News

The State of Quantum 2026 report shows quantum computing maturing into a real market. For investors, the biggest opportunities lie in enabling infrastructure today and commercial adoption tomorrow.

Twenty-five years ago, I could have written that same sentence and replaced “AI” with “the Web,” and forty years ago, “the personal computer.” This is not an article about needing to use Claude or other agentic AI tools; that is something you should be doing already. In this case, I’m talking about a fundamental restructuring of how software gets built and deployed.

Welcome to our portfolio spotlight series, where we highlight the teams behind some of the most ambitious technical companies. A company is only as strong as the people behind it, which is why we share the stories of the teams driving these disruptive innovations.

Every founder faces the same question: how fast should you go? In conversation with our Venture Partner, Duleepa “Dups” Wijayawardhana, we explored why so many startups struggle to balance speed, quality and scale, and how to get it right (at least most of the time). As Dups puts it, for every rule there is an exception, and for every exception there is something to learn.

When we met Jan Goetz, Professor Mikko Möttönen and the rest of the IQM founding team in late 2018, we knew we were seeing something rare. The science was hard to grasp, even for my colleague Patrik Backman, who had studied physics and some quantum theory, but the ambition was unmistakable.

At the start of the year, “2025: The Year of Agents” sounded like headline bait. Eight months in, it feels like an understatement. Sam Altman said agents would “join the workforce” in 2025. Satya Nadella expects them to replace segments of knowledge work. Marc Benioff wants Salesforce to be the “#1 provider of digital labour.” That’s not future tense anymore - today, agents are moving tickets, shipping code, and digesting documents.

Last November, we laid out a vision for AI-native services: businesses rebuilt from the ground up to combine the margins of software with the resilience and depth of services markets. Since then, we have taken dozens of first meetings, explored more than 15 verticals, backed our first deals, and sharpened our thesis along the way.

At Paca Ventures, we’ve long believed in automation software’s potential. It’s been a core theme in our investment focus for years, giving us early and continued exposure to exciting developments in the field.

Back in 2007, we held a short presentation while working at MySQL about a type of person we called a "Super Gold-Collar Worker." These were highly skilled individuals in growth companies who had become essential to business operations.

Data will be the ultimate moat in AI development for years to come — and that is where we are focusing as early-stage investors.

Founded by Harry Marshall and Tom Gardiner, Embeddable is reshaping how businesses integrate analytics into their products.

In the second part of Scaling AI, we explore how AI is transitioning from experimentation to delivering real-world impact for enterprises.

For those following these developments, it’s evident that AI-driven systems are no longer just emerging—they are fundamentally changing the landscape, making data management smarter, faster and far more adaptable. Here’s what we think 2025 will hold for us regarding the future of database management in an AI-driven world.

In the first part of our Scaling AI series, we reflect on the past 12 months and set our sights on the upcoming year.

Paca Ventures is proud to have led Embeddable's oversubscribed €6 million seed round, alongside Four Rivers and TechStars. Together, we’re supporting Embeddable’s mission to transform embedded analytics for developers.

The services industry is experiencing a rapid transformation driven by artificial intelligence (AI). AI-enabled services businesses are redefining traditional models by enhancing efficiency, improving client outcomes, and delivering exceptional value.

We are pleased to announce that Paca Ventures led Authologic’s $8.2 million Series A funding round. Authologic is a global digital identity verification platform, streamlining KYC and AML processes with secure e-ID solutions to combat fraud and meet compliance.

We're excited to announce that the Paca Ventures team is expanding with three exceptional new additions. Joanna and Cyrus have joined the London team as Investment Associates, while Katariina is joining the Helsinki team as Operations Manager.

SaaS has been the subject of some concerned deliberations in the last few years, with growth slowing down, multiples staying low and cloud delivery not being a source of differentiation like in the good old days.

We are happy to share the results of our 6th annual ESG report to unpack the current ESG statistics of our portfolio companies.

New analysis from O3 platform highlights growing regional strength of UK AI startup ecosystem over last decade.

We are thrilled to share the story of Operations1, a company that revolutionises industrial operations with a user-friendly digital platform for work instructions, enabling companies to achieve operational excellence, improve quality and reduce costs.

We are excited to back Purple Dot, a London-based pre-ordering and waiting list platform.

In this update we will provide you with our assessment and view on the current macro and market environment, highlighting key changes, and how this has been impacting public and private investments.

Every year, the Paca Ventures team compiles its investment insights for the upcoming year by closely analysing the evolving global economic landscape and the technology developments of the previous year. Reflecting on 2023, it’s impossible not to mention the transformative and groundbreaking impact of Generative AI on the technology industry, affecting not just end-users but also many larger companies that have successfully integrated Large Language Models (LLMs) into their existing products and processes, thereby speeding up the digitalisation and automation of societies at large. 

Our Enterprise Automation Map 2023 offers an extensive overview of the ever-expanding landscape of enterprise automation software, featuring a selection of over 810 enterprise automation companies, boasting valuations exceeding $100M.

Paca Ventures, in partnership with Oxford's Saïd Business School, has launched O³, an open-access startup insights platform aimed at fostering a data-driven startup ecosystem. Historically, the tech industry has struggled with transparency, leading policymakers, investors, and startups to base decisions on partial information. O³ addresses this gap by providing comprehensive data about startups, their technologies, market strategies, and more. This collaboration of Saïd Business School's research with Paca Ventures' know-how offers unmatched insights for evaluating startups and understanding market shifts.

We are now happy to share the results of our 5th annual ESG report with you to unpack the current ESG statistics of our portfolio companies and to establish transparently where and how we must continue to collectively push for greater progress. This year we achieved a 100% response rate and the survey was based on our internally developed ESG Starter Pack.

The Paca Ventures Helsinki and London teams will attend various spring and summer events around Europe. We're on a mission to unite with entrepreneurs, professionals, and fellow investors to exchange and discuss new ideas and dive into exciting business opportunities – on and off the stage.

In this Q&A blog post, we have the pleasure of featuring Kulpreet Singh, Paca Ventures' Operating Advisor since 2018. Kulpreet joined the team after a successful tenure at UiPath, the world's leading robotic process automation (RPA) software. We dive into Kulpreet's insights on company growth, common challenges fast-growing tech companies face, and essential qualities for startups aiming to make their mark globally.

Paca Ventures' Investor Relations Director Naureen Zahid's Letter to the Editor was published today on City AM.

Paca Ventures portfolio company Hygraph, a leading federated content platform, announced the closure of a $30 million Series B funding round led by One Peak. Paca Ventures is delighted to continue to be part of the journey since it led Hygraph’s Series A, and welcomes the participation of both existing and new investors, including Peak, SquareOne, and business angel Boris Lokschin, Co-Founder and CEO of Spryker Systems.

At the beginning of the year, Lisa Edgar joined our team as our Strategic Advisor. We sat down with Lisa for a Q&A to pick her brain and hear her unique perspective on various topics related to the startup ecosystem and venture capital industry. From her thoughts on the current state of the European venture capital market to her belief in the importance of ESG, Lisa offers invaluable insights for entrepreneurs and investors alike.

Our portfolio company Supermetrics, , announced in early 2023 that it is moving to a shared CEO model – a practice used by roaringly successful companies like Netflix, Atlassian and Workday. To introduce the model, Anssi and Supermetrics better, we asked him a few crisp questions on the topic.

Paca Ventures welcomes Lisa Edgar as new Strategic Advisor to drive key initiatives and strengthen global footprint with extensive experience in venture capital and a passion for increasing diversity in the VC ecosystem.

The final months of 2022 were a reality check for investors and tech companies due to the forecasted impending recession and falling valuations. Despite the challenging tone set for 2023, there are plenty of growth opportunities in fields such as ESG investments, AI, and enterprise automation. At Paca Ventures have identified key technologies and developments to watch in the data, software, and technology spheres.

Our Investor Relations Director, Naureen Zahid, has written a detailed article on the market turmoil of 2022 and how this has impacted the investment approach of both GPs and LPs. Geopolitical and macroeconomic factors caused significant financial market turmoil in 2022, triggering soaring global inflation, which has had a significant impact on both public and private market investments.

MariaDB's listing on the New York Stock Exchange is a milestone moment – our founding of the company in 2010, and our investments in the company are a milestone – representing the team's culmination of 12 years of hard work and innovation.

Mikael Thunberg founded Supermetrics, a tool for extracting and importing marketing data, in 2010 despite lacking tech entrepreneurship skills. The company has grown to serve almost a million users and has reached over 50 million in annual recurring revenue with very little outside investment.

We are thrilled to announce our newest investment into api.video and take part in their $12M Series A.

Paca Ventures' new ESG Start Pack for software startups is out! The Starter Pack includes: Our recommended ESG roadmap for software startups, including deep dives on each focus area, main KPIs to track your progress and practical advice to get started. We hope you find it useful!

Together with IQM, fellow investors at Lakestar, in association with The Quantum Insider (TQI), we wanted to produce an in-depth report to help investors and decision-makers bridge the gap between the speed and direction of quantum development and what customers are ready and already planning for. 

We are thrilled to welcome Naureen Zahid as a new Director in the Paca Ventures team, focusing on Investor Relations.

Paca Ventures, a leading European venture capital firm, has released its Automation Market Map, showing that private funding for enterprise (software) automation companies hit $17.86 billion in 2021 - up 230% on the previous year.

We sat down with three key people who’ve been there from the beginning to understand how MariaDB was able to break records. Read the whole story of MariaDB here.

The team at Paca Ventures couldn’t be more excited to announce our latest investment in Strong Network having led the €5.1m seed round alongside Wingman.

Finnish startup ecosystem supports Ukraine – Free work spaces at Maria01 for our Ukrainian friends

Our newest investment into the cybersecurity space, Binalyze (with a cool short name B!), where we led a $10M round, is one of those cutting-edge innovations that will shape the future of Enterprise Forensics.

In 2014, together with HV Capital, Paca Ventures led the Series-A funding round for an early stage mobile advertising technology company from London called LoopMe. Almost 8 years on, LoopMe has grown to a very profitable business with almost 100 million USD in revenue.

Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) announced that it has acquired PassFort, the SaaS RegTech provider automating anti-financial crime and compliance processes

Surglogs Raises $10.5 Million In Series A Funding To Help Front-Line Clinicians Streamline And Automate Patient Safety And Compliance Processes

Bitrise aims to be the go-to company closing the gap between that mobile demand and a company’s ability to get apps out faster while also balancing all of the moving parts and complexities

kevin. announced their raise of a $10 million funding round to disrupt the card payment infrastructure

Saïd Business School and Paca Ventures, a European venture capital firm, have announced early October 2021 the signing of a new collaboration agreement to develop a venture classification platform.

We are proud to announce that our portfolio company Tapjoy has been acquired by NYSE listed ironSource for $400mn!

In 2012 we were honoured to lead the series A funding round for a fast-growing new Caller ID app called Truecaller.

GraphCMS will use this investment to focus on API integrations, accelerate product adoption, and grow its team globally across the US, UK, and European markets.

Cambri’s market research automation platform enables companies to test their ideas continuously, as they are iterating their innovations.

We are excited that SAP just announced its acquisition of our portfolio company AppGyver Inc.

Paca Ventures, the pioneering investor in data solutions and software, has today announced a €92M raise for its third main venture fund.

We are excited to announce that we are a part of Booksy’s $70m Series C funding round, lead by Cat Rock Capital.

Tom Henriksson, general partner at Paca Ventures, discusses how enterprise automation has gone from long-term strategy to operational imperative

We believe that ESG is crucial for us to succeed in our mission – read more about our commitment to ESG.