AI coding platform Anthropic has hired Guillaume Princen, the architect behind Stripe's European operations, as head of Emea, as the firm prepares to hire 100 new staff for a push into Europe.
Princen was Stripe's first employee outside the United States when he joined in 2014. During his seven years there, he built and scaled Stripe's European operations, opening 12 offices and leading Stripe's successful expansion in Europe.
Most recently he served as CEO of Mooncard, the European expense management platform.
Princen's arrival and recruitment drive comes hard on the heels of a $3.5 billion fund raise at a $61.5 billion post-money valuation, for Anthropic and its ChatGPT equivalent Claude.
“Our expansion across Europe and the UK comes at a critical moment when businesses need advanced AI capabilities that also prioritize security and privacy,” says Princen. “European organizations are increasingly choosing Claude for its intelligence, speed, and industry-leading coding abilities, while consumers — particularly the tastemakers—are drawn to its certain je ne sais quoi in conversation and thoughtful design. To meet this remarkable demand, we're creating over 100 new roles this year dedicated to supporting our growing European customer base and ensuring our approach to responsible AI development continues to align with the region's high expectations.”
Over the next year Anthropic intends to hire a variety of roles across sales, engineering, research, and business operations, primarily across its Dublin and London offices. Anthropic already employs around 50 people in London, including Cyprien de Masson d'Autume, an ex-SocGen engineer and Google DeepMind researcher who joined as a member of technical staff in January.
Today's announcement builds on Anthropic's growing European footprint, which expanded earlier this year with the opening of a small research-focused office in Zurich led by AI scientist Neil Houlsby.
Daniela Amodei, president and co-founder of Anthropic, says: “Emea has been central to our vision from the beginning. Since launching Claude in Europe last year, we've seen rapid organic growth amongst businesses and consumers alike, confirming the region’s strategic importance to Anthropic's future. We've long planned to deepen our investment here, and finding the right leadership in Guillaume was the critical piece that allowed us to move forward with the thoughtful expansion we envision.”