Ofelia

About Ofelia

Ofelia, formerly known as Bonitasoft, offers a governed AI orchestration suite designed for critical enterprise operations. The company was founded in France in June 2009 by Miguel Valdes Faura and Charles Souillard. The original open-source project, Bonita, dates back to 2001 at the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control (INRIA). After being developed within Groupe Bull, the project was spun off, leading to the creation of Bonitasoft. A significant rebranding occurred recently, transitioning the company to Ofelia to reflect its new strategic focus on AI-driven orchestration. The founders, Miguel Valdes Faura (CEO) and Charles Souillard (COO), have led the company since its inception. Faura originated the Bonita project in 2001 during his time at INRIA. Their mission was to democratize business process management (BPM) and workflow solutions. In 2022, Fortino Capital acquired a majority stake, with both founders reinvesting to support the next phase of growth. Ofelia's business model is centered on a dual-product strategy with a freemium component. It provides a free, open-source version of its Bonita BPM platform to attract users and then offers enterprise-grade solutions and paid plans. The company's commercial offerings are divided into two main products: Ofelia Agentic and Bonita BPM. Ofelia Agentic is an AI-powered orchestration layer that operates within existing collaboration tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams, turning conversational requests into executed workflows. Bonita BPM is the established platform for automating complex, mission-critical processes that require dedicated applications. The company targets mid-sized companies with 1,000 to 8,000 employees across various sectors, including finance, HR, and sales operations. It makes money through subscriptions to its enterprise platforms and support services, leveraging a partner network of consulting firms, system integrators, and resellers. The core of Ofelia's platform is its ability to orchestrate operations across different teams, systems, and decisions with built-in governance, ensuring every step is traceable and accountable. Ofelia Agentic uses specialized AI agents to interpret user requests, retrieve knowledge, and guide users through processes, but the execution is handled by a deterministic BPM engine, maintaining human control over critical decisions. This "human-in-the-loop" approach distinguishes it from AI copilots that only provide suggestions. The platform integrates with a client's existing enterprise systems and identity management tools, providing a unified audit trail. Benefits cited include significant reductions in cycle times and the ability to scale AI execution across an organization without losing control or creating data silos.