[story]

The craft of building digital products that last

Discover the founding chapters of Galadrim, from two passionate engineers meeting at École Polytechnique to the development of best-in-class AI solutions.

2014 - The meeting

Two engineers, one shared passion

Coding enthusiasts since childhood, our founders Jean Ashton and Arnaud Albalat met at École Polytechnique, graduating in 2014. They shared the same passion for innovation and technical challenges, and quickly became friends. Jean went on to study at EPFL. Arnaud, top of his class at Polytechnique, specialised in artificial intelligence through the MVA master's programme at ENS. Together they set out to find their first scientific and technical challenges.

Jean Ashton and Arnaud Albalat, Galadrim's two founders, standing in front of a green wall.

A spell in big tech before choosing entrepreneurship

Jean joined IBM Research, where he designed a travel-time forecasting model aimed at reducing urban traffic. Arnaud also started in research, at Facebook, where he developed a confidence measure for speech recognition based on a neural network, then moved into software development at Microsoft, building algorithms to generate music playlists. But these large organisations soon left them wanting more: constraints were many, freedom to act was limited and execution was slow, sometimes with months of waiting before an algorithm reached production.

The institutions and companies that trained our founders

So they decided to go into business together. Their first project was a SaaS product forecasting attendance for cinemas. The product worked, but the market was narrow and the industry weakened by the rise of streaming. They sold the solution and went looking for a new playing field.

2017 - The beginning

Galadrim is born

In 2017, Jean and Arnaud took on their first development projects for companies such as Bandai Namco, Leroy Merlin, Decathlon and Konbini. They built their first web and mobile applications, and discovered a passion for the craft. Every new project was a chance to learn an industry, a company, a need - and above all, a new technical challenge to take on.

The full Galadrim team in front of a shopfront, in 2018.Five Galadrimeurs taking a selfie around a laptop in the company's first offices.

Our first clients

Golden wax seal stamped with the Galadrim G.

Where does the name Galadrim come from?

The name comes from the Galadhrim, the Elves of the forest of Lothlórien in Tolkien's work: a people of builders, who build with care, elegance and durability.

The Galadrim team gathered in the courtyard of a stone building during an offsite.
That philosophy is what Galadrim is founded on: designing products meant to last, crafted like genuine artisanship. And working with every kind of client - entrepreneur, small business, mid-cap or large group, whatever the industry - with an approach that is both engineering-led and entrepreneurial, making the most of every resource to create the greatest value.
Arnaud Albalat Co-founder and CTO

2017 to 2026 - The expansion

Fast growth, kept under control

In the early years, growth was fast. From the outset, Jean and Arnaud recruited and trained their developers to a demanding standard: to join the team, every engineer has to solve complex algorithmic problems and match Galadrim's DNA.
Rather than opening up their capital or rushing expansion, the founders chose healthy growth: satisfied clients, thriving teams, and methods structured step by step.

Several Galadrimeurs talking in the office lounge, around an acoustic booth.

Structuring the project teams

Three main teams took shape: Product, Design and Tech. A multidisciplinary, autonomous team forms around each product, but they all help one another, in a culture of excellence and collective progress. Galadrim passed €3M in revenue in 2021, and delivered many landmark projects: computer vision models for Chanel's neuroscience division, a hugely successful mobile app for The Bradery (millions of customers today), a consumer app for the La Poste group, and financial investment algorithms for BNP Paribas.

  • Product
  • Design
  • Tech

€3M+ in revenue passed in 2021

The landmark projects of our growth

Galadrim attracts a great deal of talent

After cutting their teeth inside the company, some people want to launch their own venture - a new offering, a new product or a new local office. It sits at the very heart of the company's growth model, and our founders get personally involved in every one of them.

  • The banks of the Loire in Nantes at sunset, with groups of people sitting on the lawn.

    Office Apr.22

    Galadrim Nantes

    Robin Baraud, a former Galadrim developer, opened a regional subsidiary with the same methods and the same values: new offices, local clients and developers, the same demanding standard.

  • Aerial view of a conifer forest bathed in golden light and mist.

    Company 16 Feb.23

    Orki

    Gautier Mulak and Guillaume Caulier, former developers with a passion for the environment, launched a SaaS product dedicated to carbon accounting. More than €2M in annual revenue and a team of around twenty people today.

  • Abstract pink, magenta and mauve gradient shaped like a petal.

    Studio 02 Mar.23

    Galadrim Design

    Alexie Romeu, a former Product Designer, launched a design studio supporting clients on their brand identity, art direction and logo, beyond traditional product design.

2026 - The expansion

Galadrim today

Galadrim today means 180 people, €23M in forecast revenue for 2026, and a long track record of successful products - complex or simply useful - for a wide range of organisations. Jean and Arnaud still meet every single team member, and excellence remains at the heart of the method.

+180
Team members
€23M
In revenue in 2026
+800
Clients supported

The philosophy has not changed: building high-quality products, with care and attention, and building a lasting relationship of trust with every client. Our engineers regularly go on to join our clients' teams after several years of working together.

All 180 Galadrimeurs gathered on a beach during the annual offsite.

Today we work with large groups, small businesses and mid-caps accelerating their AI transformation, and with entrepreneurs and start-ups shaping the tech of tomorrow.

  • Mid-cap
  • Large group
  • Tech
  • Large group
  • Tech

Towards 2030 - The outlook

Towards 2030: AI transformation, in France and across Europe

Galadrim has become an AI-native company. Its support functions run on an ecosystem of autonomous agents, steered by a very small team - 3 people for 180 employees; its processes are automated, its teams intensively trained in AI, and the company has been building state-of-the-art generative AI products for several years.

Collage: the Galadrim G in a diamond, the team gathered on the office terrace and the euro sculpture in Frankfurt

After years spent building innovative products, we now advise large organisations on their AI strategy and transformation, with a concrete, pragmatic and ambitious approach.

The next step is Europe. A team is already in place in Spain; expansion will continue in the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and Poland. The Galadrimeurs keep on building the tech world of tomorrow.

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