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.

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. In the midst of this global AI arms race, companies of all kinds are sprinting to keep pace with the rapid developments taking place, 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.

Developed by leading ML researchers from top institutions including the Technical University of Munich, and with over 30 years of combined experience and a portfolio of 270+ published papers, Pruna AI’s founders have profound industry and technological expertise. The team recognised the need for AI developers to find more efficient ways to tailor models to meet the rapidly changing needs of businesses and developed Pruna AI - the AI optimisation engine for ML teams looking to streamline their work and cut costs. Using compression methods including pruning, quantisation, compilation and caching, among others, the company’s platform enables AI developers to simplify deep learning models in a snap, making them more efficient across hardware setups.

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.

Beyond time and cost savings, Pruna AI presents a path to sustainable AI. While AI continues to revolutionise a wide range of industries at lightning speed, models consume a significant amount of energy when deployed at scale. On average, a ChatGPT query needs nearly 10 times as much electricity to process as a Google search. With companies under increasing pressure to improve their sustainability performances, reducing their AI-related carbon footprints is a top concern. Pruna AI addresses this by compressing machine learning models, reducing the energy and computational power required to run them, and allowing engineers to cut carbon emissions by up to 91%. Additionally, Pruna AI compressed models reduce the strain on hardware, enabling it to last longer without the need for frequent replacements."

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.

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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