Munich-based Pruna AI, an AI optimisation engine that makes the development of AI models cheaper, faster, and greener, has raised $6.5 million in a seed funding round led by EQT Ventures (which recently backed Neara and Vinted) with participation from Daphni, Motier, and Kima, along with support from high profile angels including Roxanne Varza, Hervé Nivon, and Olivier Pomel.
The company will use the fresh capital to expand its technical team to a full staff of machine learning research engineers, and operation and go-to-market specialists.
What challenge does it tackle?
The exponential growth of AI is unprecedented. Bain estimates that the total addressable market for AI-related hardware and software will grow between 40% and 55% annually for at least the next three years, reaching between $780 billion and $990 billion by 2027.
Amid this global AI arms race, companies of all kinds are sprinting to keep pace with the rapid developments, leading to squeezed resources and skyrocketing costs. Research from Epoch AI1 suggests that the cost of training and developing models has almost tripled since 2016 for businesses with smaller budgets, this presents a very real barrier to innovation.
In a tech landscape where AI advances show no sign of slowing, Pruna delivers a sustainable, efficient, and accessible solution to support everyday developers to leverage the performance and scaling benefits of AI at significantly lower financial and environmental costs.
Speeds up AI development
Pruna AI was founded by Bertrand Charpentier, John Rachwan, Rayan Nait Mazi, and Stephan Günnemann in 2023 is an AI optimisation engine for ML teams looking to simplify their work. It makes running AI models cheaper, faster, and greener, empowering ML engineers to focus on innovation. The company’s solution allows users to optimise and run deep learning models in a snap across any hardware setup. It can be integrated directly into companies’ existing AI systems, leaving their existing infrastructure untouched and providing immediate benefits without additional overhead.
Designed to be used by companies of all sizes, Pruna AI enables AI engineers without Big Tech levels of resources at their fingertips to focus on their R&D efforts, taking care of the painstaking optimisation process so they don’t have to. The solution supports all major compression methods, making it a seamless addition to any machine learning pipeline.
Bertrand Charpentier, Co-Founder, President, and Chief Scientist at Pruna, commented: “EQT Ventures’ investment in Pruna AI comes at a pivotal time in our business’ growth and we are looking forward to scaling and expediting our product launch with their support. The proceeds from our raise will also go towards helping to grow our talented team – which has already tripled in size – enabling us to fulfill our goal of helping to support engineers develop AI in the fastest, cheapest, and most sustainable way possible. EQT Ventures were a clear choice of partner – they are experts in supporting young, ambitious businesses to scale and innovate sustainably for the future, which is at the heart of what we do.”
Carl Svantesson, Partner at EQT Ventures, added: “Striking the right balance between growth and environmental accountability is top of mind for businesses of all sizes these days. By bridging efficiency and sustainability, Pruna AI not only democratises cutting-edge technology but also champions a future in which every company can scale rapidly and responsibly. The team’s Munich-Paris ecosystem affords them extra leverage in a competitive market, giving them a strong commercial foothold and a compelling talent acquisition opportunity. We are thrilled to welcome Pruna AI to the portfolio.”
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