at drupa 2024, the world’s leading print trade show, and the real-world feedback was invaluable.
“It was an incredible opportunity to really test our ideas against customers in the market and learn.”
Those conversations shaped our approach and pushed us to make integration more accessible and radically easier to implement. Our team set an ambitious goal: make integration so simple that connecting everything becomes the obvious choice for every print shop.
Hunkeler Innovationdays 2025: launches and a new pricing model
At Hunkeler Innovationdays (HID) in February 2025, we unveiled two big milestones:
- AI-powered platform setup: faster, smarter data routing for every user.
- “All You Can Integrate” pricing: unlimited integrations and unlimited jobs for one affordable monthly fee, “as affordable as a daily lunch”, according to co-founder Karl Ciz.
The new pricing puts powerful integration and smoother automation within reach of commercial print businesses of every size and technical setup.
Solving real challenges for print professionals
Maybe your production team spends hours chasing job status across three different systems. Maybe prepress dreads every software update because something always breaks. You are not alone, and that’s exactly the problem the CoCoCo Platform tackles.
For production departments:
- Integration without the headaches: connect your software and machinery, whoever made them.
- No more data silos: see what’s happening across every system.
- Simpler automation: process analysis shows where the manual steps can go.
- One central dashboard: tracking and insight in one place.
For prepress teams:
- Easy onboarding: bring in new software or equipment without the drama.
- Live production data: a smooth flow of the information you need, when you need it.
- Changes without chaos: handle system changes and updates calmly.
One customer had their ERP, prepress and post-press systems connected in just six weeks. In their words, they “would not have been able to do this within this given time frame with anybody else.”
The platform and what’s next
As we enter our second year, our vision keeps growing. We’re developing plug-and-play integration, so that one day software and machinery from any vendor can be connected through a simple self-download and setup.
The CoCoCo Platform today brings together:
- Data Model: an open layer that translates every vendor’s signals into one standardised schema.
- Integrations and Edge Apps: connectivity for your business software and the machines on your shop floor.
- Custom Apps: pages and dashboards built directly on your live production data.
Looking ahead, we’re focused on low-code automation tools and AI-powered features, always with a human in the loop. Our vendor-agnostic approach works with all technologies without needing specific APIs, which keeps the platform open and future-proof. Our recent CIP4 membership underlines our commitment to industry standards and to collaboration across the print community.
A solid foundation for growth
In one year, CoCoCo has gone from an ambitious idea to a real player in print integration. We’re committed to keeping things simple, accessible and useful, helping print businesses to:
- Save time and cut manual work.
- Get far more out of automation.
- Work better across departments.
- Future-proof their critical infrastructure.
Our momentum has never been stronger. We’ve built the foundation, and now we’re scaling fast. A massive thank you to our customers, partners and team for an incredible first year.
