A Swedish startup aiming to construct a hyperscale cloud firm in Europe has raised €50.6 million ($55 million) in Sequence A funding. Evroc, because it’s known as, says it’s laying the foundations for a “safe, sovereign and sustainable hyperscale cloud to reimagine the digital way forward for Europe.”
The announcement comes amid growing calls to create a European tech stack, one impartial of U.S. tech companies and the shifting political panorama. Simply this week, a coalition from across Europe’s tech industry known as for “radical motion” from lawmakers to cut back the area’s reliance on foreign-owned digital infrastructure, pushing for homegrown alternate options to apps, AI models, chips and the complete gamut of cloud companies.
Evroc goals to capitalize on this momentum. The three-year-old firm plans to construct knowledge facilities and an array of cloud companies. At its launch in 2023, Evroc outlined plans to determine eight knowledge facilities by 2028. At the moment, it says it has two co-location amenities in Stockholm and one other two in Paris.
By the top of second quarter of this yr, the corporate expects to have two further amenities operational in Frankfurt, with work already underway on its first flagship knowledge facilities in Sweden and France, scheduled for completion in 2026 with AI workloads as a major focus.
“They [….] are designed for the power density required for AI, the place racks can devour 20 instances what a standard server rack can,” Evroc CEO and founder Mattias Åström (pictured above) informed TechCrunch. “Each will likely be geared up with liquid cooling however may even host compute and storage servers.”
Evroc’s formal launch is slated for later this yr, with Åström including that it’s already working with early beta clients in industries requiring a “excessive want for sovereignty,” together with protection, public sector, well being care and monetary companies. He additionally hinted at further knowledge facilities coming subsequent yr, although the corporate isn’t prepared to verify specifics.
Digital sovereignty
Europe’s digital sovereignty agenda is nothing new. The truth is, most U.S. tech giants are already investing in local infrastructure to make sure compliance with EU knowledge residency laws. AI darling OpenAI also recently unveiled a brand new providing that enables clients to course of and retailer knowledge in Europe.
However with geopolitical tensions on the rise, Åström argues that management over Europe’s infrastructure issues extra than simply server places.
For instance, Donald Trump final month signed an executive order authorizing financial sanctions towards the Worldwide Felony Courtroom (ICC) within the Netherlands, accusing it of “illegitimate and baseless actions” towards the U.S. and Israel. These sanctions have an effect on how tech corporations can serve organizations, with a Guardian report indicating that the ICC depends closely on Microsoft’s Azure cloud for storing knowledge.
Elsewhere, Elon Musk — now a central determine in U.S. governmental operations — has beforehand admitted to throttling Ukrainian entry to Starlink satellites, operated by his firm SpaceX. Extra just lately, he claimed that Ukraine’s complete frontline would collapse if he selected to show it off. Though Musk later backtracked, the incident served as one more reminder of the significance of infrastructure independence. And it’s additionally why the EU is forging ahead with plans for a personal sovereign satellite tv for pc constellation to rival Starlink.
“I merely need Europe to regulate its personal future,” Åström stated. “And whereas we’re at it, attempt to construct one thing that’s higher.”
Geopolitical turmoil apart, the AI revolution implies that organizations beforehand reliant on on-premises infrastructure should now think about the cloud to totally leverage AI.
A number of European startups are already constructing cloud infrastructure in Europe, together with France’s FlexAI, Finland’s DataCrunch, and Nebius in the Netherlands — an entity that emerged from the ashes of Yandex final yr.
Nonetheless, whereas many of those gamers deal with AI computing, Evroc goals to construct an in depth, developer-friendly hyperscale cloud that’s extra akin to AWS and its ilk.
The majority of Evroc’s 60-plus staff are centered on software program improvement, unfold throughout Sweden, France, and the U.Okay. Åström famous the London hub wasn’t initially deliberate however grew to become vital to draw prime expertise from main tech companies.
“I’m truly very enthusiastic about our London workplace — that wasn’t a part of the preliminary plan, however with the intention to get extraordinarily sensible folks which might be working for the hyperscalers, it was the best choice,” Åström stated.
Present me the cash
When Evroc launched out of stealth two years ago with €13 million in funding, Åström informed TechCrunch he deliberate to boost as a lot as €3 billion in capital inside a few years. By August of final yr, information broke that Evroc had raised €42 million as a part of its Sequence A, and now the spherical has closed at €50.6 million with investments from U.S.-European enterprise agency Blisce, EQT Ventures, Norrsken VC, and Giant Ventures.
There is no such thing as a escaping the elephant within the room, although. Constructing something near what the hyperscalers have constructed requires a near-bottomless pit of money — so does Evroc nonetheless plan to boost billions?
“That’s nonetheless the case, however the important thing right here is [first] getting that software program stack,” Åström continued. “Europe has a variety of knowledge facilities, however we don’t actually have that cloud. This fairness spherical is basically serving to us construct the software program stack.”
The corporate plans to boost considerably extra capital later in 2025, following a funding mannequin much like different cloud infrastructure gamers similar to CoreWeave, which has grown its footprint by borrowing against collateral similar to Nvidia chips.
“Constructing out knowledge facilities would require a variety of further funding, however the excellent news is which you could finance that with debt,” Åström stated.
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