Kitware Europe
Kitware Europe (Kitware SAS, Lyon) is the European R&D subsidiary of Kitware, Inc., providing custom software development, support, and training on open-source scientific visualization, medical imaging, and computer vision platforms (VTK, ITK, ParaView, CMake, 3D Slicer) to defense, medical-device, and academic customers.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2010
- HeadquartersVilleurbanne, France
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Kitware Europe does
Kitware Europe operates as Kitware SAS, a French corporation headquartered at 6 Cours André Philip in Villeurbanne (Lyon), France, and functions as the European subsidiary of U.S.-based Kitware, Inc. The firm employs approximately 30 R&D engineers organized into three teams — Software Solutions, Scientific Visualization, and Computer Vision — that develop and maintain a portfolio of open-source platforms including the Visualization Toolkit (VTK), the Insight Toolkit (ITK), ParaView, CMake, 3D Slicer, KWIVER, and Resonant. These platforms span 3D computer graphics, medical image processing, cross-platform build management, and computer vision pipelines, and are used in production by tens of thousands of developers, researchers, and practitioners worldwide.
The business model combines custom R&D engineering services, recurring technical support agreements sold in 10-to-40-hour annual packages (priced €1,760-€6,440 per year), commercial licenses for the ActiViz .NET/VTK wrapper and the ActiViz for Unity plugin, and a catalog of standardized training courses (CMake, VTK, ITK, ParaView, 3D Slicer, MONAI, SLAM/ROS) billed per day or two-day course. Pricing for custom development is quote-based and delivered as professional services engagements. GTM is simultaneously sales-led (direct engagement with U.S. government agencies including DARPA, IARPA, AFRL, and ONR, plus defense primes such as Lockheed Martin and Raytheon), event-driven (CVPR, ISC-HPC, EuroVis, ParaView User Days Europe), and community-led through open-source distribution and developer adoption. A self-service eStore handles transactional support and product license sales.
The customer base spans three primary verticals: healthcare and medical research (Polarean, BrainLab, Xoran Tech, Xstrahl, Children's National Medical Center, SonoVol); U.S. government defense and intelligence (DARPA, IARPA, AFRL, ONR); and scientific research and academia (MIT, Stanford, Harvard, Carnegie Mellon, Johns Hopkins, multiple DOE national laboratories). The firm hosts regional partnerships with French innovation clusters (Lyon Biopole, Teratec, Cluster i-Care) and holds active technology relationships with Velodyne Lidar, Elsevier, and Google. Revenue, funding history, and detailed ownership are not publicly disclosed.
Kitware Europe firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Kitware Europe
- Legal name
- Kitware SAS
- Website
- https://kitware.fr
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2010
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Kitware Europe (Kitware SAS, Lyon) is the European R&D subsidiary of Kitware, Inc., providing custom software development, support, and training on open-source scientific visualization, medical imaging, and computer vision platforms (VTK, ITK, ParaView, CMake, 3D Slicer) to defense, medical-device, and academic customers.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Kitware Europe industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Scientific Visualization and Medical Computing Software
- NAICS
- Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151), Software Publishers (51321)
- SIC
- Services-Computer Programming Services (7371), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Software Development (Programming, Frameworks, Dev Tools) (EDABAFAA)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Software/Application Support (SaaS, Enterprise Apps) (BPAAACAC)
Keywords
Where Kitware Europe is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Villeurbanne
- HQ country
- France
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices1 record
Markets served
Kitware Europe business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Others
Revenue model
- Open Source Platform Support and Licensing: Commercial support agreements and licensing for ActiViz (.NET/C# and Unity products). Support tiers range from 10 to 40 hours with annual billing.
- Custom Software Development: Custom R&D software development services ranging from small-scale investigatory efforts to large-scale production applications. Delivered on computing platforms from mobile devices to supercomputers.
- Training Services: Standard and customized courses on open source platforms including VTK, ParaView, CMake, ITK, 3D Slicer, and specialized topics. Delivered in-person or online.
- Books and Documentation: Sale of technical books including Mastering CMake, The ParaView Guide, The VTK User's Guide, The VTK Textbook, and ITK Software Guide.
- Technical Support Products: Pre-packaged support products (10h, 20h, 30h, 40h) available for purchase with credit card through eStore. Redeemable within one year of purchase.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Annual | 10 Hours Technical Support |
| Subscription | Annual | 20 Hours Technical Support |
| Subscription | Annual | 30 Hours Technical Support |
| Subscription | Annual | 40 Hours Technical Support |
| One time/ perpetual license | Pay-as-you-go | ActiViz 1-Year License |
| Subscription | Annual | ActiViz with Support |
| Subscription | Annual | ActiViz for Unity |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | Training Courses |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels7 records
Kitware Europe product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Kitware Europe provides custom software R&D engineering services and commercial support for open-source platforms in scientific visualization, medical image computing, and computer vision. The company develops and maintains platforms including VTK, ParaView, ITK, CMake, 3D Slicer, and KWIVER, and sells commercial products such as ActiViz (a .NET/Unity wrapper for VTK), recurring technical support subscriptions, training courses, and technical books. Customers include U.S. and European government agencies (DARPA, IARPA, AFRL, ONR), national laboratories, defense contractors (Lockheed Martin, Raytheon), medical device companies, hospitals, and research universities.
Product overview
Kitware Europe offers an open source platform portfolio centered on scientific visualization, medical imaging, and computer vision. The core platforms include VTK for 3D graphics and visualization, ParaView for interactive scientific data analysis, CMake for cross-platform build management, ITK for medical image processing, 3D Slicer for medical image analysis, and KWIVER for computer vision and video analytics. These integrate with commercial products like ActiViz (.NET/C# wrapper for VTK) and ActiViz for Unity. Supporting tools include Resonant (web-based data management and analytics), RTK (CT reconstruction), CMB (simulation workflow management), TomViz (electron tomography), Pulse Physiology Engine (body simulation), and iMSTK (medical simulation toolkit). Training services cover all major platforms.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- VTK (Visualization Toolkit)
Quantifiable outcome
- 350+ publications in medical computing and 200+ in computer vision demonstrate deep research expertise
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use Kitware Europe
Customer profileNamed customers16 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Kitware Europe technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration5 records
AI capability7 records
Feature10 records
Kitware Europe partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Ten partnerships are on record, tiered regional ecosystem partner, technology integration partner, major research partners, academic research partners, defense industry partners, technology partner, publishing partner and acquisition partner.
- Lyon Biopoleregional ecosystem partnerRegional healthcare and biotech cluster collaboration in Lyon, France. Lyon Biopole is a competitiveness cluster focused on healthcare innovation.
- Teratecregional ecosystem partnerFrench cluster for high-performance computing and simulation technologies. Teratec brings together industry, research, and academic institutions.
- Cluster i-Careregional ecosystem partnerHealthcare innovation cluster focused on medical technologies and care services.
- Velodyne Lidartechnology integration partnerLidar sensor manufacturer collaboration. Kitware develops LidarView software for Velodyne sensor data visualization and processing.
- National Laboratories (Argonne, Lawrence Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, Sandia)major research partnersMultiple collaborations with U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories on visualization, climate analysis, and HPC projects.
- Universities (MIT, Stanford, Harvard, Carnegie Mellon, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, etc.)academic research partnersExtensive collaborations with leading universities on medical imaging, computer vision, scientific visualization, and software engineering research.
- Defense Contractors (BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman)defense industry partnersCustomized software R&D projects for defense applications including computer vision, video analytics, and autonomous systems.
- Googletechnology partnerCollaboration on interactive visualization of Google Project Tango data with ParaView.
- Elsevierpublishing partnerCollaboration to bring interactive web-based 3D visualization to scientific publications.
- PerkinElmeracquisition partnerSonoVol, a long-standing Kitware customer, was acquired by PerkinElmer (one of the largest companies in preclinical imaging) after 8+ years of collaboration.
Scale indicators5 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Kitware Europe competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Materialise: Belgian-headquartered provider of 3D visualization, medical image processing and surgical planning software (Mimics). Directly comparable to Kitware Europe's ITK/3D Slicer medical imaging franchise, with overlapping customers in orthopedics, CMF and clinical research.
- Brainlab: Medical technology company offering surgical planning, image-guided surgery and 3D visualization platforms. Already listed as a Kitware Europe collaboration partner on 3D Slicer interoperability, making it a direct adjacent competitor in surgical-planning software.
- Eigen: Specialist in medical image analysis and quantitative imaging for research and clinical applications. Closely overlaps with Kitware Europe's ITK and 3D Slicer–based image analysis offerings, particularly in prostate, neurology and oncology imaging research.
- Pie Medical Imaging: Netherlands-based specialist in cardiovascular and orthopedic image analysis software (3mensio, CAAS). Direct competitor in quantitative medical image analysis where Kitware Europe's ITK/3D Slicer ecosystem is also deployed.
Broad incumbents
- ANSYS: Global engineering simulation incumbent with broad CAE/multiphysics visualization (formerly CEI/EnSight). Competes with Kitware Europe in scientific visualization for HPC and simulation workflows, but as part of a much larger simulation suite rather than as a specialized visualization specialist.
- MathWorks: Developer of MATLAB and Simulink, a de facto standard for scientific computing and visualization in academia and engineering. Competes with ParaView/VTK in technical-computing visualization workflows but operates at much broader scope across control systems, signal processing and model-based design.
- Siemens Healthineers: Global medical imaging OEM whose syngo.via and AI-Rad Companion platforms compete with Kitware's clinical visualization capabilities at the hospital-IT layer. Overlaps in advanced visualization, image analysis and AI-driven diagnostic workflows.
- Wolfram Research: Developer of Mathematica, Wolfram Alpha and related computational/visualization tools used in scientific and engineering communities. Comparable as a technical-computing and visualization platform provider, though with a broader symbolic-computing focus.
Emerging players
- Tecplot: Specialized scientific visualization software vendor focused on CFD and engineering simulation post-processing. Competes with ParaView in engineering/scientific visualization for simulation users, though at smaller scale and narrower domain focus.
- Roboflow: Computer vision platform for building and deploying image/video analytics models. Partial overlap with KWIVER's computer vision and deep-learning toolkit, but aimed at a broader developer/ML practitioner audience rather than the defense and medical niches Kitware serves.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Kitware Europe social profiles
Digital presenceKitware Europe financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Kitware Europe leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles6 records
Kitware Europe funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Kitware Europe M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Kitware Europe
What does Kitware Europe do?
Kitware Europe provides custom software R&D engineering services and commercial support for open-source platforms in scientific visualization, medical image computing, and computer vision. The company develops and maintains platforms including VTK, ParaView, ITK, CMake, 3D Slicer, and KWIVER, and sells commercial products such as ActiViz (a .NET/Unity wrapper for VTK), recurring technical support subscriptions, training courses, and technical books. Customers include U.S. and European government agencies (DARPA, IARPA, AFRL, ONR), national laboratories, defense contractors (Lockheed Martin, Raytheon), medical device companies, hospitals, and research universities.
Is Kitware Europe a public or private company?
Kitware Europe is a private company. It is classified as corporate owned and is currently operating.
When was Kitware Europe founded?
Kitware Europe was founded in 2010. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Kitware Europe based?
Kitware Europe is headquartered in Villeurbanne, France, in the Europe region.
How does Kitware Europe make money?
Five revenue lines are on record. Open Source Platform Support and Licensing is the primary driver. The others are custom Software Development, training Services, books and Documentation and technical Support Products.
Who are Kitware Europe's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Materialise, Brainlab, Eigen and Pie Medical Imaging. Broad incumbents are ANSYS, MathWorks, Siemens Healthineers and Wolfram Research. Emerging players are Tecplot and Roboflow.
Does Kitware Europe have an API?
No public API is recorded for Kitware Europe.
What industry is Kitware Europe in?
Kitware Europe's product category is Scientific Visualization and Medical Computing Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is EDABAFAA, Software Development (Programming, Frameworks, Dev Tools), with a secondary code of BPAAACAC, Software/Application Support (SaaS, Enterprise Apps). Its NAICS code is 54151 and its SIC code is 7371.