{"id":5422,"date":"2026-08-17T18:01:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T16:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silta.es\/juantatay\/?p=5422"},"modified":"2026-08-17T18:03:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T16:03:11","slug":"spanish-startup-vying-to-be-europes-next-ai-champion-by-sifted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silta.es\/juantatay\/spanish-startup-vying-to-be-europes-next-ai-champion-by-sifted\/","title":{"rendered":"Spanish startup vying to be Europe’s next AI champion, by Sifted"},"content":{"rendered":"

Origen: Inside Multiverse Computing, the Spanish startup vying to be Europe’s next AI champion | Sifted<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Inside Multiverse Computing, the Spanish startup vying to be Europe’s next AI champion<\/h1>\n

HQ\u2019d in Donostia in northern Spain, Multiverse Computing has grown into one of Spain\u2019s most high-profile tech companies. How did it get here?<\/h3>\n

Last month, Spanish scaleup Multiverse Computing, which has built a technology to reduce the compute requirements of large AI models, announced it is nearing the close of a \u20ac500m Series C.<\/p>\n

When completed, the round will be one of the largest fundraises ever secured by a Spanish tech <\/a>startup, bringing total funding to more than \u20ac700m.<\/p>\n

With the Series C valuing Multiverse at \u20ac2bn post-money, it also means the scaleup is joining a cohort of another dozen Spanish unicorns \u2014 and is the country\u2019s only billion-dollar tech business operating in the field of frontier AI.<\/p>\n

Unlike AI labs like French darling Mistral and US giants Anthropic and OpenAI, Multiverse does not develop its own models; the company has built a technology inspired by quantum physics to \u201ccompress\u201d existing large-language models (LLMs). This, it says, can reduce model size by up to 95% while causing little accuracy loss.<\/p>\n

Compressed models require fewer compute resources and infrastructure, meaning significant cost savings for users. The thesis has attracted interest from high-profile customers ranging from the Bank of Canada and the European Space Agency to Bosch and Mercedes-Benz.<\/p>\n

With more than 100 customers globally, this year Multiverse expects to achieve \u20ac200m in annual recurring revenues (ARR), a significant jump from the \u20ac13m it recorded in 2024 (when the company started commercialising its model compression technology).<\/p>\n

A lot of hope is riding on the scaleup, which from the city of Donostia on the northern coast of Spain has grown into one of the country\u2019s leading tech businesses, counting 500 employees across Europe and North America.<\/p>\n

And despite some of the constraints that come with operating from a smaller tech hub, Multiverse has no plans to slow down. Equipped with a unique technology and a highly commercially-driven mindset, the company is determined to become a Europe-born AI champion playing in the big leagues.<\/p>\n

From quantum to AI<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Multiverse was not always focused on AI.<\/p>\n

Founded in 2019 by Enrique Lizaso, who previously worked in banking and finance, together with quantum physicists Rom\u00e1n Or\u00fas and Samuel Mugel, and Alfonso Rubio, who had spent the previous decade working in the tech sector, the company originally focused on quantum computing.<\/p>\n

At the time, Multiverse offered pure quantum algorithms intended to run on quantum computers, as well as \u201cquantum-inspired\u201d software, which refers to algorithms leveraging mathematical concepts from quantum physics but run on classical hardware.<\/p>\n

In 2022 Multiverse was approached by Bosch with a request to help improve the efficiency of an AI system deployed in the German company\u2019s factories. The existing system was too large to be deployed on-premise in the factories; it had to run through the cloud, creating latencies.<\/p>\n

Multiverse developed quantum-inspired algorithms based on mathematical tools called \u201ctensor networks\u201d to shrink the size of the system without losing accuracy.<\/p>\n

With OpenAI\u2019s first public release of ChatGPT in late 2022, LLMs were soon the talk of the town. This, Lizaso tells Sifted, is when the company decided to start using tensor networks to compress large foundational AI models, focusing on open-source systems, which are available to freely download and modify.<\/p>\n

Multiverse published a research paper in 2024 showing the success of the method, and pitching the technology\u2019s potential to cut the energy consumption of AI systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe realised that the topic of energy consumption would be particularly relevant, because energy is related to computation, and computation is related to the price you will be charged,\u201d says Lizaso. \u201cThis is when we thought: \u2018Oh, that\u2019s it. This is going to be a hit.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Olivier Tonneau, partner at French-Canadian quantum VC firm Quantonation, which in 2019 invested pre-seed capital in the company, says this was a pivotal time for the company. \u201cThe research paper went around and they started receiving inbound calls, because this was a huge topic for everyone,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

A few months later, in June 2025, Multiverse secured a $215m Series B led by growth investor Bullhound Capital<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone we spoke to said these guys were at least two-to-three years ahead of everyone else,\u201d says Callum Stewart, investment principal at Bullhound Capital.<\/p>\n

While the VC firm was originally interested in Multiverse\u2019s\u00a0 quantum computing pitch, Stewart says Bullhound Capital was willing to \u201cunderwrite what was basically a brand new product\u201d when it became obvious that the model compression technology would be \u201ctransformational\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lizaso says the Spanish scaleup is still carrying out research and development focused on quantum computing, with more than 300 patents registered in the field. It plans to leverage this expertise once quantum computers are mature enough to enable practical use cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that some AI applications are going to be accelerated by quantum computing,\u201d says Tonneau. \u201cSo Multiverse will be ideally positioned to implement quantum within its own AI projects.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe company\u2019s valuation includes what they are doing in AI but also the possibility of developing quantum software when the hardware is ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

AI at the edge<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Just over a year after the Series B, Multiverse is raising an additional \u20ac500m in Series C funding, which Tonneau says is near closing.<\/p>\n

The round, which is co-led by Bullhound Capital, Forgepoint Capital International and BNP Paribas\u2019s climate-focused Solar Impulse Venture Fund (SIVF), has attracted commitments from strategic investors including US electronics giant HP Inc.<\/p>\n

\u00abBecause they are from a smaller hub they may have been overlooked by other headline VC names, but strategic investors are piling in and saying this is really useful,\u201d says Stewart.<\/p>\n

Multiverse is betting on enabling AI on the \u201cedge\u201d \u2014 when computations happen on local devices, such as laptops and phones, rather than through the cloud in centralised data centres.<\/p>\n

Edge computing, which reduces latency and energy consumption while keeping data safely on-premises, is becoming critical for a wide range of use cases including autonomous vehicles, smart factories and manufacturing, but also banking, healthcare and defence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the thesis behind HP\u2019s investment,\u201d says Tonneau. \u201cIf they want to put AI models in their PCs, they need systems that can work with no wifi, without killing the battery, without taking too much compute bandwidth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lizaso says Multiverse is already collaborating with HP to deploy the technology, as well as with South Korean electronics giant Samsung. \u201cYou can think of a future where we use LLMs nearly everywhere \u2014 mobile phones, laptops, TVs, your Amazon Alexa,\u201d says Lizaso.<\/p>\n

The company is also partnering with chip manufacturers, including Dutch startup Axelera, which builds low-cost chips optimised for inference on edge devices. Through the collaboration, customers can run Multiverse\u2019s compressed LLMs on Axelera\u2019s chips.<\/p>\n

Axelera cofounder Fabrizio Del Maffeo says the partnership will enable cost savings of up to 10x compared to using traditional LLMs running on hardware like chip titan Nvidia\u2019s products.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt enables a double optimisation of both hardware and software for our customers,\u201d says Del Maffeo. \u201cThis is critical to reduce costs when you\u2019re serving thousands of customers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the collaboration is still in early stages, Del Maffeo says it is being tested with a handful of clients, with plenty of interest from players in telecoms and manufacturing.<\/p>\n

Unique IP<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Compressing AI models to improve efficiencies is a thesis that is gaining momentum.<\/p>\n

US startup PrismML recently announced a compressed version of Chinese open-source model Qwen, which it said retains up to 95% of accuracy. The company is reportedly<\/a> in talks to be acquired by Apple.<\/p>\n

Several other competitors operate in the space, with different approaches to compressing and optimising algorithms. They include Pruna AI in Paris and Latent AI in the US, as well as Ora Computing, based in Vienna, which similarly to Multiverse employs quantum-inspired methods.<\/p>\n

But Del Maffeo says no company matches the scale that Multiverse has achieved yet. \u201cWe spoke to other companies with similar solutions, but I think Multiverse is leading the market, there is no company matching their size,\u201d he says. \u201cThey can really become a global leader.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stewart says the Spanish company\u2019s technology, which is based on highly technical quantum computing intellectual property (IP) developed by Or\u00fas at the Donostia International Physics Centre (DIPC), is a key differentiator for the business.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of the really interesting things about Europe: there is this unique specialist research group within the university, with very specific technical knowledge, and the ecosystem around it, which if given access to capital can perform great things,\u201d says Stewart. \u201cThis is very hard to replicate with capital alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Multiverse is now building a suite of products to help customers optimise their AI workloads. The company offers a platform matching models with tasks, and bringing together model compression, GPU management, AI services and control systems.<\/p>\n

In addition to large corporates, the scaleup is partnering with data centre providers to improve efficiencies directly on premises. The thesis, says Del Maffeo, is particularly relevant in Europe.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have compute infrastructure like in the US, using large LLMs is not an issue, but Europe\u2019s problem is we don\u2019t have this infrastructure,\u201d he says. \u201cMultiverse is a necessary answer to democratise AI rapidly in countries where there is not enough capital to build large-scale infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Multiverse is part of public-private consortiums in France and Spain which are competing for the EU\u2019s flagship gigafactory scheme, an initiative backed by \u20ac10bn in public funding<\/a> aimed at building a new generation of data centres across the bloc.<\/p>\n

If successful, Multiverse will deploy its software in the gigafactories, as well as invest in and become a joint shareholder for the projects.<\/p>\n

Looking for deeper pockets<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Some say the Multiverse\u2019s rapid growth is uncommon.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven when they were a quantum company, they were very focused on commercial development,\u201d says Tonneau. \u201cThey were very quickly working with dozens of customers to test use cases.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn quantum computing there were no other businesses with that same desire to go after commercial growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Stewart, this is what enabled Multiverse to become a brand name, even for a company born outside of traditional VC circles.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Series C hopefully helps catalyse that: the unicorn status, the big presence, the bold ambitions,\u201d he says. \u201cThey identified an opportunity and figured this amount of capital will help them go after it. They are almost speaking the language of US tech.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cIt will help them to not only be part of the European story but also get in with global names.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lizaso is keen to expand the scaleup\u2019s footprint on the other side of the Atlantic. While Multiverse is firmly a Spanish company, he says, it also requires access to deep pockets of capital.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe lack the financial fabric that the US has,\u201d says Lizaso. \u201cVCs in the US are in a different kind of game.\u201d<\/p>\n

He points to the EU\u2019s Scaleup Europe Fund, a \u20ac5bn pot of money launched at the end of last year to back late-stage deeptech companies with tickets ranging from \u20ac100m-500m.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think of it as a tremendously large fund […] but this is peanuts in some fields,\u201d says Lizaso, pointing to Anthropic\u2019s latest round of funding, a $65bn Series H closed in May.<\/p>\n

And while Multiverse\u2019s Series C includes a mix of US and European investors, Lizaso is already thinking about the next steps \u2014 a potential IPO, which he says the company could consider in the coming years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be in the US,\u201d says Lizaso. \u201cIf you\u2019re doing an IPO in Europe only, you\u2019re letting go of 80% of the value of the company.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Origen: Inside Multiverse Computing, the Spanish startup vying to be Europe’s next AI champion | Sifted   Inside Multiverse Computing, the Spanish startup vying to be Europe’s next AI champion HQ\u2019d in Donostia in northern Spain, Multiverse Computing has grown into one of Spain\u2019s most high-profile tech companies. How did it get here? Last month, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[291,151,46,165],"tags":[293,216,213],"class_list":["post-5422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ai","category-opinion","category-start-it-up","category-technology","tag-ai","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-technology"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/silta.es\/juantatay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/silta.es\/juantatay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/silta.es\/juantatay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silta.es\/juantatay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silta.es\/juantatay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5422"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/silta.es\/juantatay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5424,"href":"https:\/\/silta.es\/juantatay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5422\/revisions\/5424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/silta.es\/juantatay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silta.es\/juantatay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silta.es\/juantatay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}