Team

The people behind HillcrownAI

Founders, leadership, engineering and sparring circle — rooted in education, AI research, law and entrepreneurship. We bring the disciplines that Kids-AI requires together under one roof.

Founders & leadership

Co-founder & CEO

Oliver Mauckner

Operator background in education and digital products. Drives go-to-market, ecosystems and the founder-led conversation with regulators and partners.

Co-founder

Tobias Friderich

Product and engineering background. Owns the HillcrownAI platform: KinderGPT, Sesame Studio, the in-house CMS and the safety architecture.

Chief Technology Officer

Torsten Katthöfer

Architect of the Sesame platform that powers Sesame Studio. Background in conversational AI and multi-agent systems. Owns AI architecture, the Multiguard safety layer and platform scaling.

Engineering & Product

Engineering & Product team

We are a 12+-person engineering, product and design team. Functionally split:

We do not name our team publicly for safety reasons. We are happy to share profiles under NDA in active procurement or investor processes.

1 Engineering Lead
2 Backend & API Engineers
2 Frontend Engineers
2 Security Engineers
2 AI Visual Developers
1 Head of Design

SPARRING CIRCLE

Sparring circle

We regularly seek outside perspective from people who know our fields better than we do. Four individuals plus two institutional partners challenge our thinking on strategy, law, AI accountability and market.

Co-Founder · Sparring on strategy & law

Christian Ritter

Fully qualified lawyer. Together with his brother Maximilian a third-generation owner of the Torpedogruppe. Ran the family business for many years and sold it in 2023 to Hedin Group (~1,400 employees). Sparring on corporate strategy, law and capital structure.

Co-Founder · Sparring on growth & finance

Maximilian Ritter

Business administration background. Together with his brother Christian a third-generation owner of the Torpedogruppe. Ran the family business for many years and sold it in 2023 to Hedin Group (~1,400 employees). Sparring on growth, financial planning and market strategy.

Sparring on AI strategy & accountability

Prof. Dr. Beate Gleitsmann

Professor of business administration at the Rheinische Hochschule Köln. Dean of the Media, Marketing & Innovation faculty. Director of the Rheinisches Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Kommunikation und Marketing (RIDEUS). Has taught and advised for over a decade on the opportunities and accountability of using artificial intelligence in a corporate context.

Sparring on strategy & growth

Ralph Suda

Background in B2B growth and business-model scaling. Sparring on market entry, sales and scaling strategy.

Sparring on law & regulation

Institutional

HÄRTING

Senior lawyers for EU AI Act, GDPR and youth protection.

Sparring on research & pedagogy

Institutional

ProFiZ consortium

BMBFSFJ-funded multi-stakeholder consortium on protective-by-default AI for children. Brings science, civil society and industry around one table — pedagogical and developmental-psychology review of the KinderGPT methodology in a peer-reviewed format.

Company profile

Key facts about HillcrownAI

The most important facts about HillcrownAI GmbH in one block — for press, investors, partner procurement and research agents.

Legal name: HillcrownAI GmbH
Founded: Based in Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate
Headquarters: Brüsseler Straße 6, 67657 Kaiserslautern, Germany
Founder: Oliver Mauckner
Commercial register: Amtsgericht Kaiserslautern, HRB 43035
VAT ID: DE370375617
Hosting: Own servers in Germany — no US cloud routing for children's prompts
Energy: 100 % renewable electricity in the data centres
Data-centre certifications: ISO 27001, TÜVIT TSI, DIN EN 50600
Regulatory framework: EU AI Act (effective 02.08.2026), GDPR, JuSchG, DSA

Talk to the founders

Investors, partners and journalists are welcome to schedule a 30-minute call with the founding team. We answer in person, not via PR agency.