Investors are universal in their love for serial founders — tried-and-tested entrepreneurs who’ve made a whole lot of mistakes the first time round and are likely to make a whole lot fewer the second (or third, or fourth) time round.
In Europe, there’s an increasing number of them — many of whom are launching their latest venture in a whole new sector.
Here, Sifted profiles the European serial founders who’ve started a new (or stealth) startup since 2024 — and raised at least $250m for their previous companies. They’re ordered by total funding raised previously.
Have we missed anyone? Let us know.
1/ Peter Carlsson
Previous company: Northvolt
New company: Aris Machina
The cofounder of bankrupt Swedish gigafactory Northvolt has joined a new Swedish AI startup, Aris Machina, which is developing software for manufacturing, factory design and production. Carlsson owns 25-50% of Aris Machina, according to reports.
Carlsson cofounded Northvolt in 2016 after working on supply chain logistics at Tesla. Under his leadership the company raised over $13bn in debt and equity and started work on factories across Europe and North America, before struggling to meet orders and eventually filing for bankruptcy in November 2024.
2/ Jonas Templestein
Previous company: Monzo
New company: Iterate.com
After nine years at UK digital bank Monzo as cofounder and CTO, Templestein stepped back in 2023. In February 2024, he founded a new company, Iterate, an “AI chief of staff” which helps small early-stage teams automate their operations.
3/ Guy Podjarny
Previous company: Synk
New company: Tessl
Now on at least his third startup, Podjarny is CEO and founder of London-based Tessl, an AI-native software development platform. In November last year, it announced $125m in funding across two rounds from investors including Index Ventures, Accel and GV.
Podjarny’s previous company, Synk, is a developer security platform which hit a valuation of $4.7bn in 2011.
4/ Ali Parsa
Previous company: Babylon
New company: Quadrivia
Like many of the founders on this list, healthtech entrepreneur Parsa is leaning heavily into AI for his latest endeavour, Quadrivia. It’s developing a “personal clinical assistant”, “designed for clinicians by clinicians”, and has raised funding from VC firm Norrsken.
Parsa’s previous company, Babylon, saw one of the biggest boom-and-busts of the Covid era; at its peak, the digital doctor startup was valued at $4.2bn, before its shareholders saw their stakes go to zero when the business was sold for scraps a few years later.
5/ Johannes Schildt
Previous company: Kry
New company: Elfcare
Another of Europe’s best-known digital healthcare CEOs, Johannes Schildt, stepped down as CEO of Stockholm-based Kry in December last year, staying on as chair. The company, which was founded in 2016, had raised over $700m under his leadership, and reached operational breakeven. “Today was the first time since I was 22 that I didn’t wake up as a CEO,” Schildt told Sifted when he announced the news. “It feels really good.”
Schildt didn’t stay still for long, though. He’s cofounded an advanced diagnostics startup called Elfcare, which offers full-body MRIs and detailed blood panels, where he’s also chair.
6/ Erik Muttersbach
Previous company: Forto
New company: Zauber
Sticking to what he knows, German logistics company Forto’s cofounder Erik Muttersbach recently announced he’s working on a new logistics startup, Zauber. The Berlin-based startup is “creating the AI operating system for logistics” and, according to its website, already has backing from a “tier-1 European VC”. (Our bet: Point Nine.) It’s currently hiring for several founding engineers.
7/ Jose Ojeda
Previous companies: Global Fashion Group, 011h
New company: Kabilio
Spanish founder Ojeda is a versatile fellow: his first few businesses (The Chapar, Global Fashion Group, Lyst) were in fashion tech, before he switched gears to launch construction tech startup 011h and, now, AI-powered tax and accounting platform Kabilio. The Barcelona-based startup, founded a year ago, hasn’t publicly raised any investment.
8/ Julian Blessin
Previous company: Tier Mobility
New company: AllRide
Not long after cofounding mobility startup Tier, Blessin joined early-stage investor Speedinvest as a venture partner, before transitioning into a partner role in 2020. In 2024, he moved back to the startup side of things, founding AllRide, a platform for multimodal mobility. He remains an active angel investor.
9/ Bastien Oggeri
Previous company: Innovafeed
New company: Epyr
Innovafeed, the first company Oggeri cofounded, makes industrial-scale insect protein, and since launching a decade ago has raised almost $500m from investors including Temasek and the Qatar Investment Authority.
His latest company, Epyr, is developing thermal energy storage solutions, and raised €3m in pre-seed funding earlier this year from investors including AENU and Daphni.
10/ Douglas Stark
Previous company: Voi
New company: Helsa
Micromobility founder Stark has reinvented himself as “the Brain Man”. After cofounding Swedish scooter company Voi in 2018, and serving as COO until 2024, Stark set up Helsa, a longevity startup focused on brain health. “My mom, grandma, grandpa, his cousin and mom all had Alzheimer’s. Now, I’m on a mission to eradicate cognitive decline and dementia,” reads his LinkedIn.
11/ Florian Fournier
Previous company: PayFit
New company: Orasio
PayFit cofounder and former CPO Fournier remains a board member at the HR software unicorn, but started a new company, Orasio, at the start of 2025. It’s quite a gear switch: Orasio analyses videos for security organisations, alerting them to incidents that need an immediate response. The Paris-based startup raised a €16m seed round in May from Global Founders Capital, Frst and Expeditions Fund.
12/ Nicolas Cohen
Previous company: Ankorstore
New company: Nebesta
Another Paris-based serial entrepreneur, Cohen cofounded Amazon marketplace competitor Ankorstore in 2019, raising over $400m as CEO before he left in 2024. His latest business, Nebesta, is bringing AI solutions to customer service. He’s also an active angel investor.
13/ Nigel Verdon
Previous companies: Currencycloud and Railsr
New company: WulfStack
Verdon, the serial fintech entrepreneur behind Currencycloud and Railsr, switched sectors with the launch of his latest venture WulfStack in July 2024.
The company helps developers streamline complex integrations, with a focus on financial systems. Outlining its mission statement on LinkedIn, Verdon promises a “robust suite of APIs that tackle essential tasks or simplify existing APIs with unmatched reliability”.
14/ Matthias Niessner
Previous company: Synthesia
New company: Spaitial
Niessner, a professor at the Technical University of Munich, is widely regarded as one of Europe’s leading researchers in 3D AI modelling. He cofounded Synthesia, the AI avatar startup valued at $2.1bn, in London in 2017 with three fellow AI researchers from UCL, Stanford and Cambridge.
In May, Niessner announced the close of a $13m seed round for his new startup Spaitial, which is building AI models capable of generating interactive, photorealistic 3D environments.
15/ Daniel Kjellén
Previous company: Tink
New company: Freda
Earlier this year, the cofounder of open banking pioneer Tink announced he was working on something new: Freda. Shifting from open banking to compliance, Kjellén is aiming to tackle one of the biggest bottlenecks facing high-growth companies as they scale, making it easier for businesses to monitor and report risks through automated APIs.
16/ Florian Seibel
Previous company: Quantum Systems
New companies: Stark, USX Alliance
Seibel, best known as the founder and CEO of surveillance drone manufacturer Quantum Systems, launched another venture, military strike drone startup Stark, in 2024. Last week, Sifted exclusively revealed Stark had raised $62m in funding led by Sequoia Capital at a $500m valuation.
In late 2024, Seibel also teamed up with ARX robotics, a German battlefield robot company, to launch the USX Alliance, an industry body promising to bring together European expertise to “contribute to the security of NATO’s eastern flank”.
17/ Taavi Madiberk
Previous company: Skeleton Technologies
New company: Frankenburg Technologies
Madiberk changed tack with the launch of Frankenburg Technologies in September last year, pivoting from his previous company’s speciality, energy storage, to defence.
The Estonia-based startup promises to equip Western democracies with the “technologies needed to win the next war”. A recent funding round saw the company’s valuation almost triple to €150m, after raising €4m from investors Blossom Capital and Shelona.
18/ Jane Hughes
Previous company: Aiolos Bio
New company: Verdvia Bio
The only female founder on our list, Hughes was the chief scientific officer at Aiolos Bio, a UK-based biotech she cofounded that was acquired by GSK one year after launch. Her next company, Verdiva Bio, is developing oral weight-loss drugs, and raised a $410m Series A in January. She founded it with fellow Aiolos Bio cofounders Tapan Maniar and Khurem Farooq.
19/ Luca Santarelli
Previous company: VectivBio
New company: Windward Bio
Earlier this year, the founder and former CEO of biotech startup VecticBio announced his latest venture: Windward Bio, a clinical-stage, drug development company aimed at tackling advanced immunological diseases. The company launched with a $200m Series A round led by OrbiMed, Novo Holdings and Blue Owl Healthcare Opportunities.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/europe-serial-founders-list/
