Our verdict
Unit8 is a strong option for a large company in a regulated or industrial field that wants one team to build its data platform and then put forecasting and generative AI on top of it, especially on Palantir Foundry, Microsoft or Databricks. US buyers should know that its US team is new and small, and that most of its documented work is for European enterprises.
The right buyer
- Insurers and banks that want generative AI to check large sets of contracts or policies, as with the Swiss insurer whose cross-language policy review found almost $70 million in worst-case exposure.
- Manufacturers and pharma companies that want forecasting and supply planning models in daily use, like the medtech planning tool credited with $600,000 in lower inventory.
- Companies already running Palantir Foundry: Unit8 has been a certified Palantir partner since 2020, and many of its case studies are Foundry projects.
- Teams that want forecasting code they can inspect and keep: its Darts library is open source under the Apache 2.0 license.
Reasons to look elsewhere
- Its US presence is new: Pietrzyk told PME in March 2026 that the Denver-area office had just hired its first US employee.
- It publishes no rates, minimums or package prices on its website.
- Client praise comes from testimonials on its own site, and most of its case studies do not identify the client.
- Most of its documented clients are large European companies, so mid-market US firms will find few comparable examples (clients and partners).
Unit8, At A High Level
Unit8 is a data and AI consulting firm in Lausanne, Switzerland, that builds data platforms, machine learning models and generative AI tools for large companies.
- Founded in 2017 by Marcin Pietrzyk, formerly head of big data and business intelligence at Swisscom, and Michal Rachtan, a former forward deployed software engineer at Palantir (About).
- Works mainly in pharma, insurance, banking, energy and manufacturing. Clients it lists include Swiss Re, Merck, Daimler and Bank Julius Baer.
- A certified Palantir partner and an OpenAI services partner.
- More than 170 employees across offices in Switzerland, Germany and Poland, plus its first US office, opened in February 2026 in Greenwood Village, outside Denver, Colorado.
- Doesn't publish revenue, but Pietrzyk told the Swiss business magazine PME that it has nearly doubled since 2022.
- The investment firm Sagard NewGen has been a minority shareholder since December 2022 (Unit8 announcement).
Its documented client work includes:
- A generative AI system for a major Swiss insurer that compares policy wording across subsidiaries, languages and document formats. Unit8 says it found almost $70 million in worst-case exposure, which the insurer then removed (insurer case study).
- A planning tool for a global medtech manufacturer that recommends shipments to demand planners, credited with $600,000 in lower inventory and $500,000 in freight and duty savings (demand planner).
- An NDA review assistant for the same manufacturer that Unit8 estimates saves the legal team 730 hours a year (NDA review).
- German speech-to-text and a consultation summary tool on Azure OpenAI for a Swiss telemedicine provider (medical copilot).
- Darts, an open-source Python library for time series forecasting that Unit8 created, with about 9,500 stars on GitHub.
Scores
| Criterion | Weight | Score | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Production track record | 20% | 7.8 | Policy wording review that found almost $70 million in worst-case exposure; medtech shipment planning credited with $600,000 in lower inventory; NDA review saving an estimated 730 hours a year. |
| Technical depth | 15% | 8.0 | Created the open-source Darts forecasting library (about 9,500 GitHub stars); multilingual document analysis with generative AI; German speech-to-text and summarization on Azure OpenAI. |
| Industry depth | 10% | 7.8 | Repeat work in insurance, pharma and medtech, banking, energy and manufacturing for clients such as Swiss Re, Merck and Daimler. |
| Delivery model and handoff | 15% | 7.4 | End-to-end services from strategy through platform operations and MLOps; teams in Switzerland, Germany and Poland; US delivery only starting in 2026. |
| Commercial clarity | 10% | 6.0 | No rates, minimums or package prices published. |
| Platform independence | 10% | 7.6 | Partners with Palantir, Microsoft, AWS, Databricks, Snowflake, Dataiku, OpenAI and NVIDIA; much of its documented work runs on Palantir Foundry. |
| Stability and scale | 10% | 7.6 | Operating since 2017 with 170+ employees; revenue nearly doubled since 2022 by the CEO's account; minority investor Sagard NewGen since 2022. |
| Independent evidence | 10% | 6.6 | Financial Times list of fastest-growing Swiss companies in 2022 and trade press coverage; no third-party client review profiles; most case studies unnamed. |
| Overall | 100% | 7.4 | Weighted average |
Where Unit8 fits
| Need | Fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Generative AI review of contracts, policies or regulatory documents | Strong | Cross-language insurance policy review; NDA review assistant for a medtech legal team. |
| Forecasting and supply chain planning | Strong | Medtech shipment planning tool; creator of the Darts forecasting library. |
| Data platform build on Palantir Foundry or Microsoft | Strong | Certified Palantir partner since 2020 with many Foundry case studies; Microsoft data and AI partner. |
| US mid-market company that wants an onshore team | Weak | First US office opened in February 2026 with a single hire at the time. |
What clients and leaders say
“Within few weeks of starting our partnership, we launched the first version of our internal chatbot.”
“It enabled our teams to respond to complex customer requests in hours instead of weeks.”
“We have in fact recruited our first employee there. But we are in the process of building our delivery capacity on site.”
Who leads Unit8
Sources (12)
- Unit8: homepage, services and client testimonials
- Unit8: About (offices, management, partners)
- Unit8: Partners and clients
- PME: Unit8 opens a US office (March 2026, in French)
- Unit8: Sagard NewGen investment announcement (2022)
- Tech.eu: Sagard NewGen backs Unit8 (2022)
- Unit8: Insurance policy wording review case study
- Unit8: Medtech supply chain demand planner case study
- Unit8: Automated NDA review case study
- Unit8: Medical copilot case study
- Unit8: Underwriting exposure dashboard case study
- GitHub: Darts time series library