Velatir secures €5 million to grant European companies autonomy over their own AI.
Velatir, a startup based in Odense that offers companies a way to see and manage the AI tools their employees are currently utilizing, has successfully secured €5 million in seed funding just six months after completing its pre-seed round.
The funding round was co-led by Spintop Ventures, a Nordic early-stage investment firm entering the company for the first time, and Ugly Duckling Ventures, the Danish fund that spearheaded the previous round. Norrsken Evolve, which also participated in the pre-seed funding, returned for this round. Two angel investors joined the funding: Jan Oberhauser, founder and CEO of the workflow automation firm n8n, and Thomas Visti, formerly the chief commercial officer at Universal Robots and later the CEO of Mobile Industrial Robots. Velatir notes Visti as a former CEO of both companies. Additionally, EIFO, the Danish state export and investment fund, contributed with a match loan.
The pre-seed funding in February amounted to DKK 10 million, around €1.35 million, making this new round nearly four times larger in just six months. Velatir claims that sales have increased rapidly since its inception, allowing the seed funding to be arranged in just two weeks. The company has not revealed details about its revenue, customer count, or its valuation.
The platform is structured to integrate seamlessly across various areas where AI impacts an organization, such as endpoints, browsers, vendors, agents, employees, and the underlying infrastructure. It provides real-time reporting on which tools are being utilized and by whom, what data is processed through them and at what expense, consolidating policy guidelines into a single location instead of letting them be dispersed across individual systems.
Moreover, it maintains a directory of over 4,000 AI tools, which the company refers to as an app store. All operations are conducted on European-owned and hosted infrastructure, a strategic choice that the company highlights as a conscious decision to avoid reliance on the American hyperscalers that dominate most enterprise software.
This decision aligns with a wider initiative, as Brussels has been working over the past year on a tech sovereignty package targeting this dependency. “'Sovereign cloud' is a common term, often referring to American platforms that come with a European label,” stated Christian Møller, co-founder and COO. “From the start, we built Velatir on infrastructure that is European-owned and hosted. It's the more challenging route, but for us, it is the only sustainable option.”
The four founders bring experience from the fields their product caters to. Michael Sørensen, the CEO, previously led security audits across Meta’s data center portfolio and spent years in the Danish Defence focused on electronic warfare. Møller, who has a legal background, was involved in AI Act and DORA implementation at one of Europe’s largest financial groups. Elias Sørensen, the chief technology officer, holds a patent for AI-based vehicle control. Andreas Paulli, the chief product officer, was responsible for rebuilding the Cookiebot admin dashboard at Usercentrics.
The funding will be allocated towards expanding in Europe and hiring in a market where the sovereign enterprise AI sector has become increasingly competitive. Velatir aims to establish itself as the fastest-growing AI company in Europe.
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Velatir secures €5 million to grant European companies autonomy over their own AI.
Velatir, located in Odense, has secured €5 million in funding, co-led by Spintop Ventures and Ugly Duckling Ventures, just six months following its pre-seed round.
