Verda AI Infrastructure Unicorn Raises $189M Series B

Verda raised $189 million in a Series B funding round led by Emergence Capital. The AI infrastructure company, founded in Helsinki, reached a valuation exceeding $1 billion with the oversubscribed round. Participating investors included MUFG Innovation Partners, Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company, Lifeline Ventures, 6 Degrees Capital, Tesi, and angel investors Ola Tørudbakken of Meta and Mark Saroufim of Core Auto and GPUMODE.

Company trajectory and rebrand

Ruben Bryon, an engineer from Belgium, founded the company as DataCrunch in 2020. He built his first server rack in a garage in Helsinki that year. The firm rebranded to Verda in November 2025, coinciding with a $64 million Series A funding round. It opened offices in London and San Francisco at the beginning of 2026. The latest funding round confirms its unicorn status.

Technology, clients and expansion plans

Verda provides AI-focused cloud infrastructure. Its platform offers on-demand computing capacity for AI teams, spanning physical data centres, hardware, and cloud services. The company manages data centres in Finland and Iceland powered by renewable energy. It is working on services including inference and AI research, and became an NVIDIA Preferred Partner in November 2025.

Current clients include Nokia, 1X, ExpressVPN, and Freepik. Verda plans to multiply its compute capacity over the next year. It has plans for further expansion across Europe, the United States, and Asia.

Financial performance and market context

By July, Verda’s annualised revenue run rate reached $165 million, up from $100 million. The company states it is cash-flow positive and claims its services can be up to 90% cheaper than AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. It employs about 250 people from more than 40 countries, nearly double its headcount from the previous year.

However, Verda’s total funding of $450 million is modest compared to rivals. The global AI cloud infrastructure market is valued at about $58.5 billion in 2026 and is expected to reach $297 billion by 2034, representing an annual growth rate of 22.5%. It is not yet clear whether Verda’s profitability reflects a genuine competitive advantage or is due to having raised less money than rivals.

Joe Floyd, General Partner at Emergence Capital, noted the market dynamics. "Demand for AI compute is insatiable, and the gap between demand and supply is growing," he said. Founder and CEO Ruben Bryon highlighted the regional opportunity. "AI is becoming critical infrastructure across industries, and the next few years are a pivotal window for Europe," Bryon said. Verda will use the Series B funding to accelerate product development across its platform and expand inference capabilities.