For many in the communications industry, Koen Vos doesn’t need much introduction.  He has co-written a codec that most over-the-top voice communications services and apps use.  Koen worked as a senior architect at Skype since the early days for almost eight years when Skype was acquired and was a part of Microsoft.  He (co-)holds 70 patents.

He created the iSAC wideband speech codec that helped bring Skype to prominence. At Qualcomm, he laid the foundation for the WB extension of their EVRC codec, work that ended up in the new EVS codec. After joining Skype, he developed their current codec, SILK, and drove the IETF standardisation that combined SILK and Xiph.org’s CELT codecs into Opus. He has also worked on various speech enhancement algorithms (noise reduction, echo cancellation, beamforming), and large-scale data analysis and modeling.

Interestingly, Koen and his friends have been running an algo-trading fund since 2009 based on a real-time financial analysis.  Also, after leaving Skype, he worked as the chief scientist at Wire which was funded by one of the Skype founders.

CityFALCON has seen massive growth and interest since launching in 2014.  The platform now serves thousands of active traders and investors on their web, Android and iOS platforms, and supports clients including BNP Paribas through their API.  With increasing demand from clients and rapidly changing technology especially with artificial intelligence, Koen will guide the team in delivering the best experiences possible to retail and business clients.

Working at Skype was one of the most inspiring experiences of my life, and I’m truly thankful to have some of the “Skype Mafia” supporting us as advisors and investors on our adventure.

If you’d like to join our fundraising round in June 2017, please pledge your interest here.