Founders Force

Barbara Belvisi is the Founder & CEO of Interstellar Lab, a company building the future of plant production on Earth and beyond. With a lifelong fascination for nature and space, she is pioneering systems that sustain life — from autonomous bio-greenhouses for the cosmetics and food industries to plant production modules designed for lunar and Martian environments.

Barbara began her career as an investor, founding her first asset management firm at 27 to back deep-tech ventures. At 29, she co-founded Hardware Club, a global VC platform investing in hardware and robotics startups from San Francisco, Paris, and Tokyo. She also helped launch Hello Tomorrow, today one of Europe’s most important deep-tech gatherings.

Driven by curiosity and purpose, Barbara transitioned from investing to building. She spent a year working with NASA engineers on controlled-environment agriculture before founding Interstellar Lab in 2018. The company is now a leader in AI-powered biomanufacturing systems, winning the NASA Deep Space Food Challenge (2022–24) and announcing Mission Little Prince, a partnership with the Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Foundation to grow roses on the Moon and Mars.

On Earth, Interstellar Lab’s bioproduction technology enables clean, traceable, sustainable plant-based ingredient manufacturing for cosmetics and food. In space, the company is advancing plant science and food system capabilities for commercial space stations and future planetary bases.

Barbara has been recognized among Top 10 Women in Tech in France, Top 100 Forbes, Best Innovator (2022–23), and Choiseul 100 (2023–25).

Within United Founders, Barbara represents frontier imagination paired with execution — a true European-born builder shaping humanity’s expansion from our planet to the stars.

Laurent Philonenko is Managing Partner at DeepTech Group, where he leads efforts to help deeptech startups transform cutting-edge innovation into scalable, enterprise-ready solutions. Drawing on decades of C-level experience in technology and customer experience, Laurent serves as a trusted advisor to founders navigating complex go-to-market, product, and M&A strategies.

As an executive advisor, Laurent has guided several startups to successful outcomes, including strategic acquisitions by industry leaders such as Munich Re, NiCE, and Dialpad. His impact spans sectors from customer experience to cybersecurity and AI, where he helps early-stage ventures align differentiated technology with real-world enterprise use cases.

Previously, Laurent held leadership roles as CEO of Genesys and Servion, CTO and SVP at Cisco and Avaya, and Senior VP at Alcatel. His track record includes doubling revenues in contact center divisions, growing a UC business to $100M from scratch, and leading multi-billion-dollar restructuring and M&A initiatives.

At DeepTech Group, Laurent focuses on bridging the gap between breakthrough innovation and commercial viability. Startups benefit from his extensive industry network and ability to open doors to top-tier enterprise clients, while corporations gain access to pre-vetted emerging technologies that solve real operational challenges.

Sébastien Borget is the Co-Founder and COO of The Sandbox, a leading decentralized virtual gaming platform that allows users to create, own, and monetize their gaming experiences using blockchain technology. The Sandbox has raised over $93 million in funding. Additionally, he is the Co-Founder of ArtVerse, a platform that connects artists with the blockchain, and serves as President of the Blockchain Game Alliance, an organization dedicated to promoting blockchain technology in gaming.

Tariq Krim is the founder of Cybernetica, a company focused on developing technologies for digital sovereignty and privacy. He is known as the "Godfather" of European Tech Sovereignty and has previously founded Netvibes, a personalized dashboard for web applications, and Jolicloud, a cloud-based operating system. Netvibes has been recognized for its innovative approach to data aggregation and user experience, while Jolicloud aimed to simplify access to cloud services, although specific fundraising figures for these ventures are not publicly disclosed.

David Pavlik is a seasoned technical leader with over 25 years of experience in senior technology roles at some of the world’s most innovative companies. Having spent many years living and working in California, his background spans major tech giants and fast-growing scale-ups, with key technical positions at Microsoft, Netflix, and SpaceX. His expertise in space technology, complex warehouse systems, and AI implementation has been particularly valuable in helping companies scale their technical operations and deploy cutting-edge solutions.

Most recently, David has been applying his technical leadership at Bottlecap AI, following his role at Rohlik Group 🦄, one of Europe’s fastest-growing e-grocery companies. Prior to that, he served as CTO at Shipmonk, where he oversaw complex warehouse automation systems. Throughout his career, he has demonstrated strong capabilities in technical operations across domains ranging from enterprise software to space technology and artificial intelligence. His diverse background makes him a valuable advisor in DeepTech & AI and Enterprise Software, where he continues to support and mentor ambitious founders.

Ismael Ould is the visionary founder of Anycommerce, which he established in 2013. Under his leadership, the company has grown to serve over 100 clients, reaching 300 million consumers and 500,000 business users. The platform processes more than €80bn in annual transactions through its comprehensive SaaS solutions for multi-channel selling, inventory management, and automated operations.

His entrepreneurial success in scaling Anycommerce into a major player in the French tech ecosystem led to the company's strategic acquisition by ChapsVision. Through this merger, Ismael has positioned Anycommerce to become a European leader in unified commerce, combining innovative e-commerce solutions with ChapsVision's expertise in data & AI to drive retailers' digital transformation.

André Petry is CEO of the tech startup Tacto and founded the company out of the Technical University of Munich with the aim of creating freedom for strategic activities in purchasing, leveraging potential savings and managing increasing complexity. With his background in business administration and computer science, he already helped in his previous positions at BCG and appliedAI industrial companies with the digitalization of their business processes and the use of AI in purchasing.

Tacto is a procurement software company that helps industrial companies reduce supply chain complexity and streamline purchasing processes through AI-powered solutions. Their platform enables automated spend analysis, strategic sourcing, and supplier relationship management. The company was backed by Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures among others in their Series A round,

Since 2017, Mrs. Champy has been investing in disruptive technologies targeting primarily the industrial sector on behalf of Atlas Holdings’ family office. She supports its direct venture program and overseas its third-party fund portfolio. Her responsibilities range from sourcing and evaluating opportunities to assessing potential synergies with Atlas Holdings’ industrial and manufacturing companies. Altas Holdings and its affiliates are a diversified group of 25 platform companies with over 50,000 associates globally and ~$15 billion of annual revenues. Before joining Atlas Innovate, Claire worked for reputable investors and financial institutions including Zurich Alternative Asset Management and J.P. Morgan Private Bank.
Claire was educated in France where she earned a Master’s degree in Finance from EDHEC. She speaks French, English and Spanish.

Felis is entrepreneur and strategic thinker who co-founded DeepDrive, a Munich-based high-tech company transforming electric vehicle technology. With experience in investment banking at Rothschild & Co and consulting work at Deloitte and Simon-Kucher, Felix contributes financial expertise and strategic planning to his role as Co-CEO. At DeepDrive, he manages the entrepreneurial and strategic components of the company, which has developed patented Dual Rotor motor technology that extends EV range while reducing costs and carbon emissions.
Under Felix's guidance, DeepDrive has established partnerships with 8 of the top 10 global automakers for series applications. The company's innovative technology has secured backing from key automotive and financial investors, including BMW i Ventures and Continental's Corporate Venture Capital Unit. Combining financial knowledge, strategic planning, and business development skills, Felix is working to establish DeepDrive as a leader in electric motors for the automotive sector and beyond, with technology that could potentially save significant amounts of CO2 emissions across the EV fleet.

Marek "Slush" Palatinus is a prominent figure in the cryptocurrency industry, known for creating the world's first Bitcoin mining pool (Slush Pool) in 2010 and co-founding SatoshiLabs in 2013. As the driving force behind Trezor, he developed the world's first cryptocurrency hardware wallet, revolutionizing digital asset security. Under his leadership, SatoshiLabs has become a leading force in cryptocurrency security infrastructure, with Trezor becoming an industry standard for secure crypto storage.