A Swedish startup aiming to construct a hyperscale cloud firm in Europe has raised €50.6 million ($55 million) in Collection 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 rising calls to create a European tech stack, one impartial of U.S. tech corporations and the shifting political panorama. Simply this week, a coalition from throughout Europe’s tech trade known as for “radical motion” from lawmakers to cut back the area’s reliance on foreign-owned digital infrastructure, pushing for homegrown options to apps, AI fashions, chips and the complete gamut of cloud providers.
Evroc goals to capitalize on this momentum. The three-year-old firm plans to construct information facilities and an array of cloud providers. At its launch in 2023, Evroc outlined plans to determine eight information facilities by 2028. At this time, it says it has two co-location services in Stockholm and one other two in Paris.
By the top of second quarter of this yr, the corporate expects to have two further services operational in Frankfurt, with work already underway on its first flagship information facilities in Sweden and France, scheduled for completion in 2026 with AI workloads as a main focus.
“They [….] are designed for the power density required for AI, the place racks can devour 20 occasions what a conventional server rack can,” Evroc CEO and founder Mattias Åström (pictured above) informed TechCrunch. “Each will probably be geared up with liquid cooling however can 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 prospects in industries requiring a “excessive want for sovereignty,” together with protection, public sector, well being care and monetary providers. He additionally hinted at further information facilities coming subsequent yr, although the corporate isn’t prepared to substantiate specifics.
Digital sovereignty
Europe’s digital sovereignty agenda is nothing new. In reality, most U.S. tech giants are already investing in native infrastructure to make sure compliance with EU information residency rules. AI darling OpenAI additionally lately unveiled a brand new providing that enables prospects to course of and retailer information in Europe.
However with geopolitical tensions on the rise, Åström argues that management over Europe’s infrastructure issues extra than simply server areas.
For instance, Donald Trump final month signed an govt order authorizing financial sanctions towards the Worldwide Prison 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 information.
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 lately, he claimed that Ukraine’s total 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 forward with plans for a personal sovereign satellite tv for pc constellation to rival Starlink.
“I merely need Europe to manage 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 contemplate 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 within 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 intensive, developer-friendly hyperscale cloud that’s extra akin to AWS and its ilk.
The majority of Evroc’s 60-plus staff are targeted on software program growth, unfold throughout Sweden, France, and the U.Okay. Åström famous the London hub wasn’t initially deliberate however grew to become vital to draw high expertise from main tech corporations.
“I’m truly very enthusiastic about our London workplace — that wasn’t a part of the preliminary plan, however in an effort to get extraordinarily sensible individuals which can be working for the hyperscalers, it was the fitting choice,” Åström stated.
Present me the cash
When Evroc launched out of stealth two years in the past 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 Collection 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 Big 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 plenty of information facilities, however we don’t actually have that cloud. This fairness spherical is admittedly 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 akin to CoreWeave, which has grown its footprint by borrowing towards collateral akin to Nvidia chips.
“Constructing out information facilities would require plenty of further funding, however the excellent news is you can finance that with debt,” Åström stated.
