Mallow raises €11M to build an AI speaker children will talk to instead of watching a screen

Mallow (Paris), a children's AI hardware company that operated in stealth for two years under the name The Marshmallow Project, has revealed a €11 million round backed by Balderton Capital, Daphni, and Motier Ventures. The product is a screen-free audio speaker for children aged 4–10 that combines physical figurines with a generative AI engine to deliver interactive games, quizzes, and adaptive stories — responding in real time to what a child says.

What the device does

Mallow's speaker sits on a shelf. A child places a physical figurine on it; each figurine triggers a specific type of interactive audio experience — a story, a quiz, a game. The device listens, understands the child's spoken responses, and adapts what happens next. It uses Mistral AI and other voice-generation stacks, with multiple safety layers designed specifically for children's interactions and a scientific advisory board with child psychology specialists.

The content roster at launch includes France's Nathan publishing and the Miraculous franchise. The device is priced at approximately €120 and will be manufactured in China via a French R&D partner's subsidiary. The company had tested the product with 300+ children before the public announcement.

The product occupies a deliberate space between Tonies and Yoto (non-adaptive audio players) and screen-based content: it is not passive, not screen-dependent, and not a simple audiobook. Whether children and parents find that combination worth €120 and a monthly content investment is the commercial question the French launch will answer.

The founders

Cédric O, co-founder and a former French Secretary of State for Digital Affairs, is a name the European tech ecosystem knows primarily from his time shaping French AI policy — including his role as an advisory founder of Mistral AI. His presence on the cap table is not merely decorative: navigating children's data regulation (GDPR applied to minors, DSA content rules for under-13s) is a non-trivial compliance challenge for a consumer AI hardware product, and his regulatory network reduces that risk materially.

Flore Cousin, co-founder and formerly VP Marketing at Alma, brings consumer growth experience from the French fintech market.

The company plans to target the US market by end of 2027 — a timeline that implies a successful French launch and production scale-up from 5,000 units this year to 20,000 in 2027. Balderton Capital has backed multiple European consumer and enterprise technology companies that ProYarn has covered, including Conveo; this is the firm's first publicly disclosed French consumer hardware investment in the current cycle.