About Us


API-first service platform for PII, semantic matching over fully encrypted data store, cloud and on-premise.

Optimaize is a pioneering IT company and software house. Founded in 2000 in Zurich, Switzerland, and expanded to Cluj-Napoca, Romania in 2006, we have a global perspective and a commitment to excellence.

Our expertise lies in developing and operating the best PII (Personally Identifiable Information) service platform, with APIs, specializing in semantic entity matching and data understanding. Our solutions enable data safety and compliance for our enterprise and multi-national customers.

We are building on decades of experience working with PII. Our dedicated data research team is collecting and classifying name data from around the world, with the help of native freelancers.

Our assets are 1) our people, with their knowledge and enthusiasm to develop and support, 2) our long-term customer relationships, providing income and guiding us in what the market needs, 3) our software stack, tirelessly processing millions of transactions around the clock, and 4) our dictionaries of name data.

We combine solid values in business continuity, with 25 years of history, together with start-up-like agility in new product development.

At Optimaize, we view our customers as partners, fostering long-term relationships and supporting them with customized solutions both initially and as their needs evolve. Our mission is to provide and create value through our products, benefiting hundreds of millions of end users who may never be aware of the sophisticated technology behind their seamless experiences.

Built on proven and established open-source software, our key strengths include entity matching and name parsing. Our software excels in understanding the meanings behind strings and numbers in PII data records, enabling instant semantic searches with fine-grained matching.

Our solutions are available both cloud-based operated by us, and on-premise operated by our customers.

Join us in our journey to innovate and deliver exceptional value through cutting-edge technology.

Our Leadership

Gabriela ACHIM

Gabriela ACHIM

COO, Partner
Chief of Customer Integration

Gabriela joined Optimaize in 2006 as a junior software developer and now brings 16 years of experience in application and server development to the company. As COO, Gabriela oversees day-to-day operations since 2018, and leads large-scale customer integrations for streamlined and efficient processes. Gabriela holds a Bachelor’s degree in Finance, and both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Computer Science.

Sasha ARN

Sasha ARN

CFO, Partner

Sasha joined Optimaize as CFO in 2024, and plays a crucial role in strategic business development. His career began in 1991 as a trainee at a Swiss bank. After studying business administration, he held positions as a key account manager at Banks and IT companies, then went on to found his own media agency. After growing it and acquiring another media agency to merge, he optimized and sold the company with great success.

Аndrej АRN

Аndrej АRN

CTO, Partner, Founder

Andrej founded the company in 2000. He is passionate about seeing newly developed software solutions deployed for the benefit of millions of end customers. Prior to starting Optimaize, Andrej began his career as a trainee at a Swiss bank in 1993, then developed the first content management system at the Swiss Stock Exchange for its websites, and worked as freelancer on numerous projects.

Alina SALAJAN

Alina SALAJAN

Chief Data Officer

Alina joined Optimaize in 2021 and took on the leadership of the Data Research Team after 3 years. Her passions are languages and cultures, and she leads with precision and expertise. Alina guides her team in collaborating with native freelancers worldwide to gather, classify, and validate PII and name data, supporting our efforts in providing highest-quality semantic entity parsing and matching. Alina holds a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Modern Languages.

Our Mission

At Optimaize, our mission is to deliver rock-solid software solutions, built on top of proven open-source, that provide exceptional value to our customers and their end users. We specialize in developing a platform around personal identifiable information (PII), with semantic entity matching, data safety, and regulatory compliance. We are committed to fostering long-term partnerships with our clients, supporting them through every stage of their journey.

Our Vision

Our mission is to drive growth and expansion by leveraging our core strengths. We aim to broaden our reach through our self-service cloud, while providing customized solutions to large enterprises, both directly and via 3rd party IT integration partners.

Our History

2023
SearchCluster cloud development

After years of being available to customers in on-premise installations, the NameAPI Index is being developed into a self-service cloud platform, with AI schema detection, semantic type mapping, and entity grouping.

2021
Cluj office expansion

Optimaize has worked with distributed teams, remote developers and flexible work plans from its inception in the year 2000, long before it was common practice. In 2021, after one year of lockdowns and movement restrictions, the Cluj office location was moved to a larger place, with the goal to 1) bring people back to the office, 2) have lots of space for physical distance, 3) provide a great environment for a work-play balance. While working-from-home has its advantages, and can work great for experienced team members, there are also clear benefits of coming together physically.

2020
Record Level Encryption

NameAPI Index introduces the new record level encryption feature, initially with AES 128 then 256. Semantic search over encrypted data.

2019
NameAPI Index Progress

The underlying components (parsing, matching) are being improved from release to release. The data research team works on the dictionaries and statistical name data. Development focus is on adding functionality to the NameAPI Index software, the product that brings the most value to our customers.

2017
NameAPI Index Product

Initial version of NameAPI Index, the turn-key solution to index and search people records with intelligent entity matching.

2016
Solid base

The OnoServer software has developed into a solid toolbox for handling people’s names. Name parsing and name matching are used by hundreds of customers, some through SaaS and others through on-premise installations.

2014
Leaps forward in data

Massive increases in world-wide name dictionaries and statistical name data.

2012
NameAPI public services platform

Core functionality of the OnoServer software is offered to any user with a freemium business model through a public API with SOAP and REST. This includes name parsing, name matching, genderizing, culture classification, and more.

2010
Graph dictionaries

Introduction of name dictionaries on graph technology with relations. Serves as foundation for name parsing and name matching.

2008
Risk detector

Introduction of the Risk Detector product to identify and flag fake customer records.

2007
Native freelancers

The data research team starts working with native freelancers from around the world to aid in the collection and classification of names, name structures and patterns.

Focus on name-related products only

Optimize makes the decision to focus on the development of its OnoServer name software, with programming and data research.

Data researcher team

Build a team of data researchers to collect and classify names from around the world, as this turns out to be a complex, challenging and lengthy process. Online data sources are used, but are in no way sufficient on their own.

2006
Launch of NamepediA

Launch of the name website and community platform to present name information to the public and use crowd-sourcing to improve the name dictionaries.

Produce name software

Decision to produce software to handle people’s names as there is demand but no product available.

Cluj Office

Opened development office in Cluj-Napoca, Romania

2003
Success but tough market

Big names are using web software produced by Optimaize. At the same time, the open source revolution in the software industry brings a plethora of free to use products, which makes it difficult for companies to succeed with traditional business models in the same field.

2001
Web CMS and Framework

Development of its own content management system for web development.

2000
Foundation

Foundation of Optimaize GmbH in Switzerland to develop internet software.

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2023
SearchCluster cloud development

After years of being available to customers in on-premise installations, the NameAPI Index is being developed into a self-service cloud platform, with AI schema detection, semantic type mapping, and entity grouping.

2021
Cluj office expansion

Optimaize has worked with distributed teams, remote developers and flexible work plans from its inception in the year 2000, long before it was common practice. In 2021, after one year of lockdowns and movement restrictions, the Cluj office location was moved to a larger place, with the goal to 1) bring people back to the office, 2) have lots of space for physical distance, 3) provide a great environment for a work-play balance. While working-from-home has its advantages, and can work great for experienced team members, there are also clear benefits of coming together physically.

2020
Record Level Encryption

NameAPI Index introduces the new record level encryption feature, initially with AES 128 then 256. Semantic search over encrypted data.

2019
NameAPI Index Progress

The underlying components (parsing, matching) are being improved from release to release. The data research team works on the dictionaries and statistical name data. Development focus is on adding functionality to the NameAPI Index software, the product that brings the most value to our customers.

2017
NameAPI Index Product

Initial version of NameAPI Index, the turn-key solution to index and search people records with intelligent entity matching.

2016
Solid base

The OnoServer software has developed into a solid toolbox for handling people’s names. Name parsing and name matching are used by hundreds of customers, some through SaaS and others through on-premise installations.

2014
Leaps forward in data

Massive increases in world-wide name dictionaries and statistical name data.

2012
NameAPI public services platform

Core functionality of the OnoServer software is offered to any user with a freemium business model through a public API with SOAP and REST. This includes name parsing, name matching, genderizing, culture classification, and more.

2010
Graph dictionaries

Introduction of name dictionaries on graph technology with relations. Serves as foundation for name parsing and name matching.

2008
Risk detector

Introduction of the Risk Detector product to identify and flag fake customer records.

2007
Native freelancers

The data research team starts working with native freelancers from around the world to aid in the collection and classification of names, name structures and patterns.

Focus on name-related products only

Optimize makes the decision to focus on the development of its OnoServer name software, with programming and data research.

Data researcher team

Build a team of data researchers to collect and classify names from around the world, as this turns out to be a complex, challenging and lengthy process. Online data sources are used, but are in no way sufficient on their own.

2006
Launch of NamepediA

Launch of the name website and community platform to present name information to the public and use crowd-sourcing to improve the name dictionaries.

Produce name software

Decision to produce software to handle people’s names as there is demand but no product available.

Cluj Office

Opened development office in Cluj-Napoca, Romania

2003
Success but tough market

Big names are using web software produced by Optimaize. At the same time, the open source revolution in the software industry brings a plethora of free to use products, which makes it difficult for companies to succeed with traditional business models in the same field.

2001
Web CMS and Framework

Development of its own content management system for web development.

2000
Foundation

Foundation of Optimaize GmbH in Switzerland to develop internet software.