French startup Kog pursues AI inference optimization amid GPU chip competition

French startup Kog, led by solo founder Gaël Delalleau, is developing low-level software optimizations to accelerate AI inference on standard datacenter GPUs like the Nvidia H200 and AMD MI300X. Following a May 2026 tech preview that achieved 3,000 tokens per second on a 2B parameter model, Kog is shifting focus to larger models to satisfy demand from 200 business leads. Backed by Varsity VC and Bpifrance, the 11-person team aims to achieve 10x speed on a major model by September 2026 to kick off its Series A round.

Kog inference optimization technology

• ▪The Kog tech preview demonstrated 3,000 per-request tokens per second using Laneformer 2B, an open-source model with approximately 2 billion parameters.
• ▪French startup Kog is developing software optimization technology to increase the speed of artificial intelligence inference on conventional datacenter GPUs.
• ▪Kog released a tech preview in May 2026 demonstrating real-time large language model inference on AMD MI300X and Nvidia H200 GPUs.

AI inference market demand

• ▪Kog CEO Gaël Delalleau reported that the startup received 200 tangible business leads following its May 2026 technology preview.
• ▪Kog is targeting professional users of AI workflows, such as software engineers, who experience delays with existing tools like Claude Code.
• ▪Kog CEO Gaël Delalleau stated that prospective customers are not prepared to fine-tune small models, prompting the startup to focus on accelerating larger models.

GPU acceleration methodology

• ▪Kog CEO Gaël Delalleau utilizes a low-level reverse-engineering approach inspired by his background in solid-state physics and offensive cybersecurity.
• ▪Kog dedicates several weeks or months of engineering research to optimize its software for each new GPU model.
• ▪Kog employs a team of 11 people, which limits the number of GPU chips the startup can optimize for the foreseeable future.

Kog funding timeline

• ▪Kog raised a seed funding round co-led by Varsity VC, a firm where CEO Gaël Delalleau's former Stribe co-founder Kamel Zeroual is a venture capitalist.
• ▪Kog is supported by Scaleway, backed by Bpifrance, and is part of the French Tech 2030 program.
• ▪Kog plans to raise a Series A funding round after demonstrating customer traction with its first major model running at 10x speed.

Development roadmap milestones

• ▪Kog aims to implement its first major model at 10x speed in September 2026 to demonstrate customer traction.
• ▪Kog plans to eventually feed its optimization methodology into agent-based pipelines to support a wider range of chips and models.