MBDA, the European leader in missiles and missile systems, is acquiring a stake in Numalis in order to strengthen cooperation between the two companies.
Numalis possesses the first IT solution for formally validating Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications and works to promote global AI standardization. MBDA has deep expertise in Artificial Intelligence and the most demanding critical systems. Both companies see this partnership as a way to take a decisive lead in the implementation of trustworthy AI.
Whilst AI holds a lot of promise, it remains a highly complex concept to validate and integrate into systems where error is not acceptable. Because it develops sovereign mission-critical products, MBDA has decided to invest in Numalis in order to benefit from its expertise and solutions.
Numalis’ solutions cater to all industry sectors, including aviation, aerospace, naval, defense, health, and transport.
“Our tools offer a formal measurement of the robustness of AI systems and provide elements to explain their behavior,” said Numalis CEO Arnault Ioualalen.
Éric Béranger, MBDA CEO, said: “This investment is part of MBDA’s open innovation policy, aimed at leveraging the best innovative technologies and expertise from the civilian sector. Numalis will give us access to essential building blocks of the future validation – and ultimately certification – processes for the Artificial Intelligence-based applications used in our missile systems.”
Progress in the international standardization program led by Numalis, and in which MBDA plays an active role, is expected as early as 2020 as a result of the cooperation between the two companies.
Numalis is a Deep Tech startup, a member of GICAT, and the winner of several innovation awards (BPI, MEDEF, etc.). Working with major French international groups in the defense and aerospace sector, the company currently consists of a team of 12 experts and is supported by Pégase Croissance, the Regional Council of Occitanie, and the Montpellier Business Innovation Centre.
MBDA is the only European group capable of designing and producing missiles and missile systems that correspond to the full range of current and future operational needs of the three armed forces (land, sea and air).
With a significant presence in five European countries and within the USA, in 2018 MBDA achieved revenue of 3.2 billion Euros with an order book of 17.4 billion Euros.
With more than 90 armed forces customers in the world, MBDA is a world leader in missiles and missile systems. In total, the group offers a range of 45 missile systems and countermeasures products already in operational service and more than 15 others currently in development.
MBDA is jointly owned by Airbus (37.5%), BAE Systems (37.5%) and Leonardo (25%).
