Overview
Martens co-founded iDalko in Belgium in 2011, during Atlassian's global expansion, and the company built add-ons for organisations running Atlassian tools. Early Jira-to-Jira integration problems raised by users led to Exalate, created in 2015 with support from Start it @KBC and a development hub in Ukraine. One of those early users later joined the company and is now its product manager. From 2018 Exalate was the engine of the business, and in 2022 the consultancy business was sold, leaving a pure-play integration software company. In October 2024 Exalate reported nearly 5,000 active installs in the Atlassian Marketplace and 28.9% market share since inception. Exalate appeared on the Main Software 50 Benelux list compiled by Main Capital Partners in 2025 for the third consecutive year, where Martens said: "The first year you make a list like this, you're proving you belong. By the third year, you're proving you've kept growing." iDalko continues separately as an Atlassian Platinum Solutions Partner with offices in Berchem, Arnhem and Paris.
Francis Martens is co-founder and CEO of Exalate, an integration software company with its head office at IJzerenpoortkaai 3 in Antwerp. He started the business in Belgium in 2011 with Hilde Van Brempt under the name iDalko, building add-ons for companies using Atlassian tools. By 2018 Exalate had become the core of the business, and in 2022 the consultancy arm was sold so the company could work on Exalate alone. Exalate reports more than 2,500 customers, more than 200 certified partners and more than 8,000 active installs, and 26% year-over-year revenue growth in May 2026. Under Martens the company launched an AI co-pilot for script mode in 2024 and ran an AI research programme backed by VLAIO with partner Superlinear, which produced an AI Assist reaching 91% real-world code accuracy and 50% faster integration deployment.
Career history
In the news
- Loosely coupling systems has always been at the center of the Exalate design. At the time we never were thinking about governance and sovereignty. But it makes a lot of sense, especially now that integrations get a boost (thank you AI). Keeping control is a concern of many CIO's - we do expect quite some traction for this unique event.
- Hehe - thanks for mentioning us #atlassianecosystem much appreciated. More and more enterprises are using Exalate for moving to JSM, especially it allows to do it gradually, without disrupting operations too much. A lift and shift approach, where all the data is transferred overnight or during a weekend, is not possible when you have millions of entities. The 'live migration' approach keeps both environments in sync for a prolonged time. Teams have the option to switch from one system to another whenever they are ready for it.
- The http 403 response code means 'Forbidden', but in this case it's a hoax. Everyone is welcome. Count on us - Belgian Chocolates at gogo
- This CloudTweaks episode focuses on the impact of configuration changes whenever 2 systems are integrated. For instance - if someone is changing a value in a dropdown on one system, your integration can break because that change has an impact. There are Exalate customers that automatically scan for configuration changes to get notified. Especially in cross-company integrations, this type of changes can bite very hard. And this leads to context. Understanding the context where an integration operates, and detecting when this
- When AI agents start making and executing decisions across corporate boundaries at machine speed, THE question is: 𝘞𝘩𝘰 𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤 𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴? In the latest CloudTweaks - Thought Leadership Programs and Resources Podcast, our CEO Francis joins host Steve Prentice to discuss why AI makes integrations easier to build and harder to govern. Moving data between systems is not the hard part here. With AI in the workflow, the execution layer must remain reliable, every connected party must
- Hi Ruben Bru Thanks for bringing this under the spotlight. It is an amazing result cherished by the whole team. We have to thank our customers also, some of which are loyal to our brand since a long time. It is summer and hopefully we all can enjoy some great time off. The second half of 2026 has a lot of innovation coming - especially in the area of governed integration configuration (with a sauce of AI - of course) executed on a trustworthy (non AI) execution engine. If anyone is interested- please subscribe to our MCP early
- Shameless vote-fishing 🐠 Exalate is nominated for AI-Proof Company of the Year. The nomination is about how we adopt AI internally — responsibly, hands-on, people first. That work is real, and the team behind it deserves the recognition. So: one click, one vote. https://hrtech.be/awards/ #ExaVibe Exalate
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