One of the co-founders of a Ghent-based AI startup which is being acquired by sofware giant SAP in a deal valued at hundreds of millions of dolllars has stressed the importance of the city’s flywheel effect.
Jeroen Van Hautte, CTO and co-founder, TechWolf, was speaking on the Tech.eu podcast, discussing TechWolf's sale to SAP and a range of other issues.
The interview follows news earlier this month that German software giant SAP is acquiring TechWolf, in a deal reported to be the largest acquisition of a venture-backed software company in Belgian history.
SAP is buying TechWolf, which uses AI to help companies understand their employees' skills and work, saying it would become a key part of its talent and workforce strategy.
The CTO discussed the Ghent flywheel impact. A flywheel effect is a cycle, where key employees from startups develop ideas of their own and launch their own startups or fund other startups.
Speaking about Ghent, which he pointed out had one of the highest densities of startups in the world, he said: “I think that the flywheel effect is super important.”
He also talked about his move to San Francisco, TechWolf's business model and open versus closed source AI models.
Note: A chunk of this episode has been taken out at the request of TechWolf.