European AI rising star Nexos.ai raises $30M to unlock enterprise AI adoption

Summary

For most enterprise companies, AI is either a promise that has yet to deliver or a security risk. The effort of Lithuania’s most famous entrepreneur duo to solve that conundrum has garnered attention — and funding. Just months after Nexos.ai came out of stealth with an $8 million funding round led by Index Ventures, Nord Security co-founders Tomas Okmanas and Eimantas Sabaliauskas have closed a €30 million Series A (approximately $35 million) for this new startup — a a platform that helps companies adopt AI tools securely by acting as a middleman between employees and AI systems. In Okmanas’ view, “the biggest corporate data leak” is currently in the making, as employees upload sensitive information to LLMs. Rather than banning AI use, he wants Nexos.ai to act as a “Switzerland for LLMs,” serving as a neutral intermediary. By sitting between teams and AI tools, the platform aims to keep data under control without sacrificing the productivity gains companies want but fear pursuing. That combination of seasoned founders tackling a critical enterprise problem explains why this new round was raised so soon — with Index and Evantic Capital co-leading at a €300 million valuation (approximately $350 million), according to a company spokesperson. Previous backers Creandum and Dig Ventures also participated, along with angel backers, including the CEOs of Datadog, Klarna, Supercell, and Wix. Evantic, the new venture firm launched by former Sequoia Capital partner Matt Miller, was persistent enough to make the round happen even though Nexos.ai wasn’t fundraising, said Okmanas. He and Sabaliauskas famously bootstrapped their previous businesses, including Nord, the $3 billion cybersecurity company behind NordVPN. But they now see the value-add from VCs. In addition to Index’s support, Nexos.ai is now benefiting from Miller’s guidance and his ‘Legends’ network —140 operators who advise Evantic’s portfolio startups in exchange for a share of the fund’s profits. Okmanas said he i...