Scaleway acquires assets from French analytics and AI platform Saagie, after agreeing partnerships earlier this month with France’s biggest TV co, state compute and science centres
Scaleway has acquired some assets from Saagie, which is based in Normandy and specialises in data operations designed to design and deploy data workflows.
Saagie was established in 2013 and its platform was designed to improve the collaboration, integration and automation of data flows between data processors and those who consume it, such as data scientists, business analysts and business users. It can be used for for real-time analytics and GenAI but has been in receivership since May 2024.
Scaleway is Iliad Group’s cloudco, which makes much of its European roots and ownership. The amount of the transaction was not disclosed. According to Scaleway’s MD, Damien Lucas (pictured), his company will use Saagie’s acquired assets to expands its platform-as-a-service offer and “provide a state-of-the-art data ecosystem,” for applications like Industry 4.0 and GenAI.
Scaleway will soon make Saagie’s products available in all its European locations – Amsterdam, Milan, Paris, Stockholm and Warsaw, and will open an office in Rouen, which is in Normandy to ensure continuity for local workers.
Getting into TV
Earlier in June Scaleway signed two strategic partnerships and provided more information about its European goals at the VivaTech in 2025 event.
The first was with France Télévisions (FT) France’s biggest audiovisual group. Under the agreement, FT will use Scaleaway’s cloud to host and process data related to its content. Also the two will jointly develop the tools and systems needed for streaming services hosted on Scaleway’s cloud platform.
They say their alliance is a big step towards building an alternative European cloud for the audiovisual sector.
Public sector steps
Scaleway also announced an agreement at the show with Grand Équipement National de Calcul Intensif (GENSI), which was created by France’s public authorities in 2007, and the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). This is the only French organisation active in all scientific fields, apparently. They plan to further European AI by building “a sovereign public/private continuum unique in Europe”.
This new partnership has three main aims:
- Interoperability – to create an environment that is technically compatible between public infrastructure – like GENCI’s Jean Zay supercomputer at IDRIS (the CNRS’s highperformance computing center) – and Scaleway’s private AI clusters, so that researchers and businesses can seamlessly switch their AI-related work and usages (learning, fine-tuning, large-scale inference) between public and private infrastructure.
- Overflow – using Scaleway’s private GPU capacities when public resources are saturated, within a framework of trust and shared governance.
- Research – setting up a collaborative lab, dedicated to optimising AI loads and reducing the carbon footprint of intensive calculation.
Scaleway coming to Italy and Sweden
Damien Lucas, CEO of Scaleway, and Aude Durand, Deputy CEO of the iliad Group, announced at a press briefing at VivaTech that Scaleway will shortly be launching its business in Italy and Sweden.
The iliad Group already operates in these two countries via its B2C telecom business under the Free brand in Italy since 2018 and it became a major shareholder in Sweden’s Tele2 last year. Tele2 operates in Sweden and the Baltic countries.
Scaleway plans to speed up its European expansion by drawing on the iliad Group’s infrastructure and commercial reach within the continent. As part of this, in April Scaleway teamed up with Play – Iliad’s Polish subsidiary. Under their agreement, customers using Play Business Solutions were given access to Scaleway’s cloud – “one of the most comprehensive portfolios of advanced tools developed in Europe,” as the press release had it.
Damien Lucas, CEO of Scaleway, said at VivaTech, “These announcements mark a turning point for Scaleway. By joining forces with key players such as France Télévisions, GENCI and the CNRS, we’re further demonstrating our determination to build a trusted European cloud that’s capable of rivalling the global giants.
“Our expansion into Italy and Sweden is just one of our milestones, driven by our clear goal of becoming the number one tech champion for digital sovereignty in Europe.”
