I mostly travel between Singapore, San Francisco, Cluj (Romania) and Berlin and I really love the cities. In Berlin I experienced some of the best parties ever and in Romania I like the up-beat attitude people have their in developing the country and moving ahead. I am enjoying good cocktails and fun evenings with friends. I was born 1982 in Tettnang, Baden Württemberg (Germany). I'm German with strong roots in Romania. I'm living and working in Singapore.
Chronology
2023 - today Chief Product Officer - Grab Inc. (Singapore, SIN)
2019 - 2023 Head of GEO - Grab Inc. (Singapore, SIN)
2017 - 2019 Senior VP Engineering - Telenav Inc. (Santa Clara, USA)
2016 - today Once a year: «Mobility case study» - University of Oxford (Oxford, Great Britain)
2014 - today Co-Founder, Moderator and Chairman - Techsylvania Conference (Cluj, Romania)
2018 Lecturer on «Building international teams» - Stanford University (Stanford, USA)
2017 Founding Member - KartaView (kartaview.org) (formerly OpenStreetCam)
2014 - 2017 General Manager EU - Telenav Inc. (Cluj, Romania)
2014 Advisor / Mentor for Startups - The World Bank (Washington D.C., USA)
2014 Sale of Skobbler GmbH to Telenav Inc. (Sunnyvale, USA)
2008 - 2014 CTO / Co-Founder - Skobbler GmbH (Berlin, Germany)
2005 Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Global e-Management - University of Cologne (Cologne, Germany), NHH Norwegian School of Economics (Bergen, Norway), UDEM Universidad de Monterrey (Monterrey, Mexico)
2002 - 2004 My first startup where we developed Video-on-demand software - xod GmbH (Cologne, Germany)
Mentoring / Supporting entrepreneurs
Start-up investments
Patents
2021 « Server computer and method for verifying a location of a user device. GRABTAXI HOLDINGS PTE. LTD. » 10202103005U Pending
2021 « Method and system for gathering image training date for a machine learning model. GRABTAXI HOLDINGS PTE. LTD. » 10202106802U Pending
2013 « System and method for warning a driver of traffic-related features » US9217645B2 US Grant
2013 « Method to determine traffic characteristics in road traffic » US20140095059A1 US Application
2012 « Procedure for determining the probability of finding a parking place » US8423275B1 US Grant
2011 « Simplified procedure for storing data representing shapes » ES2577686T3 ES Grant
2009 « Mobile navigation system » DE102009052862A1 DE Application
Selected press
2025 «GrabX Hadirkan Konsep dan Inovasi ‘Untuk Semua Versi Dirimu’», NEO DEMOKRASI, Indonesia
2025 «Food for One, Rides for Teens and More: Grab Rolls Out New Features in Huge AI Push», Esquire Philippines
2025 «Introducing new solutions “For Every You” at our inaugural GrabX event», Grab, Singapore
2025 «Grab looks to AI to generate new features», Bangkok Post, Thailand
2023 «Grab appoints Philipp Kandal as Chief Product Officer» Grab, Singapore
2018 «Telenav Open Sources Its AI map-making technology to improve OpenStreetMap and announces $10,000-Prize contest» Geospatial World India
2014 «Skobbler: Verkauf an Telenav» by Alex Hofmann @ GRÜNDERSZENE Germany
2014 «US-Firma kauft Berliner Navi-Anbieter Skobbler» by Jürgen Stüber @ Berliner Morgenpost Germany
2014 «Telenav Takes On Google With New OpenStreetMap-Based Offline Navigation SDK» by Frederic Lardinois @ Techcrunch USA
2014 «Telenav Buys Skobbler For $24M To Power An OpenStreetMap Challenge To Google Maps» by Natasha Lomas @ Techcrunch USA
2014 «Building a competitor for Google maps: Skobbler gets acquired for $24 million» by Andra Zaharia @ HOW TO WEB CONFERENCE Romania
2013 «Interview with Philipp Kandal, future speaker at How to Web & mentor at Startup Spotlight» by Andra Zaharia @ HOW TO WEB CONFERENCE Romania
2012 «Skobbler wants to take on Google in the maps biz» by Ryan Kim @ GigaOM USA
2012 «No Google Maps on Kindle Fire? No problem: Skobbler launches OpenStreetMap-based ForeverMap 2» by John Koetsier @ VentureBeat USA
2012 «Apple may have partnered with Skobbler to perfect iOS 6 maps» by Meghan Kelly @ VentureBeat USA
2012 «Skobbler brings maps to Nook Tablet, Color with ForeverMap 2» by Brian Heater @ engadget USA
2012 «Map Wars: Nook Gets Maps, Navigation, Location-Based Services, As Barnes & Noble Battles Google, Apple» by Neal Ungerleider @ FastCompany USA
2012 «Skobbler launches Google Maps competitor ForeverMap 2 on Android» by Tom Cheredar @ VentureBeat USA
2012 «New app gives Google Maps some competition» by Marguerite Reardon @ CNET USA
