Rapidly growing company, led by serial entrepreneur, David Gurl\u00e9, completes seed round \u2013 led by Global Ventures, a leading VC firm in MENA \u2013 with participation from Inria, OneRagtime, Mi8, and business angels.<\/p>\n
Cannes, France\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013\u00a0PoliCloud<\/a>\u00a0(the \u201cCompany\u201d), the rapidly-growing provider and developer of next-gen, sovereign, High Performance Computing (HPC) cloud infrastructure, announces its \u20ac7.5 million seed fundraise.<\/p>\n The funding was led by\u00a0Global Ventures<\/a>, a leading VC firm in MENA, with participation from MI8 Limited, a Hong Kong multi-family office; OneRagtime, a Paris-based venture capital firm; Inria, France\u2019s National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology; and other private investors.<\/p>\n The proceeds will be used to hire the operating team and grow its business globally with a focus on public entities in Europe.<\/p>\n PoliCloud provides state-of-the-art distributed cloud infrastructure for secure storage and HPC. The Company\u2019s solution is eco-responsible, affordable, abundant, and secure; meets the sovereignty needs of enterprises, public administrations and local SMEs; is at the edge because of its unique capabilities of providing decentralization of computing through its partnership with Hivenet, the distributed cloud leader and owner of the market\u2019s largest contributor community.<\/p>\n PoliCloud is responding to demand following relentless (c. 20% annually) global cloud growth. Accelerated demand for AI requires affordable and scalable computing power, and the market is ripe for a Europe-led solution to lessen dependence on U.S. cloud providers, who currently dominate the $800 billion market.<\/p>\n David Gurl\u00e9, Founder of PoliCloud, said:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cPoliCloud is meeting a critical market demand for sovereign cloud infrastructure that is not only secure and abundant but also eco-responsible. Our unique edge computing capabilities deliver significant benefits to both public and private sector users.<\/i><\/p>\n \u201cThe time is right for a new European solution that reduces reliance on US cloud providers and offers affordable, scalable computing power, especially as AI adoption accelerates. We are grateful to Global Ventures and all our investors for their support as we enter this exciting phase of expansion.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n PoliCloud is a solution addressing market imperfections. Current cloud expansion suffers from high usage costs and dependence on hyperscalers \u2013 such as Google or Amazon \u2013 whose models use massive, single, centralized data facilities with high implementation costs and challenging environmental conditions. In contrast, PoliCloud has multiple competitive advantages, including:<\/p>\n PoliCloud\u2019s operating model combines its hardware and infrastructure with Hivenet\u2019s distributed storage and computing software. PoliCloud designs, builds, and operates its own computers and micro-data centers, with proprietary and optimized design, to ensure low-cost, high-performance storage and computing on state-of-the-art hardware.<\/p>\n For example, cities such as Cannes, France, purchase, host, and supply PoliClouds with electricity and fiber connection, and offer the available capacity to its\u00a0ecosystem of startups<\/a>\u00a0in their incubator. Enterprises, such as Data Factory, provide HPC infrastructure to their customers in the US. The result is reliable and scalable cloud storage for public\u00a0and<\/i>\u00a0private users.<\/p>\n PoliCloud was launched in February 2025 at the World Artificial Intelligence Cannes Festival (WAICF) with support from the five cities of the Alpes-Maritimes. The Company also benefits from a positive market context and political environment, as well as buoyant early trading. Having already sold four PoliClouds in three months, with a projected \u20ac6+ million in revenue by year-end 2025, the Company is already cash flow positive.<\/p>\n The current cloud computing market is worth $800 billion and is projected to reach $2 trillion by 2030, according to Goldman Sachs Research. Profitability pressure is shifting the market to frugality, and there is a need for cost-effective GPU-based computing, such as HPC for rapid rendering graphics. SMEs are rapidly growing and adopting AI, catalysing a major market need for computing power that requires fulfillment. France\u2019s public investment bank, Bpifrance, also considers the development of distributed computer technology as a deep-tech initiative.<\/p>\n Simon Sharp, Senior\u00a0Partner of Global Ventures<\/a>, commented:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n