The Founders Program’s new batch shows industry experts using AI to tackle specific problems

The Founders Program is all about delivering high-quality support and attracting strong, experienced entrepreneurs — the kind of founders who can go further, faster. And the results speak for themselves. This is by far one of the most selective cohorts in the history of the Founders Program. In this new batch, half of the founders have already built and launched startups before. It’s no longer just a trend — it’s the new norm, already seen in the Spring and Fall 2024 batches.

Exceptional Founders, Exceptional Batch

Many of our founders have already launched, scaled, and exited previous ventures. Their experience, ambition, and proven ability to build (and build even better) are setting the stage for a cohort that is nothing short of exceptional. 

Among them is Sébastien Texier, CSO at Jinko, who played a crucial role at Air France for several years before founding multiple successful startups. One of his ventures, Mowgli, gained over 450K users within just 6 months with zero marketing budget, before being successfully exited to Hopper. Chaimaa Harrak, CEO of Goji, is a second-time founder in the biotech space, with 4 years of experience in private equity and tech consulting. Her proven track record of building and leading strategic initiatives from 0 to 1 across ventures speaks for itself.

We’re also proud to have six founders from five different startups that have already achieved exits. Among them are remarkable entrepreneurs like Florian Boret, CEO of Achille.ai, a 3-time founder with one successful exit — Wedoogift, which was sold to Sodexo. Louis Choquel, CEO of Evotis, is another standout, having previously founded two startups, one of which was acquired by SMACH. With over 25 years of experience in development, his expertise is undeniable.

Last but not least, many of our founders have solid experience in high-level positions at leaders in their fields: Google (Benoit Miegeville, CEO Referly), Aircall (Michael Hodara, CEO Kuli), Uber (Louis Raynaud, CEO Opsima), McKinsey (the three cofounders of Sandra AI), Ubisoft (Louis Choquel, CEO Evotis), and L’Oréal Paris (Shuai Zhang, CTO Jinko), just to name a few.

A batch using AI as infrastructure – not the product

Beyond the founders’ backgrounds, what really stands out in this batch is how startups are using AI. But forget the hype — this isn’t about building AI just for the sake of it. What we’re seeing is something way more exciting: AI being used as a smart, silent engine to solve very specific problems in very specific industries.

This batch is super diverse — from LegalTech to Construction, Fashion, Mobility, HRTech, Travel, E-commerce, News & Media, the Creator Economy, DevTools, Cloud, Sales, and Data. Across the board, AI isn’t the headline, it’s the hidden power. It’s being applied by people who deeply understand their space — and know exactly how to get things done. The magic isn’t in the model itself, but in how well it’s executed, how targeted the use case is, and how fast they can get it out into the world.

Now, here is the remaining startups in the current batch: 

AçaiMusic: Açaimusic builds foundational AI models generating personalised musical parts that seamlessly fit into music creation projects.

Achille.ai: Achille.ai is next-gen, AI-powered customer service software for every e-commerce business.

Candix: Candix connects ambitious engineers with fast-growing startups. They’ve raised $200k from angels, including Thibaud Elziere.

Evotis: Evotis simplifies the development of reliable AI applications through modular, agentic knowledge-processing workflows.

Goji: Goji creates buyer-first website journeys with conversational demos that adapt in real time and instantly show the right information, use cases, and features to every visitor.

Hiliv:  Hiliv is an intelligent platform for companies moving talent across borders.

Jinko: Jinko is the first travel MCP supercharging LLMs and AI agents with booking capabilities.

Kira: Kira helps fashion accessories brands create high-performing lifestyle photos using AI.

Kuli: Kuli allows lightning-fast creator content analysis to supercharge influence marketing campaigns.

Minari: Minari is an outbound calling platform for B2B sales teams.

Opsima: Opsima helps companies reduce their cloud bill, seamlessly. Backed by Galion.exe, Kima Ventures, Super Capital, Neo Founders, Source Ventures, and a group of business angels, they raised €1M.

Referly: Referly is an AI agent that helps B2B sales teams identify their warmest leads through signals — turning cold to warm, and blind to smart. They secured €298K in funding from Ecole 42 and 34 business angels.

Sandra AI: Sandra AI is a voice-based AI receptionist for car dealerships.

Shipfox: Shipfox provides managed GitHub Actions runners that are faster and more cost-effective, helping teams optimize their continuous integration pipelines.

Spacio: Spacio is an AI-powered design platform helping architects create better buildings faster, with real-time analysis and automated compliance checks.

Temelion: Temelion is an AI superhuman assistant for building design.

Waterflai: Waterflai builds data-sovereign AI agents 10x faster without writing a single line of code.

ZebraTruth: ZebraTruth builds industry-aligned suites of tools that focus on the generative AI needs of the news industry.

If you’d like more information about the batch, please feel free to contact us.