Finnish AI Cloud Company Verda Raises $189M, Now a Unicorn
Verda, an AI cloud company headquartered in Helsinki and formerly known as DataCrunch, has secured $189 million in a Series B funding round led by Emergence Capital. The round was oversubscribed, with additional investments from MUFG Innovation Partners, Supermicro, Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company, Lifeline Ventures, 6 Degrees Capital, byFounders, and the Finnish state investor Tesi. Angel investors include Ola Tørudbakken from Meta and Mark Saroufim from Core Auto and GPUMODE.
Five months ago, Lifeline Ventures led a $117 million round that combined equity with debt from Nordic lenders, which subsequently increased to $155 million with the participation of the Nordic Investment Bank.
Verda, founded in 2020, offers compute and platform services to teams developing frontier AI systems and agents. The funds will be used for product development across these areas, with a particular focus on inference, and to significantly increase its computing capacity within a year.
"AI is becoming critical infrastructure across industries, and the next few years are a pivotal window for Europe," said Ruben Bryon, Verda's founder and CEO. "Our north star is to build the first true tech company in Europe, with AI infrastructure as the starting foundation, and to bring down the carbon footprint of compute worldwide."
The company boasts an impressive annualized revenue run rate of $165 million as of July, a significant jump from the $60 million reported at the time of the April round.
Verda is expanding globally with new offices in London and San Francisco and plans to further extend its reach across Europe, the US, and Asia.
Ana-Maria Stanciuc, Editor-in-Chief at TNW, adds:
"Growth has been quick. Verda is positioning itself to shape AI infrastructure on a global scale, addressing the growing demand for AI compute and the need to reduce its environmental impact."