Jonas Andrulis is back. The man who built one of Europe’s most talked about AI startups and then walked away from it has just pulled off something the German tech world rarely sees. 19Andrulis today introduced CNTR, the name under which his newly founded AI company will operate, and announced the appointment of Alejandro Molina as Chief Technology Officer. 19Molina joins from Apple and will relocate from the U.S. West Coast to Europe to lead the development of the company’s technology platform.
In an industry obsessed with replacing humans, CNTR is betting on something different. And it just convinced a top researcher to leave Silicon Valley to prove it.
What Is CNTR and Why Does the Name Matter?
19 The name refers to so-called “centaur chess,” where teams of humans and computers used to compete together and often outperform both humans and machines working alone. 19 CNTR applies this idea to knowledge work and organizational processes, arguing that the next generation of AI systems will be built around structured collaboration between humans and machines rather than automation alone. 19 At the same time, CNTR can also be read as “center,” reflecting the company’s ambition to place human expertise at the center of AI-supported value creation and decision processes.
The startup is not trying to build another language model. 19CNTR develops collaborative AI systems designed to integrate human ingenuity directly into agent-backed workflows and decision-making. 1Its tech means that AI agents can ask humans clarifying questions, helping negate hallucinations.
Think of it this way. Most AI tools today are built to run without you. CNTR is built to run with you.
CNTR collaborative AI startup Jonas Andrulis Roland Berger Germany
Apple Researcher Moves to Germany as CTO
2 Alejandro Molina, a leading AI researcher from Apple, will serve as Chief Technology Officer. His move from the U.S. West Coast to Frankfurt is being seen as a big win for the German tech scene, which has long suffered from a “brain drain.”
Molina is not a newcomer to the European AI world. 18After earning his M.Sc. from the University of Freiburg in 2012, he began his Ph.D. in Machine Learning at TU Dortmund and completed it at TU Darmstadt in 2021. He graduated summa cum laude and received the Best Dissertation Award from the German Informatics Society.
17 Molina is described as an award-winning scientist, entrepreneur and innovation leader at Amazon and Apple, with experience on the forefront of research innovations for causality, generative AI and a pioneer in building large-scale systems.
In his own words about joining CNTR, Molina said: 19“While language models are becoming a commodity, the role of humans is still stuck in the last era. CNTR is a fundamentally new approach that changes this. I consider this technology essential for the substantive breakthroughs of the future, and as a researcher, I find it incredibly inspiring.”
Convincing a researcher of this caliber to leave Apple and cross an ocean says something powerful about what Andrulis is building.
Roland Berger Backs the Venture as Sole Investor
19 Jonas Andrulis founded CNTR in February 2026. Sole investor and strategic partner for the company’s build-up and scaling is the global consultancy firm Roland Berger. In addition to capital, the consultancy provides the process and industry expertise required to commercialize the technology.
This is not a typical investor-startup relationship. Here is what makes the Roland Berger partnership unique:
- 2 The alliance gives CNTR direct access to Roland Berger’s industrial client base, especially in the DACH region.
- 20 The startup’s AI innovation is deliberately designed to be technology-agnostic and can be deployed independently of clients’ existing technology stacks.
- 19 The leadership team is complemented by Roland Berger’s Global Managing Partner Stefan Schaible, who also serves as Chief Operating Officer at CNTR.
20 Roland Berger generated revenues of around 1 billion euros in 2024. Having a consultancy of that scale not just writing checks but actively co-building the startup gives CNTR something most early-stage companies lack: immediate credibility with enterprise buyers. 2 CNTR’s headquarters is in Frankfurt, with additional locations planned in Munich.
The Road From Aleph Alpha to a Fresh Start
Andrulis knows what it takes to build an AI company in Europe. He also knows the pain of watching one slip away.
4 Aleph Alpha was founded in 2019 by Jonas Andrulis and Samuel Weinbach. 27 Once billed as Germany’s answer to OpenAI, Aleph Alpha was seen as a national champion comparable to Mistral in France, raising a $500m Series B in 2023, backed by the Schwarz Group, Bosch Ventures and SAP. 27 But the company struggled to keep pace with the global AI race, ultimately pivoting from building LLMs to advising governments and other businesses on how to use the technology. 31 When Andrulis announced his transition from CEO to chairman in October 2025, many headlines described it as the end of an era. 29 It later became known that Andrulis was leaving Aleph Alpha entirely, including the advisory board.
Key Timeline: Jonas Andrulis’s AI Journey
- 2016 to 2019: Senior AI R&D Manager at Apple’s Special Projects Group
- 2019: Co-founded Aleph Alpha in Heidelberg, Germany
- 2023: Aleph Alpha raised $500M+ in Series B funding
- October 2025: Stepped down as CEO of Aleph Alpha
- January 2026: Left Aleph Alpha entirely
- February 2026: Founded CNTR with Roland Berger backing
- March 2026: Revealed CNTR name and appointed Alejandro Molina as CTO
In a candid interview earlier this year, 29Andrulis said about his future that it was simple: he can only do one thing. And that is AI.
Why Collaborative AI Could Change the Game for Industry
Most companies pouring money into AI are running into the same wall. The technology works in a lab. It stumbles in a factory.
20 Andrulis himself put it bluntly: “Many companies are deploying AI today without achieving the productivity gains they expected. In many cases, the issue is not the technology itself, but the fact that AI solutions are insufficiently connected to real-world business operations.”
CNTR’s approach goes well beyond the typical “human-in-the-loop” setup. 20The new collaborative AI approach places humans at the center of decision logic, going well beyond a traditional “human-in-the-loop” model.
2 CNTR enters a market that is increasingly skeptical of opaque “black box” AI solutions. The startup positions itself as a “trust infrastructure” for AI in regulated industries like finance, healthcare and manufacturing. 2 Molina’s team is already developing proprietary decision systems. First pilot projects with industrial clients are expected to launch later this year.
At a time when headlines are filled with AI anxiety, layoff fears and questions about who benefits from automation, CNTR is offering a different story. It is a story where humans do not get pushed aside. They get pulled in. Whether Andrulis and his team can turn that vision into a billion-dollar business remains to be seen. But one thing is clear: Europe just gained a startup worth watching, and Silicon Valley just lost a researcher who believes the future of AI is not about replacing people but about working alongside them. Drop your thoughts in the comments below and tell us what you think about this new approach to AI.
