Custodea raises €350K to help European SMEs control their data
What's the deal? Custodea, a European AI data platform for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), has raised €350,000 in seed funding from investors in its own network. The startup helps businesses centralise data scattered across accounting, customer management, HR, and other software systems.
What's the endgame? Custodea pulls information from dozens of business systems — including Exact OnlineDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, HubSpot, and Personio — into a dedicated private data environment. Data syncs continuously, so companies can access current figures without manual exports or migrations.
How does the product work? Businesses can connect the data to tools such as Excel, Power BIDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, LookerDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Tableau, and dbt, or use it to power AI models and agents. The platform also includes an AI assistant that answers questions about revenue trends, outstanding invoices, and other company data.
All connections are read-only by default, and customers decide who can access their data and can revoke that access at any time.
Why now? "As AI adoption grows, businesses increasingly need greater control over their data," said co-founder Gregory Aerts. He framed the mission as closing the gap between large corporations with dedicated data teams and SMEs that lack them.
"Data is power, and with Custodea, we are putting that power into the hands of SMEs: data they fully own, stored and managed within the EU and ready to power AI," Aerts said.
What's the money for? The funding will support Custodea's platform launch and plans to scale across European markets.
The signal: Custodea's EU-based infrastructure targets a data sovereignty gap — European providers account for a relatively small share of EU cloud usage, with many businesses running software built on US-operated cloud infrastructure. At €350,000, the seed round is modest, but it lands as European SMEs weigh how to adopt AI without ceding control of their data.
Read more: Tech.eu
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