LNbits does not implement Lightning. It assumes you already have a Lightning node, or access to one, and solves the layer above: turning one funding source into many accounts that applications can use.
The software is a Python server released under the MIT licence, and its repository dates from December 2019. Its own start date is stated two ways: the documentation footer reads "Copyright 2018-present LNbits Contributors", while the project's website says six years of production use, which as of 2026 points at 2020. Neither is a formal record, so no founding year is entered here. The licence file names the copyright holder as "Arc", the handle of Ben Arc, who is credited across the project. This entry uses the name as it is publicly used and makes no claim about who is behind it.
The design is a funding source, a wallet layer, and everything else as an optional extension. Supported backends include LND, Core Lightning, phoenixd, Alby, Greenlight and OpenNode among more than twenty, and because the backend is pluggable an application built against LNbits can move from one Lightning implementation to another without touching its own code. Each wallet gets API keys, so a shop till, a vending machine, a game and a paywall can all draw on the same node under separate accounts with separate limits.
The extension catalogue is where the project's character shows: point of sale, LNURL vouchers, boltcards, subscriptions, paywalls, donation buttons, nostr zaps. Sixty or so are listed in the documentation, and anyone can write and publish another, including charging for it. The use cases the project puts first are physical ones: shops, cafés, events, mobile vendors, vending machines, kiosks and hardware devices, none of which involve the operator writing Lightning code.
It is distributed three ways: self-hosted from the repository, as a hosted service, and on LNbits Box hardware sold from the project's shop. No operating company is named on any of those pages, so no structure is recorded.