Overview
Dataroots was founded in 2016 by Bart Smeets and Jonas Tundo, both former data professionals at UZ Leuven and Euroclear. The company is headquartered in Leuven and built its reputation in the Belgian AI & Machine Learning and Data & Analytics community by combining hands-on data engineering with Mlops and analytics engineering practices. Partners include Snowflake, dbt Labs, AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Prefect, Soda, MotherDuck, and KU Leuven.
In December 2022, Talan, a Paris-based technology consulting group, acquired Dataroots to expand its Belgian footprint and reinforce its AI and next-generation data platform capabilities. At the time of the deal the company employed around 70 consultants. Dataroots continued to operate under its own brand following the acquisition and grew to roughly 150 people by end of 2023, more than doubling within a year inside the wider Talan group of over 4,000 consultants across Europe.
Beyond consulting, Dataroots launched dploy.ai, a platform-as-a-service for deploying machine learning models to production. The customer base spans banking, energy, retail, pharma, government, and telecommunications, including KBC, VRT, AB InBev, Telenet, Bain & Company, Nike, Orange, Toyota, and Crédit Agricole.
Dataroots is a Leuven-based AI & Machine Learning and Data & Analytics consultancy, acquired by French technology group Talan in December 2022, that designs cloud-native data platforms and machine learning systems for clients such as KBC, AB InBev, Telenet, Nike, and Toyota.
Funding history
- December 2022: Acquired by Talan, terms undisclosed
Key people
In the news
- Would you trust an agent that reads your column descriptions? 🤖 It matters because AI agents now read the same column descriptions your analysts do. An analyst who spots a strange description asks a colleague. An agent puts it straight into a confident answer. That's why at Dataroots Joël Gomez and Stijn Dolphen built a tool that uses Claude to document Power BI, dbt, Unity Catalog and Confluence into one central source of truth. For every table, it creates a page that shows where the data comes from and which reports depend on
- Some news we've been looking forward to sharing. 🥳 Earlier this week we got the confirmation that Talan was accorded Select tier in the Claude Partner Network. We are proud that with the Dataroots team we were able to lead and drive this with and for the Talan Group, and even more excited about what we can continue to build for our customers with it next. 🙌 #ClaudePartnerNetwork #Anthropic #AI
- New DataTopics episode with Sophie Van Nevel - link in comments. 🎙️ The tooling landscape keeps changing. Policies have to evolve just as quickly. And in domains like software development, AI is starting to reshape the way the work itself is done. In the new episode of DataTopics, we spoke with Sophie Van Nevel, Director Data Products & AI at TVH, about how they are navigating these challenges in practice - not with perfect answers, but with a clear approach: experiment, learn, involve people, and be transparent about the choices
- AI is moving fast. Keeping up takes a clear strategic vision that balances long-term business goals with real-world adaptability. ⚡️ In the next episode of DataTopics, we sat down with Sophie Van Nevel, Director Data Products & AI at TVH, to discuss how they approach this in practice. At TVH, that means combining a clear strategic direction with pragmatic execution: making conscious choices about tooling, creating the right guardrails, experimenting where it makes sense and continuously translating new AI capabilities into tangible
- AI that works - not because it's powerful, but because people trust it. 💡 We're proud to see two of our own, Cesar Vermeulen and Tim Van Erum, featured in the latest Trends KMO dossier, sharing their hands-on experience bringing AI to companies. Their message is clear: you don't need a massive budget or a year-long roadmap to get started. You need the right process, the right people and a bit of trust in the technology. A big thank you to Mediaplanet Belgium for the collaboration and for shining a light on the practical side of AI
- A new chapter begins. 🚀 This week we kicked off the latest edition of the Dataroots Academy - welcoming a fresh group of talents ready to dive deep into the world of AI & data. Watching people go from curious minds to confident practitioners is exactly why we do this work. The energy in the room said it all. 💡Did you know? Beyond our internal academy, Dataroots also helps external teams level up - whether that's getting your data engineers up to speed, upskilling business stakeholders on AI literacy, or building a custom learning
- Dear techies, mark August 18 in your calendar! 🫶 🚀 Join us for the next HashiCorp User Group Belgium – Summer Edition! 📍 dataroots HQ – Leuven An evening dedicated to the cloud infrastructure community, bringing together engineers, architects and technology enthusiasts to exchange ideas, learn from each other and connect. As always, expect the best: 🍕 Food and drinks 🤝 Great conversations with the cloud community 💡 Practical insights you can apply tomorrow 👉 Registration via the link in comments #HashiCorp #Terraform #Consul
- We brought the dataroots community together for a special Rootsconf Lite edition. 🤩 Şükrü Han Şahin showed how modern data platforms like Databricks are making it easier to build and maintain reliable data pipelines, while Ramiro Barraco demonstrated how large language models (LLMs) can breathe new life into classic games through an AI-powered reimagining of Zork. We then wrapped things up with pizza, drinks and plenty of good conversation. 🍕 Thanks to the speakers and of course Murilo Kuniyoshi Suzart Cunha for the great
Open roles (7)
- 🤝 Sales Director - Data & AIAntwerp · Oct 14, 2026
- 📊 Senior Analytics EngineerAntwerp · Sep 30, 2026
- 🔮 AI Strategy ConsultantAntwerp · Sep 30, 2026
- Business Unit Manager - Data & AILeuven · Sep 24, 2026
- Team Lead - AI EngineeringLeuven · Sep 10, 2026
- Forward Deployed EngineerLeuven · Aug 27, 2026
- 🚀 AI Business Unit LeadWavre · Jul 21, 2026
Alumni 3 went on to found or lead
Bart SmeetsFounder→Founder at Top of Mind
Jonas TundoFounder // CEO→Co-Founder at Top of Mind
Richard CosemansData Engineer→co-founder and cto at Maeve
Baudouin MarteléeData consultant→Co-fondateur at Kaizup
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