Reef Factory is back: Gian Luca Ciotti is the new 100% owner

Reef Factory is starting again. After more than a year of uncertainty following the bankruptcy of the Polish company, we can finally share the news that many reef keepers have been waiting for: Reef Factory has a new owner, Gian Luca Ciotti.

We met Commander Gian Luca Ciotti just a few days ago at AcquariaItalia 2026, at the end of the two days open to the public and on the eve of the B2B day on Monday, September 21. He personally told us what happened over these long months and, most importantly, what is about to happen next.

Reef Factory finally has a new owner

Gian Luca Ciotti told us that he is now the sole owner of Reef Factory, holding 100% ownership of the company. This is a point that Ciotti wanted to make particularly clear, also to refute any different claims or accounts that may circulate within the market.

During our meeting at AcquariaItalia 2026, Ciotti also showed us the documentation relating to the acquisition, specifically to support what he was telling us. DaniReef was able to examine these documents and, as far as we were able to verify during the meeting, they support the acquisition as described by Ciotti.

This is an important step because, after so many months of uncertainty, it finally provides a solid starting point for a new chapter in the history of Reef Factory.

There would therefore be no other shareholders or co-owners of Reef Factory: according to what Gian Luca Ciotti told and documented to DaniReef, ownership belongs 100% to him.

A story that started long before the acquisition

Perhaps the most interesting aspect, however, is that Gian Luca Ciotti’s relationship with Reef Factory did not begin today with the acquisition of the company.

Ciotti has known and used the Reef Factory ecosystem for a long time and continued to believe in the project even during the most difficult period in its history.

According to what he told us, in the months following the bankruptcy he personally covered the costs required to keep the Reef Factory servers running, precisely to prevent the cloud infrastructure from being shut down and thousands of reef keepers from suddenly finding themselves with devices they could no longer use.

The servers that had thousands of reef keepers worried

Those who follow us will remember just how delicate the situation was. In May 2025, when we reported on the Reef Factory bankruptcy and what could happen next, one of the biggest concerns involved the cloud infrastructure itself.

A significant part of the Reef Factory ecosystem relies on online services and the Smart Reef platform. Shutting down those servers could therefore have caused serious problems for an extremely large installed base of devices.

Instead, those servers stayed online.

Today, thousands of users continue to use their Reef Factory devices every day and, in light of what Ciotti told us at AcquariaItalia, we now know a little more about what was happening behind the scenes during these months.

From bankruptcy to the rebirth of Reef Factory

Now, probably, comes the most interesting part.

What will the reborn Reef Factory look like?

At the moment, it is still too early to discuss in detail the new structure, distribution, which products will return to the market, or any new products that may be developed. These are all aspects that we will be following very closely over the coming months.

What we can say today is that Reef Factory has not disappeared. The brand and its ecosystem finally have new ownership, backed by someone who demonstrated his belief in the project long before becoming its owner.

For the reef keepers who have continued to use dosing pumps, control systems, KH Keeper, Level Keeper, lighting systems and other devices connected to the Smart Reef ecosystem throughout these months, this is probably the most important news of all.

A major brand returns to the market

When we published the news of Reef Factory’s bankruptcy in May 2025, the question everyone was asking was very simple: what happens now?

More than a year later, we can finally begin to provide an answer.

Reef Factory is starting again.

We do not yet know what form this new Reef Factory will take, and it would be premature to anticipate what will be presented over the coming months. But we do know that the project has a new owner, that the infrastructure was kept alive during one of the most difficult periods in the company’s history, and that there is a clear intention to bring the brand back to the market.

And considering how much Reef Factory has contributed in recent years to the spread of smart reef aquarium management, its return is certainly important news for the entire industry.

Of course, we will continue to follow this new chapter closely and will bring you all the latest developments as soon as they become available.

Meanwhile, today, Monday, September 21, AcquariaItalia 2026 continues with its B2B day dedicated to aquarium industry professionals. And there could hardly have been a better opportunity to tell you, directly from the show, about the beginning of this new story.

What do you think?