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LightOn

Updated Mar 24, 2026

How LightOn stacks up in Foundation Models — funding data, key investors, and more.

🇫🇷FrancePublicFoundation Models

Out of 100

🇫🇷

HQ

France

🗓

Founded

2016

💰

Raised

$3.3M

🏷️

Stage

Public

👥

Team

1-50

LightOn develops large language model APIs and enterprise AI products for European organisations, building foundation model capabilities with a focus on European data sovereignty, multilingual performance, and on-premises deployment options that address GDPR compliance requirements for French and European corporate clients. The Paris company offers the Alfred enterprise AI assistant and LLM API

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Key Facts

  • LightOn has raised a total of $3.3M in disclosed funding across 5 funding rounds.
  • LightOn was founded in 2016 by Laurent Daudet and is headquartered in France.
  • LightOn employs approximately 1-50 people.
  • LightOn operates in the Foundation Models category and is currently at the Public stage.
  • LightOn has an Awaira Score of 55/100, ranking it among the tracked AI companies on Awaira.
  • LightOn's most recent funding round was a Series D of $1.32M closed in October 2021.

Source: Awaira · Updated Mar 24, 2026

N/A

Post-money

$3.3M

All rounds

55/100

2016

1-50 employees

Strengths

Growing team of 1-50 employees

Late-stage with proven business model

Considerations

!

Valuation not publicly disclosed

!

Limited disclosed funding

Analysis based on publicly available data. Not investment advice.

5

Total Rounds

$660K

Avg Round Size

5.4yr

Funding Span

LightOn raised 5 rounds over 5.4 years, averaging $660K per round — a pace of roughly one round every 13 months.

⚠️ ESTIMATE
💵Est. Annual Revenue
See public filings for revenue data

Awaira estimate based on public data. Not financial advice.

How does LightOn stack up against competitors?

MetricLightOnOpenAIAnthropicDeepSeek
Awaira Score55/10098/10095/10092/100
Total Raised$3.3M$127B$67B$1.1B
ValuationN/A$852B$380BN/A
StagePublicPrivateSeries GCorporate
Founded2016201520212023
Employees1-504,0003,000150
Country🇫🇷🇺🇸🇺🇸🇨🇳
L

Laurent Daudet

Founder & CEO

View founder profile →
StagePublic
Employees1-50
Country🇫🇷 France
Connect
Inactive
5 rounds
Series DLatest

$1.32M

Oct 2021

Series C

$1.02M

Jun 2020

Series B

$594K

Feb 2019

Series A

$264K

Oct 2017

Seed

$99K

Jun 2016

Frequently Asked Questions

What is LightOn's valuation?
Valuation data is currently unavailable. The company may disclose this figure when it announces its next funding round.
Who invested in LightOn?
The investor base hasn't been publicly disclosed. The company may have institutional or angel backers that remain unnamed.
When did LightOn last raise funding?
The most recent round was a Series D of $1.32M, closed in October 2021.
How many employees does LightOn have?
Around 1-50 people work there, with headquarters in France.
What does LightOn do?
LightOn develops large language model APIs and enterprise AI products for European organisations, building foundation model capabilities with a focus on European data sovereignty, multilingual performance, and on-premises deployment options that address GDPR compliance requirements for French and European corporate clients. The Paris company offers the Alfred enterprise AI assistant and LLM API infrastructure designed for deployment within private European cloud environments. The company operates in the Foundation Models sector from France.
Who founded LightOn?
The company was started by Laurent Daudet in 2016 in France. Laurent Daudet serves as Founder & CEO.
Is LightOn profitable?
Whether the company is profitable hasn't been confirmed publicly. It has raised $3.3M in total funding and is classified at the Public stage.
Where is LightOn headquartered?
Home base is France 🇫🇷. The Foundation Models company was founded in 2016 and operates from there.
⚔️

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