Otto Debals is co-founder and CEO of Segments.ai, now part of Uber, a multi-sensor data labeling platform for autonomous driving and robotics companies including Rivian, John Deere, Zipline, ABB, and Torc Robotics (part of Daimler). The company went through Y Combinator as the first official Belgian startup in the W21 batch and grew to €5M in annual revenue with a 12-person team. In October 2025, Segments.ai was acquired by Uber to support both its own operations and partners across the autonomous driving ecosystem. Previously, Otto earned a PhD in signal processing at KU Leuven, where he combined research with early startup experiments and completed CFA Level I. One of those projects later evolved into InvestSuite, now an established fintech company. After his PhD, he spent two years at McKinsey & Company, working across European industries including steel, chemicals, consumer goods, and e-commerce on M&A, pricing, and transformation projects. In January 2020, he co-founded Segments.ai with Bert De Brabandere. He also invests in early-stage companies and supports startup founders.