Stealth AI Founders Of France: March Edition

Chris O'Brien -

This new feature goes behind the cryptic status updates on LinkedIn to unearth the details of AI Stealth founders who are either French or based in France. This is part of our expanding French AI Radar that provides exclusive information to readers about what's happening beneath the surface of the French AI revolution.

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Chaine (Charlene) V. San Buenaventura

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chaine-san-buenaventura-676070bb/

Startup: Estyl.ai, Voilalabs

Role: Founder

Website: Estyl.ai

Contact: c.sanbuenaventura@estyl.ai

Biography:

San Buenaventura is a specialist in Deep Learning and Data Science, contributing to AI development through academic research and practical applications. Originally from the Philippines, she received her Ph.D. in computer science from Trinity College Dublin in 2021, with a focus on “Personalisation for AI-driven Conversational Digital Assistants.”  In 2019, she co-authored a research paper titled "Deep Learning for Smartphone-Based Human Activity Recognition Using Multi-sensor Fusion" with Nestor Michael C. Tiglao. It is one of 57 academic research papers attributed to her.

In 2020, San Buenaventura was featured as a speaker at FEU Tech Innovation Center's first Tech Talk series, where she shared her expertise in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. Last year, she gave a tutorial “on the transformative capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs) like GPT-3 and GPT-4 in revolutionizing the field of information retrieval” at the Open Data Science Conference (ODSC).

After finishing her Ph.D., she relocated to Paris, joining Wizy.io as “Head of AI & Lead Machine Learning Engineer.” The company describes its mission as helping “Frontline Workers by delivering Innovative Digital Cloud Solutions that require no code.” San Buenaventura left in November 2023.

Startup Overview

Her LinkedIn page lists her as co-founder of a Stealth company since June 2024. According to her bio for the ODSC conference in 2024, she was “co-founder of Voilabs, an early-stage AI startup based in Paris specializing in voice chatbots for customer service. They are exploring the transformative capabilities of AI in reshaping digital interactions and are committed to driving innovation in this space.”

However, she now appears to be a co-founder of Estyl.ai, according to Crunchbase. The company is based in Milan, Italy, and is an AI-powered fashion platform with the tagline "like magic". The company’s mobile application uses AI to provide personalized style recommendations. The company raised €600,000 in pre-seed financing, including €100,000 in equity investment from Oblivion S.r.l. and a €500,000 bank loan from Unicredit. Estyl.ai is preparing to launch its Minimum Viable Product (MVP) by spring 2025.