Evroc Raises €50.6M to Build Sovereign European Hyperscale Cloud and AI Infrastructure

Amid calls for sovereign EU tech stack, Evroc raises $55M to build a hyperscale cloud in Europe

A Swedish startup aiming to build a hyperscale cloud company in Europe has raised €50.6 million ($55 million) in Series A funding. Evroc, as it's called, says it's laying the foundations for a "secure, sovereign and sustainable hyperscale cloud to reimagine the digital future of Europe." The announcement comes amid growing calls to create a European tech stack, one independent of U.S. tech firms and the shifting political landscape. Just this week, a coalition from across Europe's tech industry called for "radical action" from lawmakers to reduce the region's reliance on foreign-owned digital infrastructure, pushing for homegrown alternatives to apps, AI models, chips and the full gamut of cloud services. Evroc aims to capitalize on this momentum. The three-year-old company plans to build data centers and an array of cloud services. At its launch in 2023, Evroc outlined plans to establish eight data centers by 2028. Today, it says it has two co-location facilities in Stockholm and another two in Paris. By the end of second quarter of this year, the company expects to have two additional facilities operational in Frankfurt, with work already underway on its first flagship data centers in Sweden and France, scheduled for completion in 2026 with AI workloads as a primary focus. "They [....] are designed for the energy density required for AI, where racks can consume 20 times what a traditional server rack can," Evroc CEO and founder Mattias Åström (pictured above) told TechCrunch. "Both will be equipped with liquid cooling but will also host compute and storage servers." Evroc's formal launch is slated for later this year, with Åström adding that it is already working with early beta customers in industries requiring a "high need for sovereignty," including defense, public sector, health care and financial services. He also hinted at additional data centers coming next year, though the company isn't ready to confirm specifics. But with geopolitical tensions on the rise, Åström argues that control over Europe's infrastructure matters more than just server locations. For example, Donald Trump last month signed an executive order authorizing economic sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Netherlands, accusing it of "illegitimate and baseless actions" against the U.S. and Israel. These sanctions affect how tech companies can serve organizations, with a Guardian report indicating that the ICC relies heavily on Microsoft's Azure cloud for storing data. Elsewhere, Elon Musk -- now a central figure in U.S. governmental operations -- has previously admitted to throttling Ukrainian access to Starlink satellites, operated by his company SpaceX. More recently, he claimed that Ukraine's entire frontline would collapse if he chose to turn it off. Although Musk later backtracked, the incident served as yet another reminder of the importance of infrastructure independence. And it's also why the EU is forging ahead with plans for a own sovereign satellite constellation to rival Starlink. "I simply want Europe to control its own destiny," Åström said. "And while we're at it, try to build something that is better." Geopolitical turmoil aside, the AI revolution means that organizations previously reliant on on-premises infrastructure must now consider the cloud to fully leverage AI. Several European startups are already building cloud infrastructure in Europe, including France's FlexAI, Finland's DataCrunch, and Nebius in the Netherlands -- an entity that emerged from the ashes of Yandex last year. However, while many of these players focus on AI computing, Evroc aims to build an extensive, developer-friendly hyperscale cloud that's more akin to AWS and its ilk. The bulk of Evroc's 60-plus employees are focused on software development, spread across Sweden, France, and the U.K. Åström noted the London hub wasn't originally planned but became necessary to attract top talent from major tech firms. "I'm actually very excited about our London office -- that wasn't part of the initial plan, but in order to get extremely smart people that are working for the hyperscalers, it was the right decision," Åström said. Show me the money When Evroc launched out of stealth two years ago with €13 million in funding, Åström told TechCrunch he planned to raise as much as €3 billion in capital within a couple of years. By August of last year, news broke that Evroc had raised €42 million as part of its Series A, and now the round has closed at €50.6 million with investments from U.S.-European venture firm Blisce, EQT Ventures, Norrsken VC, and Giant Ventures. There is no escaping the elephant in the room, though. Building anything close to what the hyperscalers have built requires a near-bottomless pit of cash -- so does Evroc still plan to raise billions? "That's still the case, but the key here is [first] getting that software stack," Åström continued. "Europe has a lot of data centers, but we don't really have that cloud. This equity round is really helping us build the software stack." The company plans to raise significantly more capital later in 2025, following a funding model similar to other cloud infrastructure players such as CoreWeave, which has grown its footprint by borrowing against collateral such as Nvidia chips. "Building out data centers will require a lot of additional investment, but the good news is that you can finance that with debt," Åström said.

Cloud infrastructure startup Evroc raises €50.6M to build new data centers - SiliconANGLE

Cloud infrastructure startup Evroc raises €50.6M to build new data centers Evroc AB, a Swedish cloud infrastructure startup, today announced that it has raised €50.6 million to grow its data center network. The Series B round was led by blisce/, a venture capital firm with offices in the U.S. and Paris. Giant Ventures, EQT Ventures and Norrsken VC participated as well. Evroc launched in 2023 to build an infrastructure-as-a-service platform that can compete with the major public clouds. The platform is powered by data centers located in the European Union. As a result, it can host workloads that must be stored within the EU to comply with the bloc's data protection regulations. "We aim to build a secure, sovereign, and sustainable cloud and AI platform for Europe, and thereby empowering the next generation of EU startups, fueling job creation, and driving economic growth," said Evroc founder and Chief Executive Officer Mattias Åström. Evroc says that its platform will be the world's cleanest cloud when it becomes fully operational. The company is taking several steps to achieve that goal. According to TechCrunch, Evroc's platform will implement a sustainability best practice called eco load balancing. It involves shifting customer workloads to the data centers where renewable energy is most readily available. For added measure, Everoc plans to build some data centers at locations with "opportunities for natural cooling" to reduce their power usage. The company will equip its facilities with graphics processing units to support artificial intelligence workloads. For developers, Evroc plans to offer serverless features. Serverless computing is an approach to providing cloud services that automates hardware management tasks for users and reduces the amount of custom code they must write. Evroc currently provides cloud services from two co-location facilities in Stockholm. The company will use the funding round announced today to build additional data centers, starting with an "AI factory" north of Cannes, France. The facility is expected to come online later this year with capacity for up to 50,000 GPUs. The planned data center is expected to use up to 96 megawatts of power. One megawatt corresponds to the electricity consumption of several hundred households. Later this year, Evroc plans to secure two additional data center sites in France that will each have more than 100 megawatts of capacity. The company is also building an AI data center (pictured) in Arlandastad, Sweden that will have room for up to 16,000 graphics cards. The facility is expected to come online in the second half of 2026. Evroc eventually hopes to operate eight data centers in the EU. TechCrunch reported that the company will raise more funding this year to finance its infrastructure investments. Evroc plans to spend as much as €4 billion on the data center that it's building near Cannes, while the Arlandastad facility is expected to cost €600 million.

Data centre firm Evroc raises €50m to fund European tech independence

The start-up aims to 'fuel the growth of Europe's sovereign hyperscale cloud and AI infrastructure.' Evroc, a Sweden-based data centre start-up has raised more than €50m in funding, supported by lead investor Blisce and existing investors EQT Ventures and Norrsken VC. UK-based Giant Ventures also participated in the Series A funding round, which is reportedly, the largest Series A funding round recorded for the Nordic tech sector. Evroc, which is headquartered in Stockholm and has a development office in Sophia-Antipolis, France, has plans for the funds amid what it referred to as a 'transformative year'. Future ambitions include the launch of an AI factory in Mougins, France and the acquisition of land for a flagship AI data centre in Stockholm, Sweden. A significant aspect of Evroc's goal is to advance European digital sovereignty and growth and to enable the region to rival its US counterparts, when it comes to technological innovation and autonomy, in areas such as cloud and AI. The start-up intends to operate 10 hyperscale data centres, employing more than 10,000 people across Europe, by 2030. Mattias Åström, the Founder and CEO of Evroc, commented: "2025 will be a formative year for Evroc. With the recent announcements of our AI factory in France and our plans for an AI data center in Stockholm, this financing round has been instrumental in laying the foundation for our next phase of growth. Support from existing investors EQT Ventures and Norrsken VC, together with our new investors Blisce and Giant Ventures will be essential to drive our European expansion. Together, we aim to build a secure, sovereign and sustainable cloud and AI platform for Europe and thereby empower the next generation of EU start-ups, fueling job creation and driving economic growth." Blisce's founder and CEO, Alexandre Mars also noted the importance of Europe becoming a technologically independent continent, stating, "for too long, the European cloud and AI landscape has been dominated by foreign players. It is time for a European champion to rise and challenge the status quo. With Evroc, Europe is taking a decisive step toward securing its digital sovereignty, shielding the continent from rising geopolitical tensions." In 2024, Google was denied permission to build a new Dublin-based data centre by the South Dublin County Council, over issues related to insufficient energy and electricity grid capacity. Don't miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic's digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.