Karbonalpha in APRÉDIA's 2026 IFA White Paper

The 2026 White Paper on Independent Financial Advisers, published by APRÉDIA, marks its 25th edition: 96 pages, more than 100 charts and tables, 11 exclusive interviews and data from more than 4,200 firms. Unveiled at Patrimonia and then at the ANACOFI Congress on April 8 and 9, 2026, it is a market reference (APRÉDIA’s publication announcement on LinkedIn). Karbonalpha contributes an interview, which we reproduce below.

Interview — Xavier Babaud-Dulac, CEO & co-founder of Karbonalpha

In 2026, what are the real challenges facing independent IFA firms as they seek to accelerate their growth?

The first challenge has become one of time management. In a growing firm, especially when it does not yet have a fully structured administrative organisation, compliance, document management, re-keying and controls can quickly represent more than a hundred hours a month at firm level. That time is not neutral: it is time taken away from advice, business development, recruitment and the client relationship.

The second challenge is that of fluidity. Clients and teams alike no longer accept fragmented journeys, double entry and breaks between advice, execution and monitoring. Finally, the market is reshaping fast: consolidation, mergers, polarisation by affinity, and profiles from banking networks moving towards independence. In this context, the firms that will succeed will be those able to steer their growth, document their activity and maintain flawless execution quality.

How do you define Karbonalpha’s positioning today?

We do not define ourselves as one more piece of software, nor as a mere functional suite. Karbonalpha is a sovereign steering infrastructure. This distinction is essential. A suite adds building blocks together; an infrastructure durably organises data, compliance, traceability, aggregation and steering within a single repository. Our conviction is simple: in Private Wealth Management, performance begins with a solid, unified infrastructure.

Compliance must not be a layer added as an afterthought; it must be the backbone of the system. It is this choice that allows us to be at once independent, audit-ready by design, interoperable with industry partners and scalable enough to support an independent firm as well as a grouping, a network or a major account.

In what way is this approach truly transformative for a firm?

Because it changes the very nature of daily work. We do not promise a magic formula, because the gains always depend on how well each firm takes ownership of the technology. What we do know is this: when data is entered only once, then circulates coherently across the entire journey, and when evidence is generated on an ongoing basis, the firm recovers dozens of useful hours. For an average firm in strong growth, without a fully structured back office yet, this means less administrative chaos, fewer errors, less friction and more time for meetings, client follow-up and development.

For a firm that is changing scale, recruiting, integrating new advisers or carrying out external-growth operations, it means something else above all: the ability to harmonise methods, steer the business, audit output and pass on a shared organisation without losing control. That is where technology ceases to be a tool and becomes a lever for management.

Why have sovereignty and technological independence become such central issues?

Because a firm is no longer merely choosing a tool: it is choosing the degree of control it retains over its data, its processes and its capacity to adapt. You cannot durably claim your commercial independence if you remain captive to a technological layer you do not control. Karbonalpha has chosen proprietary technology, developed in-house, operated in France, hosted on sovereign infrastructures, with a resilience logic aligned with the requirements of the financial sector. This sovereignty is not a cosmetic argument. It guarantees strategic autonomy, continuity, security and freedom to evolve.

It is also within this framework that we approach artificial intelligence. The point is not “to have AI”, but to know how it is built, where it runs and what becomes of some of the most sensitive wealth data there is. Our choice is clear: to develop a proprietary and sovereign wealth intelligence, designed to assist the adviser in their preparation, analysis and vigilance, without offloading data to generalist models operated in extraterritorial environments. The human remains the decision-maker; AI must inform, strengthen reliability and accelerate — never substitute itself for the professional.

You place great emphasis on 360 journeys. Why, in your view, are they a genuine turning point for the market?

Because they finally address a historical weakness of the profession: until now, digitalisation too often stopped at the gates of underwriting. The firm built its advisory journey, secured its compliance, produced its deliverables, then had to re-key the same information elsewhere. With 360 journeys, we close that break. Data circulates in a secure, coherent and traceable way from advice to execution, then comes back — through aggregation — to enrich steering within a single environment.

In France, we have finalised this first level of integration with UAF Life Patrimoine, a pioneering insurance player on this subject. In Luxembourg, we are finalising it with Wealins, Groupe Foyer, before extending to other insurance players and to real-estate management companies, notably in SCPIs. What this changes is considerable: less re-keying, less risk of discrepancy, more fluidity for the client, more efficiency for the adviser, and a far more robust chain of evidence for all partners. It is, in essence, the concrete translation of our vision: a sovereign infrastructure that does not stop at the firm, but organises the interoperability of the market.

What makes your overall response to the market more credible and more scalable than other approaches?

First, our credibility comes from our DNA. Karbonalpha builds on a rare synergy between long experience in Private Wealth Management (30+ years) and technological expertise (25+ years) forged in contact with complex institutional systems. Second, our response is concrete and already proven. We are moving forward with recognised partners who reinforce the platform’s business value: AP Solutions.io on the AML-CFT building block, DeepTinvest on SCPI analysis, Allianz Global Investors on model portfolios.

And this logic does not stop at firms: we also support deployments and co-developments with players such as Magnacarta Group (and in particular the 1215 network), Pandat Finance, Evolve and In Extenso. That is precisely what scalability means to us: a single sovereign foundation, robust enough to serve the firm, the partner or the institutional player, without sacrificing business depth.

Is your business model now solid enough to durably reassure the market?

Yes, and this is an important point. Our model rests on three complementary engines: subscriptions, which already provide solid recurring revenue; white-label partner offerings; and bespoke developments for major accounts. This combination provides visibility while validating Karbonalpha’s relevance across several market segments.

At the end of 2025, our revenue stands between €1.5m and €2m, and the subscriptions already in place, combined with the major-account developments under way, support a 2026 forecast of more than €2.5m. In other words, we are not in a logic of an isolated promise; we are in the logic of an already proven model, capable of combining recurrence, industrialisation and long-term investment. This is essential for a market that now expects innovation, stability and durability from its partners alike.

Beyond technology, what makes the soul and ambition of Karbonalpha today?

It lies first and foremost in the women and men who build it. Karbonalpha today means more than 35 contributors (employees and experts) from Private Wealth Management, IT, cybersecurity and several engineering specialities, all mobilised to build a 100% sovereign infrastructure in France. This choice is not incidental: it reflects a deep conviction. Sovereignty is not decreed, it is built.

Our ambition is clear: to help the market cross a structural threshold. The next stage of Private Wealth Management will be neither purely regulatory nor purely technological; it will be organisational, industrial and strategic. The future leaders will be those with an infrastructure able to free up useful time, strengthen the reliability of evidence, streamline journeys, interconnect partners and steer growth over the long term. On this trajectory, we embrace a strong focus: building a proprietary and sovereign wealth intelligence, integrated into this infrastructure, to support the adviser without ever depriving them of their responsibility or exposing their clients’ data to environments they do not control. The market does not need one more AI; it needs a trustworthy AI — explainable, traceable, useful and fully aligned with the requirements of Private Wealth Management. It is this combination of rigour, independence, business depth and long-term vision that underpins our ambition: to be one of the reference players of this new generation.

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Interview taken from the 2026 IFA White Paper (25th edition), published by APRÉDIA.