Unknowns

What Unknowns does

Unknowns is a Paris-based strategic design agency founded in 2014 by David Marti (Sciences Po, ex-Nurun France) and Ludovic Besset (Arts et Métiers). It operates as a SAS with €12,000 share capital, registered at 66 rue Lamarck, Paris, and is positioned between a consulting firm and a traditional agency. The firm combines academic-level social science research, service/UX design, and generative AI to help enterprises understand what people actually do — as opposed to what they declare — and translate those insights into strategic and design decisions. It operates across five sector verticals: Health & Pharma, Food & Grocery Retail, Retail & Housing, Banking & Insurance, and Mobility & Transport, each backed by a decade of proprietary ethnographic fieldwork.

The company delivers three service lines: strategic opportunity detection (ethnographic research identifying latent needs and differentiation axes), product/service/experience design (from validated concept to tested prototype), and AI service design for marketing and communication teams (acculturation, usage charters, custom business agents). It maintains the Observatoire IA, a long-course research program on French generative AI usage behaviors, and has built in-house proprietary AI agents trained on its own research data, including a pharmaceutical consultation simulator used in pharma engagements. Customer roster spans major French and international enterprises — Carrefour, EDF, Juvise, BNP Paribas Asset Management, MACIF, Renault/Mobilize, SNCF, IKEA, Bricomarché, Intermarché, Novo Nordisk, Roche, and Yuka — with documented outcomes such as a 10x basket uplift at Bricomarché, contribution to Intermarché's €1B+ RED digital program, and training of 800 EDF communicants on AI usage.

Unknowns monetizes exclusively through project-based professional services engagements delivered via direct enterprise sales, with pricing per mission or agile sprint (e.g., 2-week sprints at Juvise) and a complimentary 30-minute initial consultation. The firm is founder-owned with no disclosed institutional investors, funding rounds, or M&A activity, and operates with a small core team supplemented by a curated freelance network activated per mission. Distribution relies on the unknowns.fr website, sector-specific landing pages, Notion-hosted research publications, LinkedIn thought leadership, and direct outreach to [email protected] — there is no self-serve, marketplace, or e-commerce channel.

Name

Unknowns

Legal name

UNKNOWNS (SAS)

Website

https://unknowns.fr

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Paris-based strategic design agency founded in 2014 that combines social science ethnography, design, and generative AI to help large French enterprises understand real customer behaviors and design solutions across five sectors: Health & Pharma, Food Retail, Housing, Banking/Insurance, and Mobility.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Strategic Design & Research Consulting

NAICS

Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services (5419)

SIC

Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

Technical Enablement & Adoption Services (Change Management, Adoption, Champions) (BPAEANAC)

Keywords

• Strategic design services
• Ethnographic research consulting
• AI service design
• Behavioral research agency
• Social science consulting

Headquarters

HQ city

Paris

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Strategic Research & Design Services: Three service lines: strategic opportunity detection (ethnographic research to identify latent needs and strategic differentiation axes), product/service/experience design (from validated concept to tested prototype), and AI service design for marketing and communication (acculturation, usage charters, custom business agents). Revenue generated through project-based professional services engagements for enterprise clients.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Unknowns is a strategic design agency that combines academic-level social science research, design practice, and proprietary generative AI agents to help large organizations understand what people actually do (beyond declared intentions) and translate those insights into actionable strategies, tested concepts, and AI services adopted by client teams. It offers three service lines — strategic opportunity detection, product/service/experience design, and AI service design for marketing and communication — delivered as project-based engagements across five sector verticals (Health, Food/Retail, Retail/Housing, Banking/Insurance, Mobility/Transport).

Product overview

Unknowns is a strategic design agency (neither a consulting firm nor a traditional agency) offering three complementary service lines: Strategic Opportunity Detection (social science research to identify latent needs), Product/Service/Experience Design (accelerated by proprietary AI agents), and AI Service Design for Marketing & Communication (deploying custom business agents). The firm operates an AI Observatory research program as a proprietary knowledge asset covering five sectors (Health, Food, Retail/Home, Banking/Insurance, Mobility). The offering is service-based rather than a software product, with AI augmentation embedded across all practices.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Détection d'opportunités stratégiques (Strategic Opportunity Detection) Social science research service that combines academic-level ethnography and behavioral research to identify latent needs, weak signals, and emotional or sensitive differentiation axes that data alone cannot reveal, transforming findings into actionable strategic directions. Targeted at large French and European enterprises seeking to base strategy on real customer behavior.
• Conception de produits, services et expériences innovants (Product, Service & Experience Design) Design service that combines ethnographic insights with proprietary generative AI agents to move from validated concept to tested prototype faster, while remaining anchored in real user behaviors. Designed for large enterprise clients across Unknowns' five sector verticals.
• Design de services IA marketing et communication (AI Service Design for Marketing & Communication) AI integration service for marketing and communication teams that includes acculturation workshops, responsible use charters, practical guides, and custom business agents designed for real team adoption beyond the POC stage. Used by clients such as EDF (800 communicants trained) and Juvise Pharmaceuticals (5 operational use cases in 6 weeks).
• Observatoire IA (AI Observatory) Long-term French research program documenting real generative AI usage behaviors through ethnographic studies of a 15-participant panel, an academic bibliography of 50+ sources, and quantitative modules across five sector verticals (Health, Food, Home, Finance, Mobility), updated twice yearly and available for client presentations on request.

Quantifiable outcome

• Carrefour: 25 concepts + 3-year strategic roadmap across 4 European countries from behavioral research synthesis
• +8 more outcomes

Named customers15 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability4 records

Feature4 records

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• ReD Associates: Strategy consultancy founded by anthropologists that uses social science and ethnographic methods to advise global corporates on innovation and strategy. Direct methodological peer in applying academic-level social science to commercial strategy.
• IDEO: Global design and innovation consultancy famous for founding the human-centered design and ethnographic research methodology. Direct conceptual peer in combining deep behavioral research with strategic product/service design for large enterprises.
• Livework: International service design consultancy with origins in the UK and presence across Europe, focused on applying ethnographic and design methods to redesign services and customer experiences for large organizations.
• Nurun France: Digital experience and design agency owned by Publicis; co-founder David Marti was previously its head. Closest direct peer in French market combining strategic design, customer experience, and technology services for major French enterprise clients.

Broad incumbents

• frog (Capgemini Invent): Global design and innovation consultancy now part of Capgemini Invent, serving large enterprises with design, brand, and product strategy. Broader incumbent offering similar human-centered design and ethnographic research within a much wider portfolio.
• Accenture Song: Global experience design and customer transformation practice of Accenture, covering design, research, marketing, and AI-powered personalization for large enterprises. Broader incumbent competing for similar strategic design and AI service design mandates.

Emerging players

• Insitum: Design and innovation consultancy with Latin American roots and growing European presence, applying ethnographic research and design thinking to enterprise innovation challenges. Comparable positioning as an ethnographically grounded design firm serving large clients.
• Method (GlobalLogic): Global digital design and engineering consultancy (now part of GlobalLogic/Hitachi) blending strategy, design, and technology for enterprise clients. Overlaps with unknowns' offering at the intersection of design strategy and applied AI/digital services.

Regional players

• Wavestone: French-headquartered transformation and innovation consultancy with a dedicated design and customer experience practice serving large French and European enterprises. Comparable French market peer for strategic and design-led transformation mandates.

Others

• UserTesting: Human insight platform enabling companies to run rapid user research and usability testing with target audiences. Adjacent technology-enabled peer in the user/behavioral research space that complements or substitutes parts of unknowns' ethnographic offering.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/unknowns
• Xx.com/unknownsfrance

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 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 Unknowns