CATIE

What CATIE does

CATIE (Centre Aquitain des Technologies de l'Information et Électronique) is a non-profit technology resource center (Centre de Ressources Technologiques) established in 2014 by the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Regional Council and headquartered in Talence, France, with two regional delegations in Limoges and Bidart. The organization operates as a multidisciplinary team of PhDs and engineers structured into three Technological Units — Algorithms & Data, Human-Centric Systems, and Cyber-Physical Systems — and serves Large Companies, SMEs, and Start-ups with technology transfer, R&D collaboration, and personalized technological support across AI, electronics, cybersecurity, human factors, and robotics.

The technical portfolio centers on four proprietary platforms: VANIILA (AI and data science model training and deployment), 6TRON (IoT and edge computing), PEAC2H (cognitive and behavioral evaluation), and CATIE Robotics (ROS-based autonomous service robotics built on the TIAGo/Epock platform). Notable AI assets include the NERmembert French Named Entity Recognition model, the DFP (Dataset of French Prompts) with over 100 million lines, a fine-tuned Mistral-7B-v0.1 model, and research output in Bayesian deep learning for zero-day cyber threat detection. CATIE also engages in international robotics competitions, placing 2nd and 3rd at multiple RoboCup @Home events between 2019 and 2023, and participates in European projects including EDIH DIHNAMIC and IoT-NGIN.

CATIE's revenue model combines an annual membership program (providing priority access to expert networks, collaborative projects, and equipment such as GPU servers and measurement devices) with project-based technology transfer services, supplemented by regional subsidies and European research grants. The organization is governed by a Board of Directors presided over by a regional SME representative (Nicolas Boulay of Worldcast) and led since January 2024 by General Director Delphine Depeyras, who succeeded the founding director Bertrand Castagnet.

Name

CATIE

Legal name

CATIE (Centre Aquitain des Technologies de l'Information et Électronique)

Website

https://catie.fr

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

CATIE is a French non-profit technology transfer center (CRT) based in Nouvelle-Aquitaine that helps SMEs, start-ups, and large companies adopt AI, electronics, cybersecurity, and robotics technologies through R&D collaboration, proprietary platforms, and a regional membership program.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Talence

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Technology Transfer Services: CATIE provides technology transfer services to businesses, helping them overcome technological barriers, adopt innovative technologies, and strengthen expertise through collaborative R&D projects
2. Membership Program: Annual membership providing access to technological support, expert networks, priority project access, and technology equipment including servers, AI tools, and measurement devices

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

CATIE is a Centre de Ressources Technologiques (Resource Technology Organization) that provides technology transfer, R&D collaboration, and personalized technological support to businesses in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. It helps large companies, SMEs, and start-ups overcome technological barriers, adopt innovative technologies, and validate concepts through a multidisciplinary team of PhDs and engineers. Its offerings span three technological units (Algorithms & Data, Human-Centric Systems, and Cyber-Physical Systems) and include proprietary platforms (VANIILA, 6TRON, PEAC2H, CATIE Robotics) plus project-based R&D consulting.

Product overview

CATIE is a Resource Technology Organization (RTO) structured around three Technological Units: Algorithmes et Données (Algorithms & Data), Systèmes Centrés sur l'Humain (Human-Centric Systems), and Systèmes Cyber-physiques (Cyber-Physical Systems). The organization offers a portfolio of platforms and tools including: VANIILA for AI and data science; 6TRON for IoT innovation; PEAC2H for cognitive evaluation; CATIE Robotics for autonomous service robotics; NERmembert for French NLP entity recognition; and the DFP dataset for French language model training. Additionally, they develop IoT products like the Z_IAQ air quality sensor and participate in research initiatives including the European EDIH DIHNAMIC, IoT-NGIN, and ENTER cluster for responsible digital technology.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• CATIE Robotics: Specialized robotics division focusing on service robotics with autonomous and social robotics capabilities, participating in international competitions such as RoboCup @Home.

Products and services

• VANIILA AI and Data Science platform providing tools for model development, training, and deployment, used by researchers, data scientists, and partner organizations for machine learning workflows.
• 6TRON Technological innovation platform dedicated to IoT, providing tools and resources for industrial IoT solution development for developers and industrial companies.
• PEAC2H Cognitive and behavioral evaluation platform with an associated experimentation room for human factors research, used by researchers and industry partners studying human performance and behavior.
• CATIE Robotics Service robotics platform for application-driven robotics using ROS-based TIAGo robot (Epock), with autonomous navigation, SLAM, face recognition, and human-robot interaction capabilities, used for research and service robotics applications.
• NERmembert Named Entity Recognition tool developed for French text, identifying and classifying persons, locations, and organizations, available in base and large configurations for developers and NLP practitioners.
• DFP (Dataset of French Prompts) French language prompt dataset containing over 100 million lines for training LLM models, covering 30+ NLP tasks with various prompt styles, available for AI researchers and developers.
• Podwords Gamified demonstrator illustrating word embedding capabilities, based on the Codenames game concept where players find hidden words using AI-generated hints, used for public engagement and AI education.
• Technology Transfer and R&D Collaboration Services Personalized technological support, R&D collaboration, and project-based engagement services helping businesses in Nouvelle-Aquitaine overcome technological barriers, adopt innovative technologies, acquire new knowledge, and access additional resources through expert networks and collaborative projects.
• Annual Membership Program Annual membership providing access to personalized technological support, expert network, priority access to collaborative projects, events, and technology equipment including servers, AI tools, and measurement devices for businesses in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region.

Quantifiable outcome

• Reduced aircraft inspection time from 20 hours to 1 hour for 300-seat aircraft
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability12 records

Feature14 records

Partnerships

15 partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Embedded FrancecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEmbedded France is the association of French representatives for embedded software and systems. CATIE co-led the Eco-Design working group and contributed to white papers on sustainable design for embedded systems. Sébastien Loty from CATIE served as co-pilot of the working group.
• Nouvelle-Aquitaine RegioncoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe Nouvelle-Aquitaine Regional Council established CATIE and continues to support its operations. The region is a key partner for funding and strategic direction, with initiatives like AQTRONIC to promote local manufacturing.
• EDIH DIHNAMIC (European Digital Innovation Hub)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCATIE is strongly involved in EDIH DIHNAMIC, a European Digital Innovation Hub covering Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Navarre, Hesse, and Emilia-Romagna. The hub received European approval and funding to support digital transformation of businesses.
• RoboCup FederationminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCATIE participates in RoboCup @Home competition to measure progress, expose achievements to broad audience, and gather international community in service robotics.
• EIRL LabminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerResearch laboratory partnership for collaborative projects and technology development.
• 3IL (Institut d'Ingénierie Informatique)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerEngineering school partnership for training and collaborative projects in robotics and AI.
• Bordeaux INPminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with Bordeaux Institut National Polytechnique for student projects and robotics research, including collaboration on object segmentation and grasping.
• CISTEMEcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-organized TechTronics Nouvelle-Aquitaine events with CISTEME, another technical center in the region. Both centers share expertise and expose electronic solutions.
• IoT-NGIN ConsortiumminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerEuropean project acting as the 'engine of IoT' for the next generation of European internet. CATIE contributes to professional IoT solution development environments for industrial IoT.
• ENTER Cluster (Pôle Numérique Responsable)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNew competitiveness cluster for Responsible Digital Technology. CATIE's Director General Delphine Depeyras serves as Second Vice President. CATIE actively contributes to promoting responsible, sustainable, and efficient digital practices.
• INRAE (Institut national de recherche pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration on agricultural image processing solutions using the VANIILA platform for analysis and traceability.
• ThalesminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerLong-standing collaboration including participation in European H2020 projects (SUaaVE, CO2TEAM) and technology transfer initiatives. Thales representatives serve on CATIE's Board.
• IMS Laboratory / Bordeaux-INP / ENSCminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration with Cognitics Group on human factors and cognitive engineering research, including European H2020 projects.
• Inria Bordeaux Sud-OuestminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerUses VANIILA platform for training workshops on data import, cleaning, and machine learning using scikit-learn.
• RoboCup FranceminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerNational robotics competition federation supporting French participation in international RoboCup events.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• TNO: Netherlands' applied research organization operating across similar technology transfer, AI, cybersecurity, and embedded systems domains. Comparable institutional RTO model serving SMEs and government, with larger scale and broader geographic remit.
• Capgemini Engineering: Global engineering and digital services firm (incorporating Altran) with practices in embedded systems, AI, and industrial IoT. Represents the private-sector incumbent against which CATIE competes for enterprise technology transformation engagements, particularly with large accounts in aerospace and industry.
• CEA: France's largest public RTO, with deep applied research in electronics, embedded AI, cybersecurity, and robotics. Overlaps directly with all three of CATIE's technological units but operates at a national scale with vastly larger headcount and budgets.
• Fraunhofer Society: Germany's pan-national applied RTO network and the European benchmark for the RTO model CATIE operates within. Comparable contract-research structure serving SMEs and large enterprises across electronics, AI, and production technology.
• VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland: Finland's public RTO with applied research and technology transfer across AI, electronics, and industrial IoT. Mirrors CATIE's SME-focused, government-anchored model but at significantly larger national scale.

Direct peers

• CSEM: Swiss RTO focused on microelectronics, embedded systems, AI, and digitalization. Closest international structural peer to CATIE—mid-sized, multidisciplinary, industry-academia hybrid serving regional SMEs with technology transfer services.
• INRIA: France's national public research institute for digital science. Operates as a public R&D organization conducting applied research in AI, robotics, and embedded systems—the same domains CATIE serves—and is a direct functional peer, though at substantially larger national scale.
• IRT (Instituts de Recherche Technologique) network: Network of French technological research institutes (e.g., Saint-Exupéry, b<>com, SystemX) conducting industry-driven applied R&D in electronics, AI, and embedded systems under the same public-private partnership model CATIE operates within.
• TECNALIA: Basque Country/Spanish applied research center, also a partner in EDIH DIHNAMIC alongside CATIE. Directly comparable in size, regional mission, technology transfer focus, and partnership within the same European Digital Innovation Hub.
• Carnot Institute Network: French network of 39 accredited RTOs conducting partnership-based research with industry. CATIE's technology-transfer, SME-focused model fits squarely within this national RTO framework, making the Carnot network the closest French institutional peer set.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/catie_aq
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UC_1dty28uzsojSDezD-_2Cg
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/catie-aq

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about CATIE