We started inside the factory. Everything else followed.
Cadran was born in 2019 in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, one of Europe’s fastest-growing technology hubs. We started by writing code for industrial clients. Then we learned their machines. Then their processes. Then their business problems. Today we're a factory-fluent technology partner, which in practice means fewer surprises at go-live, teams that actually use what we build, and decisions made on real numbers.
From code to outcomes
In the early years, Cadran delivered custom software for industrial clients across Europe. We built tools, wrote integrations, and kept production systems running. But every engagement taught us the same lesson: the code was never the hard part. The hard part was understanding the operation well enough to make the code matter.
Today, Cadran works with manufacturers, packaging operations, and energy companies across Europe. We handle engineering, integration, automation, and the intelligence layer on top of it, and every engagement follows the same path: Analyze, Build, Operate. That sequence is deliberate. It means nobody commits to a large build before we've both seen the problem clearly. We're still based in Cluj-Napoca. We still write code. But the code now has a purpose it didn't have before: making complex operations measurably better.
Most software companies start with a solution and go looking for a problem to solve. We started with a problem, and it belonged to somebody's production line.
That understanding changed how we work. We stopped waiting for clients to specify what they needed and started showing them what was possible. Less waste. Fewer breakdowns. Faster changeovers. Better data. In 2022, HOMAG Group, the world's leading woodworking technology company, chose us as their strategic technology partner. We still work the same way with every client.
Mission, Vision & Principles
Our mission
Empower businesses in manufacturing, packaging, and energy to achieve transformative results through AI-driven solutions and a partnership model built on shared success.
How we work
We don’t have a wall of corporate values. We have operating principles that show up in how we actually behave:
Outcomes over outputs
We measure success by what changed in your operation, not by how many lines of code we shipped.
Prove it before you scale it
Every engagement starts with a Discovery assessment or a Prototyping sprint. We generate evidence before investment.
Stay until it works
Go-live is not goodbye. Our Operate phase keeps us involved after deployment because systems that aren’t maintained decay faster.
Learn every machine
We don’t send developers who’ve never seen a production floor. Our engineers understand OPC-UA protocols, SCADA constraints, and what it means for software to run at 3 AM on shift three.
Be honest about what we don’t know
If a technology isn’t ready, we’ll tell you. If your data isn’t clean enough for AI, we’ll tell you that too.
Our vision
To be the leading outcome-focused technology partner across European industry, recognized for delivering measurable value, pioneering the integration of AI in traditional industries, and setting the standard for client-centric innovation.
The people behind the code
We’re a focused team of engineers, architects, data scientists, and domain specialists. Small enough that every client works directly with senior people. Large enough to run multiple concurrent engagements without stretching.
Leadership team
Claudiu Abrudan
Oana Calistru
The Engineering Team
The people who actually build the software are full-stack engineers, ML specialists, QA and DevOps, integration and data engineers. What they have in common is harder to hire for than any of those titles. Most have spent real time on client production floors. Many can tell you the difference between an edgebander and a panel saw. All of them ship every sprint.
What we’ve built so far
years Strategic partnership with HOMAG Group
industries served across our history
waste reduction delivered for HOMAG users
Technology partner in three EU research programmes: hydrogen, industrial AI, and digital innovation.
Who we work with
We build with partners, not around them. Working alongside machine builders, technology vendors, and research institutes gives us access to systems and domain knowledge that no single company develops on its own.
Strategic technology partnership since mid-2022. Co-development of materialManager and materialManager Advanced. Cadran’s flagship client and deepest domain reference in woodworking manufacturing.
Ongoing technology partnership. Co-development of WupWorks, the digital production platform for timber construction. Second HOMAG Group company to independently choose Cadran.
Our AI work runs on Anthropic's Claude models, selected for reliability in environments where a wrong answer has consequences.
Primary cloud platform. Battle-tested through 3+ years of HOMAG production workloads. Azure DevOps, Functions, CosmosDB, Service Bus, and the full Azure AI suite.
Secondary cloud platform. AWS IoT Core and Greengrass for edge deployments. SageMaker for ML training. Used in Energy and cross-industry projects.
Hydrogen is one of Europe's bigger industrial bets. Cadran is one of 9 SME partners in a €140M initiative, contributing on the digital side: production monitoring, traceability, and energy management. Much of it is new ground, and we're covering it together with research institutes and industrial partners.
Completed R&D project. Five-partner consortium exploring zero-emission maritime propulsion. Cadran contributed AI optimization and hybrid energy system GUI design. Led by ICSI Râmnicu Vâlcea.
Where we work
Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Two hours from anywhere in Europe.
Our headquarters is in Cluj-Napoca, Romania's second-largest city and home to one of Europe's densest concentrations of software engineering talent. Every major DACH city is under a two-hour flight away. We work in overlapping hours, we speak your business language, and we're on your site whenever the project calls for it.
Romania runs on EET, so we're working before DACH offices open. No overnight waits, no handover gaps, no time lost to distance.
Close enough for site visits, workshops, and standing beside your team at go-live.
Contributor Quote
We built Cadran because we believed that the factories and power plants keeping Europe running deserve technology partners who understand their world, not vendors who need six months to learn what a PLC does. Every person on our team has stood next to a production line and watched our software handle a shift change at 2 AM.
Ready to see what your data can do?
Start with a conversation. No pitch deck. No obligation. Just a focused discussion about your operations and where AI could make the biggest difference.