Jean-Baptiste Kempf

Jean-Baptiste Kempf (born March 30, 1983) is a French computer engineer and entrepreneur. He is a major contributor to the VideoLAN project and VLC software.

Career Kempf joined École Centrale Paris in 2003 and quickly became involved with VLC. In 2004, it surpassed one million downloads. By 2006, when the project had lost momentum, Kempf took a leadership role, restructuring the team and cleaning up the codebase.

In 2008, Kempf founded the VideoLAN organization to separate VLC from the university. He worked in San Francisco briefly for the French consulate but returned to France disillusioned. Inspired by Silicon Valley, he adopted its methods to advance VLC, which reached over 100 million users globally by 2009.

In 2012, Kempf founded Videolabs, a for-profit tech startup that develops services and tools around VLC and video in general. This structure allowed him to decline acquisition offers, some of which have reached several million euros. As of 2017, Videolabs sustained both Kempf and the VLC project financially. On 7 November 2025, Jean-Baptiste Kempf received the European SFS Award.