Mallow, the Paris startup co-founded by former French digital minister Cédric O, launches its first product on September 30: a screenless speaker that lets children aged 4 to 10 play AI-powered audio games using only their voices. It's a toy. It's also the first real test of whether one of French tech's most closely watched figures can build a company of his own.
He spent five years in Emmanuel Macron's government, first as an advisor to the president and then as secretary of state for digital affairs. After leaving in 2022, he joined Mistral AI's founding team in an advisory role, a position that has periodically made him a lightning rod in France. So when he went quiet in 2024 to start something new, people noticed.
He wanted it that way. "There have been some leaks," O told me shortly before the launch. "But we've been keeping a low profile the past two years."
Now he's talking, and what he describes is an attempt to build AI for young children that is safe, good for their development, and fun enough that they'll actually want to play. Each of those proved harder than expected.
Mallow borrows a founding model from Mistral
Company filings list five founders of what was originally called The Marshmallow Project, registered in Paris in late September 2024. O, the CEO, and Flore Cousin, the chief product officer, are the principal co-founders. Cousin previously worked at BCG and ran customer success at the French fintech Alma. The other three are non-executive: Fred Potter, founder of Netatmo and co-founder of Withings; Sébastien Boyer, co-founder of US agritech FarmWise; and Nicolas Princen, who founded the reading platform Glose, acquired by Medium in 2021.
O said the setup was deliberate. "We basically duplicated what happened in [Mistral], and so it worked pretty well," he said.
In November 2024, Sifted reported that the company was closing a seed round of about €10 million with General Catalyst and Balderton, plus several French investors. Mallow hasn't formally announced its funding, and O stressed that the product is the story. In our conversation, though, he put the seed round at €11 million, led by American and British VCs. The company has 35 employees.
Audio games: what Mallow is building
The origin was personal. "I'm a father of four. Flo is a mother of three. They are all under 10," O said. "So we were basically interested in like screenless experiences."
