By Alex Bardahan, Co-founder & CEO of Extracta.ai and LionBox
For the past few years, this blog has been about one thing: getting useful data out of business documents. Invoices, receipts, contracts, CVs, bank statements. Today we want to tell you about the next thing we have been building, why we built it, and how it connects to Extracta.
It is called LionBox. It is a small AI server that sits in your office and gives your whole team a private AI workspace, without sending your company’s documents to the cloud.
Where the idea came from
Extracta exists to process other companies’ documents, and that has shaped the way we think about data. We had to earn trust before anyone would upload a single invoice. That is why Extracta is ISO 27001 certified, GDPR compliant, encrypts all communication and never uses customer data to train models.
Over time, we noticed something. The question we heard most from businesses was not “how accurate is the extraction?”. It was “where does my data go?”. For most teams, certifications and a data-processing agreement were enough. For others, such as accounting firms, law offices, clinics, or any company handling contracts and financials it would rather not share, the only answer that really worked was “it stays here”.
At the same time, AI moved into every office, mostly through public chat tools. People paste emails, spreadsheets and internal documents into them because it saves time. In most small companies, nobody decided that this was fine. It just happened.
We kept coming back to the same idea: what if a team could have the AI tools they already use, but running on a machine they own, inside their own network?
What LionBox is
LionBox is a plug-and-play AI appliance for teams of 1–30 people. You connect it to power and to your office router, and a mobile app guides you through setup. No IT specialist, no installation on every computer. Everyone on the office network opens LionBox in their browser.
Everyday AI work runs on the box itself, not through an external AI service:
- Chat and writing: drafting, summarising, translating
- Document OCR and data extraction: the Extracta part of our DNA, now running locally
- Questions over company knowledge: ask about your policies, price lists or past projects and see the sources the answer came from
- Email replies, meeting notes and data analysis
Not everyone should see everything, so LionBox has three levels of access: company-wide, department and personal. Finance files stay with Finance, and each person’s own documents stay private to them.
Once it is set up, local chat and your indexed knowledge keep working even with the internet disconnected. Software updates and some optional features still need a connection.
Same team, same company, same approach
LionBox is not a separate venture we are lending our name to. It is built and sold by the same people and the same legal entity as Extracta:
- Founders: Alex Bardahan, Co-founder & CEO (LinkedIn), and Alexandru Barzoiu, Co-founder & CTO (LinkedIn)
- Company: FASTAPP DEVELOPMENT SRL, Bucharest, Romania (tax ID 45042871), the company behind Extracta.ai
- Commitments in writing: the LionBox terms of sale name the seller and set out the refund rules, a 14-day return window, a two-year warranty and a written dispatch deadline
- People you can reach: hello@lionbox.ai goes to the founding team
The principles are the ones Extracta was built on: your documents are yours, we do not train on them, and we tell you plainly where your data is processed. With LionBox, the answer is even simpler: on a box in your office.
Who it is for, and who it is not for
LionBox is built for business owners and small teams who want the benefits of AI without handing company knowledge to a third party, and who do not want to build an AI server themselves. If you would rather assemble your own hardware and run open-source models, there are good tools for that. LionBox is for the teams who would rather the box just works.
It does not replace Extracta. If you process large volumes of documents through our API, Extracta remains the right tool, and nothing changes for you. LionBox is for the everyday AI work that happens inside a team: questions, documents, emails and knowledge that should stay in the building.
What this means for Extracta users
- Extracta continues as before: same platform, same API, same team.
- If you have ever hesitated to send certain documents to a cloud service, LionBox was designed with you in mind.
- If you know a company that has been asking how to use AI without their data leaving the office, we would be grateful if you sent them our way.
Frequently asked questions
Is LionBox related to Extracta?
Yes. Both are built by the same founders, Alex Bardahan and Alexandru Barzoiu, and sold by the same company, FASTAPP DEVELOPMENT SRL.
Does LionBox send my data to the cloud?
Normal AI processing runs on the box, without an external inference API. Downloading updates and some optional features require an internet connection.
Do I need technical skills to set it up?
No. You connect power and Ethernet and follow the mobile app, which walks the administrator through creating accounts and permissions.
Where can I find prices and availability?
Always on lionbox.ai and in the terms of sale. We keep them there so they are never out of date.
We have spent years helping businesses get more out of their documents. LionBox is the same work, built for the teams who want their documents to stay at home.
See how LionBox works, or write to us at hello@lionbox.ai. We read every message.
