When we talk about the people building AI companies in Europe, the spotlight almost always falls on the founder CEO — people like Arthur Mensch at Mistral, Torsten Reil at Helsing and Jonas Andrulis at Aleph Alpha.
But across the continent a number of operators — the people behind the scenes driving product, scaling teams and executing the company’s vision — are making their mark at some of the region’s most ambitious AI startups.
Europe’s talent pool is often cited by AI founders as a reason for keeping their companies on this side of the Atlantic. There has been a sixfold increase in AI roles over the past decade across the region, but there is a race on for the best talent. While Europe was hiring for more AI roles than the US in 2023, that trend reversed last year, according to Atomico’s State of European Tech report.
Based on Sifted reporting and conversations with top VCs, here are some of the operators at AI startups you need to know about.
1\ Meriem Sefta — chief diagnostics officer at Owkin
Sefta was recommended by Axel Badalian, senior associate at Alpha Intelligence Capital.
Meriem Sefta joined French AI unicorn Owkin, which uses AI to optimise biopharmaceuticals’ drug discovery process, as one of its first employees. She was initially head of partnerships, and established data alliances with leading hospitals across Europe and the US before leading the company’s data and clinical solutions unit. She then moved into the chief diagnostics role in December 2021, according to her LinkedIn. Axel Badalian, senior associate at Alpha Intelligence Capital, says Sefta’s “leadership has been instrumental in advancing Owkin’s mission to revolutionise cancer diagnostics.”
2\ Dali Kilani — chief technology officer and cofounder at FlexAI
Kilani was recommended by Badalian.
Dali Kilani cofounded Paris-based FlexAI, which helps software developers build systems across various third-party chips, and is the company’s CTO. He met cofounder Brijesh Tripathi while working at Nvidia and has held CTO positions at several other AI startups, including healthtech Lifen.
3\ Baptiste Pannier — chief technology officer and cofounder at AdaptiveML
Pannier was recommended by Anaïs Monlong, principal at Iris Ventures.
Baptiste Pannier cofounded Paris-based Adaptive ML, which builds custom GenAI models for businesses, and is the company’s CTO. He completed a Physics doctorate while at renewable energy company EDF and also has a masters in Machine Learning. His career includes research scientist roles at Samsung, LightOn and Hugging Face, where he met Adaptive ML cofounders Julien Launay and Daniel Hesslow.
4\ Eric Sibony — chief science officer at Shift Technology
Sibony was recommended by Monlong.
Eric Sibony cofounded Paris-based Shift Technology, which helps insurers detect fraud by analysing claims for crimes like money laundering, and is the company’s CSO. He met cofounder Jeremy Jawish at École Polytechique, where he earned an engineering and mathematics degree before completing a PhD in machine learning at Telecom Paristech.
5\ Constantin Schröder — chief operations officer and cofounder at Arbio
Schröder was recommended by Tom Heriksson, general partner at Open Ocean.
Constantin Schröder cofounded Berlin-based Arbio, an AI-powered holiday rental platform for guest trip management, and is the company’s COO. Previously, he worked in sales strategy at Adidas before transitioning to private equity and investments.
6\ Dan Lifshits — chief operating and product officer at Dwelly
Lifshits was recommended by Heriksson.
Dan Lifshits leads operations and product at London-based Dwelly, which acquires estate agents and uses AI to streamline the management of property portfolios. At 21, he became consulting firm McKinsey’s youngest associate ever before leading operations and product at ride-hailing unicorn Gett.
7\ Kate Woolland – chief operations officer at Closed Loop Medicine
Woolland was recommended by Carina Tyrrell, venture partner at Black Opal Ventures.
Kate Woolland serves as chief operating officer at Closed Loop Medicine, which develops an AI-powered platform for personalising drug dosages. She has more than 15 years of healthcare experience, which includes time as a partner at PA consulting and in several operator roles at Ieso, a mental healthcare company.
8\ Dr Thomas Pearson-Jones – chief operating officer at Optellum
Pearson-Jones was recommended by Tyrrell.
Dr Thomas Pearson-Jones serves as chief operating officer at Optellum, an Oxford University spinout building an AI platform for lung cancer diagnosis. Carina Tyrrell, venture partner at Black Opal Ventures, says “with a background spanning clinical medicine and life sciences investment banking, alongside deep exposure to both NHS and US health systems, Tom brings the financial acumen and execution discipline needed to drive clinical AI adoption at scale.”
9\ Claire Lasserre — AI product manager at Pennylane
Serial entrepreneur Claire Lasserre manages the AI aspects of product at Paris-based accounting platform Pennylane. Its software centralises enterprise and accountant data — invoices, tax returns, financial statements — in real time on one platform. Lasserre’s was previously in AI research and quantitative trading at Citadel Securities, a capital markets company. She has founded multiple companies, including NFT factory, a tech hub for entrepreneurs, artists and corporates to build Web3 projects.
10\ Nad Chishtie — designer at Lovable
Nad Chishtie leads design at Stockholm-based AI agents startup Lovable. Chishtie brings more than 15 years of experience leading design teams, including at government communications platform Element, where he joined as the first non-engineering hire.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/10-ai-startup-operators-to-watch-in-europe/
