NAVER LABS Europe

Name

NAVER LABS Europe

Legal name

NAVER LABS Europe

Website

https://europe.naverlabs.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

AI Research and Development

NAICS

Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (54171), Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services (54169)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro primary industry

Instrumentation, Controls & Automation Engineering Consulting (BPAHAIAM)

Keywords

• AI research lab
• Computer vision
• Embodied AI
• Natural language processing
• Speech processing

Headquarters

HQ city

Meylan

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Research Funding & Corporate R&D: NAVER LABS Europe operates as a corporate research lab funded by parent company NAVER Corp. The lab conducts fundamental AI research and does not commercialize products directly. Revenue model is implicit corporate R&D investment rather than direct revenue generation.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

NAVER LABS Europe is a corporate AI research laboratory that conducts fundamental and applied research in computer vision, natural language processing, speech processing, and embodied AI for robotics. Its deliverables are open-source models and datasets, research frameworks, demonstrator platforms, and peer-reviewed publications rather than commercial products, supporting academic, industrial, and NAVER's internal R&D needs.

Product overview

NAVER LABS Europe is a leading AI research laboratory in France that operates as part of NAVER's global AI R&D network. Rather than commercializing products, the organization focuses on publishing research, releasing open-source models/datasets, and developing demonstrator platforms. Its research portfolio spans computer vision (Multi-HMR 2, ANNY 3D human model, MASt3R-SFM, Universal Encoder), natural language processing (machine translation, SPLADE retrieval), speech processing (mHuBERT, ASR/SLU systems), and embodied AI for robotics. Key outputs include open-source tools like the Tamgu programming language, research platforms like Vital Records for historical document analysis, and foundational models shared via academic publications and GitHub repositories. The lab participates in EU research projects and collaborates with academic institutions while maintaining a strong publication record at top-tier venues (CVPR, ECCV, ACL, EMNLP, ICML).

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Multi-HMR 2 A unified open-source framework for human-centered scene understanding that combines multi-person detection, pose/shape estimation, accurate 3D localization, child-aware body modeling, and identity tracking in a single integrated system. Targeted at AI researchers and engineers working on embodied AI and human behavior understanding.
• ANNY (3D Human Parametric Model) A free, open-source parametric 3D human body model covering the full spectrum of humanity from infants to elders, with interpretable and easy-to-use controls. Designed for human behavior understanding, prediction, and avatar animation, and used by researchers and developers in human-centric computer vision.
• SPLADE (Sparse Lexical and Expansion Model) Sparse neural information retrieval model (SPLADE v1/v2) for first-stage ranking in search, combining lexical matching with semantic expansion to deliver effective and efficient document retrieval. Used by search and information retrieval researchers and engineers.
• Vital Records Platform A public demonstrator platform that uses deep learning (handwritten text recognition, table recognition, named entity recognition) to digitize and analyze handwritten historical records such as German parish records (1848-1878), enabling spatio-temporal visualization and demographic research.
• Tamgu Programming Language An open-source FIL (Functional, Imperative, Logical) programming language designed for corpus annotation, text generation, and data augmentation, supporting NLP workflows with rule-based pattern detection and transducer-based lexicons.
• Universal Encoder A universal encoder for computer vision providing unified perception capabilities for embodied AI, enabling robots to understand and interact with their 3D environment. Targeted at AI researchers in robotics and embodied AI.
• MASt3R-SFM A fully integrated solution for unconstrained Structure from Motion enabling 3D reconstruction from image sequences, achieving state-of-the-art results in visual localization challenges. Used by computer vision researchers and engineers.
• mHuBERT-147 A compact multilingual HuBERT speech model covering 147 languages for speech processing tasks including automatic speech recognition, phoneme recognition, intent classification, slot filling, and spoken emotion recognition. Distributed via open-source repositories.
• ANNY-ONE Dataset A large-scale synthetic dataset for Human Mesh Recovery (HMR) model training, supporting human-centric computer vision research.

Quantifiable outcome

• MASt3R ranked #1 in Single frame challenge track at CVPR 2024 Map-free Visual Relocalization workshop
• +2 more outcomes

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability17 records

Feature7 records

Partnerships

17 partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• MIAI (Multidisciplinary Institute in Artificial Intelligence) - GrenoblecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2018NAVER LABS Europe was a founding member of MIAI, one of France's four 3IA institutes (artificial intelligence interdisciplinary institutes) launched by the French government. The institute focuses on AI for health, the environment and energy. NAVER LABS Europe holds lead chair on Machine Learning and Reasoning (2020-2024) for 'Lifelong Representation Learning'.
• PRAIRIE (PaRis AI Research InstitutE)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2018NAVER LABS Europe is a founding member of PRAIRIE, based in Paris. The institute focuses on AI for health, transport and the environment. NAVER LABS Europe and INRIA have co-organised several editions of the AI summer school 'PAISS'.
• INRIA (National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOngoing collaboration with INRIA, including co-organisation of PAISS AI summer school with PRAIRIE institute. INRIA is a key academic partner in French AI ecosystem.
• SWEET (Social aWareness for sErvicE roboTs) ProjectcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEuropean Commission-funded Marie Sklodowska-Curie Industrial Doctoral Network project aiming to train researchers to develop robots that can understand and respond to human emotions, intentions and cultural differences. Program includes interdisciplinary studies in AI, machine learning, human-robot interaction and cognitive sciences.
• UTTER (Unified Transcription and Translation for Extended Reality) ProjectcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEU Horizon project leveraging large language models (LLMs) to build next generation multimodal eXtended reality (XR) technologies for transcription, translation, summarisation, and minuting. HORIZON.2.4 – Digital, Industry and Space funded.
• Time Machine ProjectminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerEU Future Emerging Technology project focused on large-scale digitization of historical documents and data. NAVER LABS Europe contributes expertise in document processing and handwritten text recognition.
• Diké ProjectminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerFrench government funded research project (ANR AAPG 2021, 2022–2025) on identifying and mitigating bias, fairness and ethics issues when compressing NLP models.
• University of TrentominorStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic research collaboration with University of Trento in Italy.
• Fondazione Bruno KesslerminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic research collaboration with Fondazione Bruno Kessler in Italy.
• ELLIS Unit PragueminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic research collaboration with ELLIS Unit Prague at Czech Technical University.
• Technical University of PragueminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic research collaboration with Technical University of Prague.
• Institut de Robòtica i Informàtica Industrial, BarcelonaminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic research collaboration withIRI in Barcelona, Spain.
• Passau UniversityminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic research collaboration with University of Passau in Germany. Collaboration includes work on historical document processing (Vital Records demonstrator) with Passau Diocesan Archives.
• Nazerbayev UniversityminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic research collaboration with Nazerbayev University in Kazakhstan.
• Seoul National UniversityminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic research collaboration with Seoul National University in South Korea.
• University of OxfordminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic research collaboration with University of Oxford in the UK.
• University Grenoble AlpescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerStrong ongoing academic collaboration with University Grenoble Alpes, particularly through MIAI institute membership. The research lab is located near Grenoble.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Google DeepMind: Premier corporate AI research lab with similar research breadth including robotics, computer vision, NLP, and multimodal AI. Comparable as a top-tier fundamental research organization publishing at leading venues, though with much larger resources and direct product integration.
• Microsoft Research: Major corporate research lab with comparable scope across vision, language, speech, and systems research. Comparable as a globally distributed corporate R&D organization producing top-tier publications, though with broader research scope beyond AI for robotics.
• Tencent AI Lab: Corporate AI research arm of major Asian tech conglomerate with similar scope in computer vision, NLP, and multimodal AI. Comparable in structure as an internal research lab funded by a major tech parent, though with different geographic focus and commercialization model.
• Apple Machine Learning Research: Apple's AI research arm focused on fundamental research in vision, NLP, and speech. Comparable as a corporate research lab publishing at top venues, though more product-integrated and without NAVER LABS Europe's open-source orientation.
• Meta AI (FAIR): Large corporate AI research lab with similar scope across computer vision, NLP, speech, and embodied AI. Comparable as a fundamental research organization funded by a tech conglomerate, though with significantly larger scale and commercialization ambitions.

Direct peers

• DFKI (German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence): Germany's flagship AI research center with comparable scope across robotics, computer vision, NLP, and speech. Comparable as a European AI research powerhouse with similar institutional positioning and EU project participation.
• Sony AI: Corporate AI research lab with similar structure - wholly-owned subsidiary of a Japanese/Korean-origin tech conglomerate, focused on AI research with applications in imaging, robotics, and entertainment. Closely comparable in corporate R&D positioning and research scope.
• Idiap Research Institute: Swiss AI research institute with comparable size, scope (computer vision, NLP, multimodal AI), and European academic-corporate hybrid model. Comparable as a mid-sized European AI research organization publishing at top venues.
• INRIA (French National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology): France's primary national AI research institute and a direct partner of NAVER LABS Europe. Comparable as a fundamental AI research organization with similar publication record and French geographic footprint, though publicly funded rather than corporate.
• NAVER LABS Korea: Direct sibling research lab under the same NAVER Corp parent, also focused on AI for robotics, computer vision, and embodied AI. Most comparable peer given shared mission, parent funding model, and research scope.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/naverlabseurope
• GitHubgithub.com/naver
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@NAVERLABSEurope
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/naver-labs-europe

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about NAVER LABS Europe