Startup Fundraising

Verda Raises €100M for AI Cloud Infrastructure Expansion

Verda secures €100M in funding to expand its AI cloud infrastructure globally, challenging AWS and Azure with cost-effective solutions.

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Alvaro de la Maza

Partner at Aninver

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Key Takeaways

  • Verda raised $100.0M (Series C) from Lifeline Ventures, byFounders, Tesi, Varma.
  • Sector: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Digital Infrastructure, Technology, Software & Gaming.
  • Geography: Finland, Europe, United States, United Kingdom.

Analysis

Helsinki-based AI cloud infrastructure provider Verda has successfully closed a substantial funding round, securing €100 million in a mix of equity and debt. This significant capital injection is earmarked for aggressive international expansion and a hiring spree, with plans to onboard over 100 new professionals this year. The company, formerly known as DataCrunch before rebranding in late 2025, aims to disrupt the established hyperscale cloud market by offering specialized, high-performance GPU computing capacity.

The equity portion of this latest financing was spearheaded by Lifeline Ventures, with crucial participation from byFounders, Tesi, and Varma, alongside other key investors. Complementing this, a consortium of Nordic financial institutions provided debt financing. This marks Verda's third major funding milestone, following a €12 million seed round in 2024 and a €55 million Series A in September 2025, underscoring a rapid growth trajectory in the competitive AI sector.

Verda differentiates itself through a vertically integrated model, managing the entire infrastructure stack from physical servers and data centers to the software tools developers utilize. This approach allows the company to offer AI-optimized systems, including advanced HGX servers, with remarkable cost efficiencies, claiming potential savings of up to 90% compared to major providers like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. The company emphasizes its commitment to sustainability, with its Finnish data centers powered entirely by renewable energy, aligning with its name derived from Spanish and Esperanto for "true" and "green."

“We are constructing the next generation of AI cloud infrastructure for pioneering global teams,” stated Ruben Bryon, founder and CEO of Verda. “This funding empowers us to accelerate our development efforts and broaden our reach across Europe, the United States, and Asia.” The company's strategic positioning as an NVIDIA Preferred Partner further solidifies its technical capabilities and market access, serving notable clients such as Nokia, 1X, ExpressVPN, and Freepik.

The company's operational performance is robust, reporting positive operating cash flow and a doubling of annualized revenue in the first quarter of 2026, surpassing €51.3 million. This financial strength, combined with the new capital, will fuel expansion into key markets like the United Kingdom and the United States. Verda's CEO, Ruben Bryon, highlighted the critical advantage of their end-to-end control: “A key part of our success is that we are vertically integrated and manage everything ourselves, from the physical infrastructure to the application layer.”

Furthermore, Verda fosters innovation through a dedicated AI lab team that collaborates directly with clients. Insights gleaned from these partnerships are directly integrated into product development, ensuring the platform remains at the cutting edge of AI computing needs. This customer-centric approach, coupled with a cost-effective and sustainable infrastructure, positions Verda as a formidable challenger in the rapidly evolving AI cloud services market.