Finland’s Verda raises $189m with US backing, reaching $1bn valuation
The Helsinki AI cloud provider has secured US-led financing to expand compute capacity and platform services, with an existing team presence in San Francisco.
Verda, the Helsinki-based AI cloud company formerly known as DataCrunch, has closed a $189 million Series B led by US venture firm Emergence Capital, securing fresh backing for its effort to offer an alternative to dominant hyperscale cloud providers.
The financing closed on September 22, 2026, according to GCN. Verda said its valuation was at least $1 billion after the round, without disclosing an exact figure. The investment brings its total funding to more than $450 million across equity and debt.
For Verda’s US ambitions, the clearest developments are American investor backing and an existing team presence in San Francisco—not a newly announced infrastructure rollout. The disclosed plans include expanding its European data-center footprint; no new US facility or US-specific allocation of the proceeds was identified.
US capital meets a European cloud challenger
The oversubscribed round drew participation from MUFG Innovation Partners, Supermicro, Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company, Lifeline Ventures, ENDUR, 6 Degrees Capital, byFounders and Tesi, alongside angel investors. Emergence’s lead role gives the Finnish business a US financial backer as it competes in the market for AI computing capacity.
Verda already serves organizations in more than 50 countries and has more than 250 employees across Helsinki, London, Taipei and San Francisco. The source does not break out US headcount, customers or revenue, leaving the scale of its American operation unclear.
Its competitive pitch is to let AI developers provision GPU clusters without the complexity, overhead and lock-in it associates with large cloud platforms. Verda describes itself as a full-stack provider, managing physical data centers and hardware as well as its cloud platform and AI research.
Funding the hardware before the revenue
The new capital will support additional physical compute capacity and the development of platform services and tools for agentic AI. That requires spending ahead of demand: accelerators, data centers, networking equipment and power must be secured before customers can use the resulting capacity.
The round follows a rapid sequence of financings. Verda raised a $13 million seed round in 2024 and a $64 million Series A in 2025. An equity-and-debt package announced in April 2026 grew from $117 million to $155 million with financing from Nordic Investment Bank.
Verda reported an annualized revenue run rate of $165 million as of July 2026. That is a snapshot expressed on an annual basis, rather than reported full-year revenue. Its named customers include Nokia, 1X, Freepik and ExpressVPN.
A transatlantic link, with European infrastructure priorities
The financing connects a European infrastructure challenger with US venture capital while giving it resources to build in its home region. Sovereign AI ambitions and data-residency requirements are part of the case for regional alternatives to hyperscale clouds.
The strategic test is whether Verda can turn its reported growth into sustained use of an expensive infrastructure base. US backing and a San Francisco presence give the company transatlantic ties, but the announced funding should not be read as confirmation of a new American buildout.
