Founded in 2018 by François-Xavier Leduc and Edouard d’Archimbaud, Kili Technology has developed an automated data annotation technology to accelerate and improve artificial intelligence projects within companies. After a first round of funding of $7 million in January 2021, and a second round of $25 million the following July, the start-up has consolidated its team and opened an office in New York to take a position on the world’s leading intelligence market.

Kili Technology has about a hundred customers in Europe, including major players in their sectors: Arcelormittal, Areva, Bureau Veritas, Crédit Agricole, Société Générale…It is now targeting the international market and intends to make a place for itself in the United States, even aiming to become “the leading training data platform for AI solutions in the U.S., the world’s largest market valued at 1.8 billion” .

François-Xavier Leduc had stated following the January 2021 fundraising:

“We have to move fast to take a place, especially in the US.”

Becoming the leading training data platform for AI solutions in the U.S.

The year 2021 was a springboard year for Kili Technology to go international. Its ambition is now to establish itself in the US market, where the competition is the greatest. For this, it announces the opening of its office in New York and the recruitment of Pike Reynolds, as vice-president sales North America to lead the business development of the company on the U.S. market.

Pike Reynolds brings 25 years of business development experience in highly innovative B2B technology companies.

For 7 years at Splunk, a data tracking and analysis software company, he helped drive the company’s strong growth ($500 million in revenue and IPO). He was also VP of sales at big data company Cloudera, in charge of the eastern region of North America, and VP of sales at DevOps company Cloudbee.

Kili’s American team will continue to grow during the first half of 2022 with the recruitment of many senior profiles. It will have a dozen employees in the second half of 2022 to ensure the commercial prospecting and customer relations. François-Xavier Leduc explains:

“In general, it is the American tech giants that come to Europe to impose their solutions. We intend to reverse this dialectic by becoming the leading training data platform for AI solutions in the US, the world’s largest market
1.8 billion, as we have done in Europe. Now is the time to do it: as all companies are integrating AI solutions into their technology infrastructure, we need to be quickly identified as the best data management platform.”

An experienced executive committee with a strong international bias

As of January 2021, the Kili Technology team had 15 employees. The 2 fundraisings have allowed to increase this number to 50 currently and thus to consolidate the technological efficiency of the training data management platform, to refine the product offering in the face of market expectations and to accelerate business development.
2021 was also the occasion for Kili to structure its executive committee with the recruitment of six senior profiles with a strong international focus around the two founders François-Xavier Leduc and Edouard d’Archimbaud :

To steer the product offering and business development, Nicolas de Rosen is appointed chief marketing officer (CMO), while Antoine de la Rivière is appointed head of sales. He benefits from the expertise of Pike Reynolds for the American market.

With 15 years of experience in marketing, international development and the tech ecosystem, Nicolas de Rosen is responsible for building and deploying Kili’s marketing strategy. Previously, he founded and managed two companies, including Sinteo which was sold to the Onet group. He also worked at iAdvize, where he opened and managed the US market for 4 years, before being appointed chief marketing officer. Nicolas is a graduate of Centrale-Supélec and holds an MBA from INSEAD.

Antoine de la Rivière joins Kili as head of sales. A graduate of HEC Montreal and Sciences Po Paris, Antoine first worked as a strategy consultant at Roland Berger. He then specialized in digital companies, working at DoubleClick, Google’s digital marketing platform, and Facebook as Measurement lead and Global Client lead.

Alongside them, Antoine de Séverac is head of customer success in charge of customer relationship management. Before joining Kili, Antoine specialized in customer success management, customer care and customer satisfaction. He worked as an organization consultant at Capgemini, and as a human resources and change consultant at PwC. He also benefits from several experiences as Senior Manager Customer Engagement at PeopleDoc France and UKG.

With nearly 10 years of experience in the development of products with a strong technological dimension and machine learning, Pierre Ferry is appointed head of product in charge of the definition and execution of Kili’s product strategy. Formerly head of product at Criteo, he also led the Proprioo and Doctrine product teams as CPO and VP Product. Pierre graduated from Ecole Polytechnique and holds a master 2 in Electrical Engineering from ETH Zürich.

Claire Panier des Touches is appointed head of people & culture. She is in charge of supporting Kili’s human growth around a corporate culture focused on the employee experience. Claire has 10 years of experience in HR. She worked for 7 years in the unicorn Sigfox where she created the Talent Acquisition & People department and managed 15 international subsidiaries.

François Xavier Leduc congratulates :

“We are very happy to have gathered high quality people to compose Kili’s executive committee and support us in the management of the company. Each one brings great business expertise and long years of experience in the tech ecosystem that are a real asset to build Kili’s leadership in the AI training data market.”

Translated from Kili Technology, après avoir renforcé ses équipes, part à l’attaque du marché américain