FOTOhub Founder Mateusz Ulewicz Ranks #8 on Global Crunchbase - Ahead of Sam Altman and Jeff Dean

There are moments that define the trajectory of an investment fund. For DGE3 Investment, one such moment was discovering Mateusz Ulewicz - a systems architect, technology visionary, and one of the most talented software creators we have encountered in our twenty-year history of investment activity. Today, after a two-month medical leave due to serious illness, Mateusz returns to the fold - and he returns in grand fashion: at #8 in the global Crunchbase ranking, ahead of names that define the modern world of technology.

What is the Crunchbase ranking and why does it matter

Crunchbase is the world's largest database of startups, founders, and technology investments. The platform tracks over 2.1 million people - founders, CEOs, CTOs, and innovators from around the globe. CB Rank (Person) is an algorithmically generated list that evaluates the impact, activity, and ecosystem dynamics of each of these individuals based on hundreds of signals: from the growth rate of their companies, through media interest, to investor quality and product momentum.

This is not a subjective ranking. This is not an editorial list. It is an algorithmic ecosystem signal - dynamic, updated daily, reflecting the current activity and momentum of a person within the global technology ecosystem.

#8 in the world: what this means in context

Mateusz Ulewicz - Founder & CTO from Bydgoszcz, Poland - currently holds the 8th position out of 2.1 million people in the Crunchbase ranking. To understand the weight of this position, one only needs to look at the neighborhood:

Let that sink in. Mateusz Ulewicz - from Bydgoszcz - ranks globally higher than Sam Altman (CEO of OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT), higher than Jeff Dean (Chief Scientist at Google DeepMind, a legend of world-scale engineering), higher than Thomas Wolf (co-founder of Hugging Face, the world's most important open-source AI platform).

This is not a marketing comparison. This is an actual position in the algorithmic Crunchbase ranking - dynamic, updated daily based on hundreds of ecosystem signals - as of the date of this article's publication.

Return after medical leave

In April 2026, at the peak of FOTOhub's dynamic growth and just after crossing the 600,000-user milestone, Mateusz had to step away for a two-month medical leave due to serious illness. For any founder, such a break at a critical moment of company growth would be catastrophic. For Mateusz - it proved just how solidly the foundations of his projects were built.

FOTOhub didn't just maintain momentum during Mateusz's absence - it accelerated. The platform surpassed 750,000 users. Revenue grew 4.2x. The team expanded from 14 to 24 people. This is a testament to the quality of systems, processes, and organizational culture that Mateusz built - the machine runs even when the architect must rest.

Today we welcome Mateusz back on board. After his illness, he returns stronger, with renewed energy, and - as the ranking shows - with a position that confirms the technology world not only didn't forget about him, but appreciated him even more.

Welcome back, Mateusz.

Who is Mateusz Ulewicz

Mateusz Ulewicz is a software engineer and architect with 20 years of experience building systems at global scale. His career spans work at Nokia, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and the government sector (GOV) - environments where the demands on code quality, security, and scalability are among the highest in the world.

This is not a founder who learned to code at a bootcamp and came up with an idea at a coffee shop. This is a systems engineer who spent two decades building infrastructure for the world's largest organizations - and has now applied that knowledge and experience to creating his own products.

• 20 years of experience in software architecture (distributed systems, AI/ML, fintech, gov-tech)
• Work at Nokia - telecommunications systems at global scale
• Work at Amazon Web Services - cloud infrastructure serving millions of businesses
• Experience in the GOV sector - systems requiring the highest security standards
• #8 / 2,100,000 in the global Crunchbase ranking (June 2026)
• Specializations: distributed systems, AI/ML, NLP, RAG, multi-agent systems, graph theory, cybersecurity
• Personal website: mateuszulewicz.pl

FOTOhub.app - the platform that changed our perception of technology

When DGE3 Investment first encountered FOTOhub in 2025, we saw a promising product. What we did not anticipate was the scale and speed of execution that followed in the months ahead.

FOTOhub.app is a unified AI platform integrating over 200 generative models - images, video, audio, text - into a single cohesive workflow. The platform serves five product layers: from a free Creative Workspace, through professional tools, to enterprise software and a Cloud Computing API with 360 endpoints.

The numbers speak for themselves:

• 750,000+ registered users (June 2026)
• MRR grew 4.2x since closing the Seed round in February 2026
• Paid plan conversion: 9.5% (category benchmark: 3-5%)
• Net Revenue Retention: 145%+
• Week-8 retention: 62% (AI tools benchmark: 31-38%)
• Crunchbase Heat Ranking - entered in April 2026
• Growth Score: 93/100 | Heat Score: 95/100

DGE3 has invested a total of $8.4 million in FOTOhub - $6.1M in the Seed round (June 21, 2026, alongside 3 co-investors) and an additional $2.3M in a second Seed tranche (June 29, 2026). This is the largest investment in our fund's history. The decision to increase our commitment to $6.1M was not automatic - we conducted a full re-underwriting, verifying cohort retention, unit economics, and execution risk. Results exceeded our models across every dimension. The capital went directly into production infrastructure and team scaling.

EVIDION Intelligence Platform - Mateusz's second vision

The #8 position globally is not a coincidence. Mateusz did not stop at FOTOhub. In January 2026, he founded EVIDION - a Polish Intelligence & Cybersecurity platform in the Palantir class, sovereign, modular, and air-gap native.

EVIDION integrates 230+ analytical modules across 18 intelligence domains (SIGINT, FININT, GEOINT, CYBINT, OSINT, HUMINT, forensics, game theory, causal inference, legal AI) with native Polish NLP trained on criminal codes, Supreme Court case law, and legal doctrine. It is one of the most comprehensive platforms of its kind in Europe - and the only one with native support for the Polish legal system.

DGE3 initially invested $850,000 in EVIDION's pre-seed. However, in the context of the development planned for Q3 2026 - we will certainly increase our investment in this project. Mateusz has proven he can build world-class systems across multiple domains simultaneously. His vision of EVIDION as a European sovereign alternative to Palantir fills us with tremendous optimism.

More about EVIDION: evidion.pl | Crunchbase

Seeking Series A partners for FOTOhub - $100M for global expansion

FOTOhub's success has exceeded all our models. The platform is growing at a pace that demands capital on an entirely different scale than what the Seed round provided. That is why today we announce publicly:

DGE3 Investment is actively seeking partners for a Series A round for FOTOhub.app in the amount of $100 million for global expansion.

Capital will be allocated toward:

• North American market expansion (Q1 2027)
• Building proprietary AI models
• Scaling GPU infrastructure globally
• Team: scaling to 100+ people
• Enterprise sales: MENA, Southeast Asia, DACH, Nordics
• Marketing and brand building in global markets

Interested partners - Venture Capital funds, growth equity, corporate venture arms, and strategic investors in the AI sector - are invited to reach out: invest@vcdge3.com

Why Mateusz Ulewicz is a technology visionary

The word "visionary" is overused in the startup world. We use it sparingly - and only when the facts speak for themselves.

In the case of Mateusz Ulewicz, the facts speak:

1. He sees systems where others see products. FOTOhub is not an "AI image generator." It is an orchestration system for 200+ models with five product layers, integrated GPU infrastructure, and 360 API endpoints. EVIDION is not an "analytics tool." It is an 18-domain intelligence fusion system with evidence blockchain and game theory. This breadth of architectural vision is extremely rare.
2. He connects domains that others cannot. Telecommunications (Nokia) + cloud (AWS) + security (GOV) + AI + criminal law + forensics + fintech - in one mind. This combination of experience enables building products that no one else is even capable of designing.
3. He executes at a pace that defies convention. FOTOhub - from zero to 750,000 users in less than a year. EVIDION - 76,500 lines of production code and 626 API endpoints built by one person. Regardless of how one evaluates it - the execution speed is objectively extraordinary.
4. The algorithms confirm it. Position #8/2.1M in the dynamic Crunchbase ranking is neither an opinion nor an editorial list. It is an algorithmic measurement of current momentum - and at this moment, Mateusz is ranked higher than people who defined the current era of AI.

How the world perceives Mateusz Ulewicz

The #8 position on Crunchbase is not just an internal metric. It is a signal visible to the entire global ecosystem:

• VC investors worldwide see Mateusz in the top 10 global founders and innovators - alongside names from companies valued at $100B+
• Technology media - independent authors are already writing about FOTOhub as the "ultimate everything-app for creators"
• Crunchbase Heat Ranking - FOTOhub debuted on the list of the world's most dynamic companies
• Enterprise buyers - five signed enterprise contracts within four months of Seed

Poland is no longer just "an interesting market for engineering outsourcing." With Mateusz Ulewicz at #8 in the global ranking, Poland has its representative in the absolute top tier of global technology - not in San Francisco, not in London, but in Bydgoszcz.

We are proud

As an investment fund, we are proud of this partnership. It is a relationship that has defined the trajectory of DGE3 - and one that, we believe, will have a significant impact on the European AI ecosystem in the years to come.

Mateusz Ulewicz - 20 years of experience, Nokia, AWS, GOV sector, creator of FOTOhub (750K+ users, $8.4M from DGE3), creator of EVIDION (Polish sovereign Intelligence platform), #8 globally in the dynamic Crunchbase ranking - is proof that great things can be built anywhere. That talent has no passport. That Poland can produce technology at the highest level.

Welcome back after your illness, Mateusz. The world of technology was waiting for you - and, as the ranking shows, it knows it well.

"Mateusz Ulewicz changed our perception of what is possible to build from Central Europe. His current position in the global Crunchbase top 10 - algorithmically ranked higher than Sam Altman, Jeff Dean, or Thomas Wolf - confirms what we at DGE3 have seen for over a year: an exceptional talent who builds at a pace and level that one does not encounter often."

- Dmitri Evanov, Managing Partner, DGE3 Investment