DataCrunch raises $64M in funding to build Europe’s first AI cloud hyperscaler and challenge US giants

Europe’s cloud market has long been dominated by American heavyweights, leaving local players with little more than scraps. DataCrunch, a Helsinki-based AI cloud startup betting on sovereign AI infrastructure, just secured $64 million in Series A funding to change that. The raise brings its total to $89 million and fuels its push to become Europe’s first AI cloud hyperscaler.

The round was led by byFounders, Skaala, Varma pension fund, and Tesi, with support from J12 Ventures and several angel investors. Debt financing was provided by Nordea and Armada Credit Partners, with participation from Danske Bank, Norion Bank, and Local Tapiola.

Founded in 2020 by CEO Ruben Bryon, DataCrunch has been building a one-stop platform for AI development—offering fast and affordable access to GPU clusters optimized for research, training, and inference. Customers like Sony, Freepik, Schibsted, 1X, Unbabel, and a roster of universities are already using its services.

DataCrunch’s $64M Series A Fuels Europe’s Push for Sovereign AI Cloud Infrastructure

The company is among the first globally to deploy NVIDIA’s HGX B200 systems, with plans to add the B300 and GB300. With the new capital, DataCrunch will expand its infrastructure, scale its team, and roll out new services powered by NVIDIA’s latest-generation hardware.

One of its most ambitious moves is a proposal submitted to the European Commission to build an AI gigafactory in Latvia. The facility would deploy around 100,000 AI accelerators, dedicated to large-scale model training and inference. The project aims to provide startups, SMEs, and research institutions across the EU with secure, regulation-compliant compute resources—all running on renewable energy.

Europe’s dependency on U.S. tech giants has become a sore spot. Amazon, Google, and Microsoft together control nearly 70% of the region’s cloud market, while the largest European provider holds just 2%. That imbalance raises concerns around sovereignty, cost, and compliance. DataCrunch is trying to shift the balance by offering an alternative: infrastructure built in Europe, operated in Europe, and powered by green energy.

Its operations in Finland and Iceland give it access to clean, low-cost electricity—an advantage in an era where energy-hungry AI workloads are straining data centers. The company’s entire platform runs on 100% renewable energy, a claim few cloud providers at hyperscale can make.

Product development has been fast. DataCrunch launched Instant Clusters for distributed AI workloads, earning a bronze rating in SemiAnalysis’s GPU Cloud ClusterMAX™ rankings—on par with Google Cloud and ahead of over a hundred competitors. Its Serverless Containers product now handles hundreds of millions of inference requests each month. Upcoming features include managed Kubernetes, geographically distributed object storage, and managed inference endpoints for generative AI models.

“European organisations are facing a critical choice: continue depending on foreign cloud providers or invest in local infrastructure that offers true data sovereignty,” said Ruben Bryon, CEO and Co-founder of DataCrunch. “This funding enables us to accelerate our vision of becoming Europe’s first AI cloud hyperscaler, providing enterprises with cutting-edge infrastructure that keeps their data secure, their operations compliant, and their environmental impact minimal.”

The startup has grown to 60 employees representing 27 nationalities, mainly based in Helsinki, underscoring its international ambitions. For backers, the bet is that DataCrunch can grow into a credible European counterweight to Silicon Valley’s cloud giants, while anchoring its model in sustainability.

“DataCrunch exemplifies the type of European tech leadership that’s essential today,” said Henrik Rosendahl, a board member. “As AI becomes increasingly integral to business operations, European enterprises are seeking infrastructure partners who not only grasp complex regulatory landscapes but also share their sustainability values. DataCrunch delivers on both, while providing access to the most advanced AI compute on the market.”

With a mix of private capital, government collaboration, and green infrastructure, DataCrunch is staking its claim as Europe’s homegrown challenger to Big Tech’s grip on the AI cloud.