Months after raising €102.5 million, Helsinki’s AI infrastructure company Verda secures €22 million NIB loan
The Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) has signed a 4-year €22 million InvestEU-backed loan with Verda (formerly DataCrunch), a Helsinki-based AI infrastructure company.
This financing comes months after the company raised €102.5 million ($117 million) in funding to develop its AI cloud infrastructure and international expansion.
Ruben Bryon, founder and CEO of Verda Cloud, said, “AI is becoming critical infrastructure. With the support of NIB and our other financing partners, we can expand our capacity and keep serving AI teams with instant access to high-performance computing at scale.”
Founded in 2020 by Ruben Bryon, Verda is building an AI cloud infrastructure that allows developers and organisations to access high-performance compute on demand and at scale without the friction of traditional cloud procurement.
The company claims that it handles everything from physical servers and data centres to the tools and services teams use to build AI. Its data centres in Finland run on 100% renewable energy, drawing on the Nordics’ natural advantages in clean electricity and cooling efficiency.
Last year, in November, DataCrunch rebranded to Verda. “The name Verda is derived from the Spanish word for ‘true’ and the Esperanto word for ‘green’. The name change symbolises and reinforces our values of technological integrity and sustainable innovation,” mentioned the company.
Last month, the company reported that it reached a €87.6 million ($100 million) revenue run rate, having grown 10-fold in just 18 months. The company has a team of over 130 employees from more than 30 nationalities and aims to double its staff by 2026.
With this loan, Verda plans to finance the acquisition of graphics processing units (GPUs) and related networking and storage equipment. These investments will enable the development of new servers with high-performance computing capacity deployed in data centres, primarily in Finland. This loan is supported by the InvestEU programme under NIB’s Framework Operation Connectivity, Data Infrastructure & Digital Technologies.
Verda notes that the expanded capacity will respond to increasing demand for computing power, particularly for artificial intelligence and data-driven applications.
Last year, in September, the company raised a total of €55 million in a Series A round led by byFounders, Skaala, Varma pension fund, and Tesi. In 2024, it raised a €12 million Seed funding round.
Jeanette Vitasp, Vice-President and Head of Lending, NIB, said, “Access to high-performance computing is increasingly important for innovation and competitiveness. By supporting the expansion of cloud infrastructure in Finland, NIB is contributing to strengthening digital capacity in Europe.”
NIB is the international financial institution of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and Sweden. The Bank funds projects that enhance productivity and support environmental sustainability in the Nordic-Baltic region. It is headquartered in Helsinki with a regional hub in Riga.
