It formed as the result of a merger between former Kaba and former Dorma in September 2015 and is publicly traded on the SIX Swiss Exchange.

[7] On 30 April 2015, the family-owned German company Dorma and the Swiss Kaba Group announced their planned merger.

After competition authorities approved the merger at the end of August 2015, the dormakaba Group commenced operations on 1 September 2015.

In 1862, Franz Bauer founded Kaba in Zurich as a locksmith shop and cash register factory.

When inventor Fritz Schori created the first cylinder lock with reversible key in 1934, Bauer AG patented the invention and named the lock after the firm's founder Franz Bauer, known in German as 'Kassenbauer' (maker of cash registers) – 'Kaba' for short.