Sigma Squared Society

What a privilege to deliver a keynote at this week's United Nations AI for Good summit in Geneva. I shared how Kestrix's use of proprietary AI to analyse thermal images of buildings has the potential to accelerate the retrofitting of hundreds of millions of leaky houses in Europe and beyond. Thank you to the International Telecommunication Union's for the opportunity to contribute to the global conversation! #GetRetroFIT

Our Sigma Fellow Dana Aleff, Founder & CEO of Circonomit has just announced a €2.8M seed round! 🎊💪 Circonomit offers what it calls the “strategic digital twin” — an intuitive decision toolbox that turns complexity into clarity. Now, business leaders can model how their choices and external factors ripple through value chains and impact both financial and ecological outcomes — all in real time, without slow data projects or specialized programming. The round was led by Vorwerk Ventures and supported by Fund F and PUSH VC. With this funding, Circonomit will expand its product team and accelerate commercial rollout so more manufacturing companies can gain deep, fast insights into their value chains and strengthen their competitive edge Huge congratulations to Dana and the entire Circonomit team! 🚀 Learn more: https://xmrrwallet.com/cmx.plnkd.in/df2Wp-7k

🚀 Big Launch: A Tool to Help Founders Keep Up to 5% More Equity in Early-Stage Financings 💸 Today, I’m excited and proud to share something I’ve been quietly working on for months. I’ve built an 𝗘𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆-𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗛𝘂𝗯. It includes a video course, dilution calculator (probably the most interesting part), and downloadable templates. Everything designed to help founders raise capital with clarity, speed, and control. This project was born out of real conversations and real deal-making: I’ve negotiated early-stage investments across Switzerland, Europe, and the US – from Convertibles to SAFEs (USA) to ASAs (UK) – alongside and opposite of angels, VCs, founders, and lawyers. What was my approach? 👉 It’s built on math, not just legal language. 👉 It gives founders tools they can actually use and verify yourself. 👉 It solves for the “unknown unknowns” that quietly cost founders leverage in early rounds. Too many founders lose out not because they made bad decisions but because they didn’t even know which decisions mattered. That's why this is a matter dear to my heart. That's why I built this. Check it out, share it with a founder, and let me know what you think: 👉 www.convertibleloans.ch #startuplaw #swissstartups #founders #venturecapital #convertibleloans #dilution #legaltech

Our Sigma Fellows Tom Charman and Olivia Higgs, Co-Founders of Blok, have just announced the close of a $7.5M Seed Round, thereby officially coming out of stealth mode. Blok is building a new category in product development: an AI-powered simulation environment that lets teams test with virtual users — before shipping. Instead of waiting weeks for A/B tests or flying blind with gut-feel decisions, product teams can now simulate real user behavior in hours. Backed by MaC Venture Capital, Protagonist, Weekend Fund, Rackhouse, Blank, and an incredible lineup of angels from Meta, Airbnb, Google, Pinterest, and Discord, Blok is defining what AI-first product development looks like. Huge congratulations to Tom and Olivia !📱⚙️ 👉 Learn more: https://xmrrwallet.com/cmx.plnkd.in/eGPthFGp

🎯 What a privilege to be selected by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) as one of the 10 founders innovating in the Future of Computing! I shared how Prometheux is transforming enterprise data infrastructure and talked about how: 🤖 Models are hungry for context 💎 Data is the most valuable asset 🚀 Prometheux delivers the magnitude of structured context both humans and AI need 🙏Great to see the enthusiasm of BCG partners and corporate leaders and a huge thank you to BCG and Emmanuele Benatti for organising! Full video 🔗 https://xmrrwallet.com/cmx.plnkd.in/dAafTSDh 👀 If you want to join a fast-growing company, we are hiring founding engineers and a founder associate.

Thrilled to announce that the City of Munich has chosen Atopia Space to bring its public art programmes into the virtual world! 🌍 As winners of this year’s Munich Innovation Prize, we’ll co-create a #virtualstage for Munich’s public art inside a digital twin of one of its most iconic sites, which can then be curated limitlessly by the city using our no-code editor. 📝 Thank you to the City of #Munich for the trust — we’re excited to create a showcase for how public art can empower communities beyond time and place through immersive, digital access. ☺️

Honored to be featured in IBTimes on this journey from racing champion to AI founder. 🙏🏻 From the racetrack to making accountants go fast, at Artifact AI we are building a category-defining system of intelligence by deploying custom workflows and models for accounting firms. I am incredibly grateful to everyone who has supported me along the way, and especially to my incredible team at Artifact AI—without whose grit and passion we would not be here today. The team is gearing up to show the world what accuracy truly means in Accounting x AI. Stay tuned. 🤫

I’m now part of a club where I’m too old to apply. Just joined Sigma Squared Society as an Honorary Member. It’s invite-only community for founders under 26. Earlier this year, we co-hosted a side event in Warsaw. Last year, I went to their summit in Valencia. Every time I meet the Sigma crowd, it’s a joy. Young, bold, assertive next-gen founders. I’ve talked to just a few, but got a feeling I’m standing next to someone who can change the world. Sigma now has over 1,000 members across 35 countries who have collectively raised some $2.5B VC money. They remind me of myself at that age. I was lucky to have great mentors and a strong community around me back then. Now, I’m glad to be that support for the next generation. 📸 I'm so young in that photo

Our Sigma Fellow Luuk Veeken, CEO & Co-Founder of Dexter Energy, has just announced a €23M Series C raise — accelerating their mission to build a fully renewable, affordable, and reliable power system, powered by AI. 🎊 Led by Alantra Klima fund, with participation from Mirova and continued support from ETF Partners, Newion, and PDENH, this round will fuel Dexter’s next phase of growth: ⚡ Scaling asset-backed trade optimisation for wind & solar 🔋 Expanding battery optimisation to unlock grid flexibility 🌍 Growing into new markets across Europe and beyond Dexter’s AI-driven forecasting and optimisation tools are reshaping energy trading — and this milestone takes them one step closer to a clean energy future. Huge congratulations to Luuk and the entire Dexter Energy team! ⚡ 📖 Read more (Dutch): https://xmrrwallet.com/cmx.plnkd.in/eCjtmZH5 🌍 English version: https://xmrrwallet.com/cmx.plnkd.in/eVC3jgEh

Incredibly excited for Martin's and Raihaan's pre-seed of €1.2M. They are building 𝐙𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠. With Bench, you can: 001 - iterate designs faster by automating the CAD-Simulation loop. 002 - accelerate design cycles by automating menial CAD edits. Enable your engineers to focus on high‑leverage tasks instead. 003 - test all your design variations in parallel – compare performance instantly to uncover the best‑performing configurations at scale. Martin and Raihaan are two unstoppable forces of nature. And they are working on an inevitable shift: AI transforming the 3D world. Bench is revolutionizing hardware workflows - with software. I am 100% convinced that much of the next wave of engineering innovation will be catalysed by Bench. If you’re in hardware design, engineering leadership, or R&D and haven’t tried Bench yet, you might be missing the future arriving today. Massive shoutout to Martin and Raihaan for making this happen. I am stoked for you and grateful to be part of the journey from the very beginning. When I met you, Martin, you didn't even have an idea. Look where you are now. You are moving so fast. I can only imagine where you'll be in 10 years. The future is looking bright!