Fifteen years of software
licensing, done properly.
Arco Software is an authorised software licensing distributor with global operations and headquarters in Singapore. Since 2011 we have served individuals, IT professionals, and resellers across Europe and worldwide — built on three principles that have not changed in fifteen years: genuine licenses, transparent activation, and support that stays with you past the first install.
A licensing business with a documentation problem to solve
Three things make Arco different from every other place you could buy a software license.
Genuine licenses, every time
All licenses are sourced through authorised distribution channels. Microsoft products carry our Microsoft Partner Network status. Every other product comes from authorised European and global distributors with documentation available on request.
A real Knowledge Base
The licensing industry is full of cryptic error codes, version conflicts, and edge cases that nobody documents. We're building the resource we wish existed when we started — clear, searchable articles that actually solve activation problems.
Support that stays
Most license resellers vanish after delivery. We answer email and WhatsApp seven days a week, 8:00–21:00 CET, and treat post-purchase activation issues as part of the product — not a complaint to be deflected.
Fifteen years, two jurisdictions, one mission
Arco was not built in a straight line. The road from a Hong Kong founding to a Singapore-headquartered global operation included a few decisions that defined who we became.
Hong Kong, €50,000, and a partner who knew the market
Arco was founded in Hong Kong in 2011, capitalised by €50,000 from the founder's prior software development work and a co-founding partner with deep operational knowledge of the licensing market. The first year was Microsoft-only — Windows and Office licenses to small businesses across Asia and Europe. The model was simple: source through authorised channels, document everything, treat every customer like the first one.
From one vendor to five categories
Over the next seven years, Arco's catalogue expanded methodically — never adding a vendor we couldn't source through authorised channels. Antivirus and security products joined first (ESET, Norton, Bitdefender), then creative software (Adobe), utilities and productivity tools, and VPN and server licenses. By 2018, the catalogue had grown to over 200 products across five categories, serving customers in more than 40 countries.
Hong Kong's regulatory environment shifted. We moved.
In 2019, Hong Kong's regulatory and operational environment shifted in ways that made it the wrong long-term home for an international software business. Relocating a company across jurisdictions is not a decision taken lightly — it meant rebuilding banking relationships, reassigning every distribution agreement, and absorbing months of legal and operational cost while continuing to deliver to existing customers.
We chose Singapore: a stable, neutral jurisdiction with strong contract enforcement, well-respected commercial courts, and proximity to the Asian markets we already served. The transition consumed most of 2019. It was the hardest year of the company's existence, and the year that taught us the most about operational resilience. Every system, supplier relationship, and process today carries the discipline that year forced on us.
Stability, and a quiet hedge against the next 2019
From the Singapore base, operations stabilised quickly. We expanded servicing into European and North American markets directly, and — having lived through one jurisdictional shock — we built operational redundancy into the structure so the business could continue serving customers through any future disruption, regardless of where it originated.
Becoming the resource we always wished existed
Fifteen years of selling licenses taught us that the licensing industry has a documentation problem. Customers run into the same activation errors, the same version mismatches, the same edge cases — and almost nobody writes the answers down properly. So we are. The Arco Knowledge Base is the next phase: a content-authority platform that solves real licensing problems, alongside the distribution business that funds it.
I started Arco in 2011 because I had to. After years as a software developer, health constraints meant I could no longer sustain enterprise-scale development work — but I wanted to stay in software. A few conversations later, a former colleague mentioned a partner with deep market knowledge but no capital to enter the licensing business. I had €50,000 from an app I had built, and a deep stubborn belief that the licensing industry deserved better than what most of it was offering customers.
Fifteen years later, I have stopped being surprised by how often customers contact us astonished that someone actually answers. That low industry baseline is a strange privilege. It means the bar for being remarkable is just to do the work properly — source the licenses through real channels, document the real solutions, answer the real messages.
The 2019 transition out of Hong Kong nearly broke us. It also taught me that a company surviving a hard year is a company you can build something serious on. That's the company we're building now.
Four principles, applied without exception
Real channels only
Every licence in our catalogue is traceable to an authorised source. We do not sell used licenses, regional grey-market keys, or anything we cannot stand behind in writing if a procurement team ever asks for documentation.
Write it down properly
If a question is asked twice, it deserves an article. The Arco Knowledge Base is built on this principle — every recurring activation issue, error code, and edge case becomes a permanent, searchable resource. Free, public, no login required.
Built for everyone, audited regularly
Every page on arcosw.com targets WCAG AA accessibility standards — high-contrast text, semantic HTML, keyboard navigation, screen-reader compatibility. Software licensing should not require perfect eyesight to navigate.
Support past the sale
Most license resellers consider the transaction the end of the relationship. We treat activation as part of the product — answered seven days a week, in business hours and beyond, by people who actually know the licenses they sold you.
From individual buyers to global resellers
Individual users
Home users and freelancers buying genuine licenses for personal devices, with full activation support if anything goes wrong.
IT professionals & MSPs
Consultants, system integrators, and managed service providers handling licensing for client portfolios — VAT invoicing, bulk pricing, fast turnaround.
Wholesale partners
Resellers and IT distributors operating at scale across European and global markets, structured through our three-tier Partner Program.
Fifteen years in. Just getting started.
Browse the catalogue, explore the Knowledge Base, or — if you operate at scale — apply to our partner program.