Finnish artificial intelligence startup QuTwo has reached a valuation of €325 million, or about $380 million, after raising a €25 million angel funding round, as investor interest in European AI, sovereign technology, and quantum-related computing companies continues to grow.
The company was founded by former Silo AI CEO Peter Sarlin and positions itself primarily as an enterprise AI company, despite its branding and technology ties to quantum computing.
QuTwo’s name references quantum computing, but the company is not focused exclusively on quantum hardware. Its main product, called QuTwo OS, functions as an orchestration layer that distributes workloads across classical, quantum, or hybrid computing systems.
The platform is designed to support enterprise use cases through what the company describes as “quantum-inspired” computing. The approach uses classical computing hardware to simulate quantum-style processes instead of relying entirely on quantum computers.
“AI is the North Star that we will continue to aim for. Quantum is just a new type of compute,” Sarlin said.
Enterprise Partnerships Generate Early Revenue
QuTwo said enterprise AI will remain its primary business focus. The company has already secured about $23 million in committed revenue through design partnerships with companies including fashion retailer Zalando, where it helped develop AI assistant systems.
The funding round comes during a period of rising activity among European AI labs. Several companies in the sector have recently secured large valuations and funding rounds.
Last week, former DeepMind researcher David Silver raised $1.1 billion for his startup Ineffable Intelligence.
Compared with some newer AI ventures, QuTwo’s funding round and valuation are smaller. Sarlin said the company intentionally chose a more restrained fundraising strategy to allow for longer-term development with less pressure from large-scale venture funding expectations.
Sarlin previously led Silo AI, the Finnish AI company acquired by AMD for $665 million in 2024.
“I had a lot of investors who would have wanted to pour a lot of money into making Silo into Europe’s OpenAI, but I didn’t believe in that play,” Sarlin told TechCrunch.
Long-Term Focus Shapes Funding Strategy
Sarlin, who serves as QuTwo’s executive chairman, said the company wants the flexibility to pursue a five- to ten-year development timeline.
“We are on a mission to build the globally leading AI company for the next paradigm, given that Europe did not succeed in building the AI company for this era,” he said.
Until recently, QuTwo was funded exclusively through Sarlin’s family office, PostScriptum, which also incubated another company called NestAI.
NestAI later raised about $115 million in a funding round led by Finland’s sovereign wealth fund and Nokia. QuTwo, however, was initially not seeking outside investment.
Sarlin said strong interest following QuTwo’s soft launch earlier this year led the company to accept funding from angel investors while continuing to avoid venture capital firms and strategic investors for now.
He added that Europe’s geopolitical environment also influenced the decision, as governments and businesses increasingly seek local alternatives to U.S.-based technology providers.
European Investors And Expansion Plans
QuTwo’s investor group includes Yuri Milner, Xavier Niel, Nico Rosberg, Dieter Schwarz, and Niklas Zennström, alongside founders connected to companies including Hugging Face, Legora, Miro, Skype, Supercell, and Wolt.
Sarlin said the investor network could help QuTwo expand relationships and partnerships across Europe.
The company recently expanded operations into Sweden and has continued hiring. According to Sarlin, roughly 50 AI and quantum researchers have joined the company.
QuTwo’s leadership team also includes former Silo AI co-founder Kaj-Mikael Björk and IQM co-founder Kuan Yen Tan. IQM is a Finnish quantum computing company preparing for a public listing.
Sarlin said QuTwo believes quantum computing will eventually become an important computing platform, though the company intends to focus on current enterprise AI opportunities while pursuing longer-term research goals tied to future computing systems.
Featured image credits: Magnific.com
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