Prosus has appointed Ronald Hans, co-founder of WeTransfer (known as Nalden), to the position of Chief Product Officer. This is the most notable external hire in the Naspers-controlled group as it seeks to restructure the company around artificial intelligence.
He joins two internal appointments announced on Tuesday. Euro Beinat, who has been working on AI matters at Prosus since 2018, is becoming the Chief AI Officer. Paul van der Boor, formerly the Vice President of AI, is moving to the role of Chief Technology Officer. All three will report to the AI General Manager of the group, Fabrizio Bloisi.
The most significant announcement on Tuesday was Beinat's statement, where he said his goal in the new role is 'to create a leading AI laboratory in Europe.' Prosus did not provide detailed information regarding the location of such a laboratory, the number of researchers, or its cost.
These appointments are part of the reorganization being carried out by Bloisi since taking over management of Prosus and Naspers in July 2024. In June, the group informed shareholders about the transition from a passive technology investor to an 'active operator of AI-driven lifestyle ecosystems.' In March, the company presented its own large commerce model trained on transaction data from iFood, OLX, PayU, and other its platforms, rather than text data.
Tuesday's announcement describes this work as a 'unified intelligence layer' built on the purchasing behavior of a billion customers, which the new team must transform into products for companies and small businesses within the Prosus ecosystem.
Fabrizio Bloisi stated in his announcement: 'With this team, we are implementing the best product leaders in Europe onto one of the world's largest sets of commercial data. I want Prosus to act like a startup and learn like a platform, ten times faster.'
Founding WeTransfer
Nalden co-founded WeTransfer in 2009 and turned it into a file-sharing service used by tens of millions of people with virtually no external investment. The company was sold to the Italian Bending Spoons in 2024.
The urgency of the situation is not only technological. Over two years, within the four-year period determining Bloisi's $100 million award, the market value of combined Naspers and Prosus decreased, falling to approximately $94 billion by March from $100 billion the previous year. To secure this award, it needs to reach $168 billion by June 2028.