Insider Brief
- Arrakis, an AI deployment company helping industrial firms install AI agents for mission-critical operations, raised a $30 million Series A led by Blossom Capital with participation from Accel, bringing total funding to around $38 million, with backing from individuals including Datadog CEO Olivier Pomel and OpenAI’s Olivier Godement
- Founded in January 2026 by former Accel investor Rafael Quintanilla and co-founders from Palantir, Delivery Hero, Revolut, Datadog, and ASML, Arrakis deploys AI agents into existing systems across aerospace, energy, logistics, manufacturing, construction, and telecommunications, avoiding multi-year migrations and tying fees to customer outcomes
- Within six months of launch, Arrakis has secured enterprise customers including NYSE-listed firms, with reported results such as a 90 percent reduction in procurement cycle times; funding will be used to triple headcount and expand across Europe, the US, and the Middle East
PRESS RELEASE — Arrakis, the AI deployment company helping industrial companies install AI agents for mission-critical operations, announced a $30 million Series A led by Blossom Capital, with participation from existing investor Accel, which also led the company’s $7.5 million seed round.
The round brings total funding to around $38 million and includes backing from prominent technology leaders, including Olivier Pomel, founder and chief executive of Datadog, Olivier Godement, OpenAI’s Head of business products and Junaid Hussein, founder of Cambridge Aerospace.
Founded in January 2026 by former Accel investor Rafael Quintanilla, together with co-founders Haroun Beltaifa, Romain Fouilland and Mikhail Galkov — alumni of Palantir, DeliveryHero, Revolut, Datadog and ASML — Arrakis helps industrial companies deploy AI into core operational workflows across aerospace, energy, logistics, manufacturing, construction and telecommunications markets.
Across the US and Europe, governments and businesses are investing heavily in domestic industrial capacity, supply chain resilience and economic competitiveness. Yet many of the organisations responsible for delivering that growth still rely on decades-old software, fragmented systems, and manual workflows. Arrakis helps these companies harness their operational data and operate at AI-era productivity levels by building AI agents that execute mission-critical operations, delivering measurable impact within weeks.
Arrakis combines elite forward-deployed AI engineers with a model-agnostic enterprise AI platform and applied AI research tuned to industrial operations, letting companies leverage their data to train, deploy, and scale custom AI agents in weeks, not quarters. The result is an AI transformation executed at warp speed, using the right model for the right task, and giving companies full control over performance, resilience and cost. Arrakis operates to the strictest data and security standards: customer data and IP remain theirs, and the company never uses them for third-party model training. Rather than replacing existing technology stacks, Arrakis deploys AI agents into existing systems, improving operational throughput without multi-year migrations. The company ties a significant proportion of its fees directly to customer outcomes, aligning its commercial model with the value delivered.
Built in Europe and designed for global use, the platform gives industrial companies a secure, high-performance foundation for adopting AI at scale without compromising on control or competitiveness.
As AI becomes embedded in critical operations, Arrakis believes organisations will increasingly want to retain ownership of their data, operational knowledge and intellectual property, rather than becoming dependent on a single model provider. Its platform gives customers the flexibility to adopt the best models available as technology evolves, while maintaining control over performance, cost and security.
Within six months of launch, Arrakis has secured enterprise customers, including NYSE-listed enterprises across the energy, logistics, and industrial sectors. Arrakis customers are seeing measurable returns within weeks, including reducing procurement cycle times by 90% and real-time visibility into previously manual operational and financial processes.
Rafael Quintanilla, co-founder and CEO of Arrakis, said: “The West is under growing pressure to reindustrialise, but that renaissance won’t be powered by net new companies alone. It requires equipping our industrial champions with the tools to harness their data, navigate the AI transition and compete on a global stage. That’s exactly why we founded Arrakis. Most AI investment to date has targeted the 30% of workers behind a desk. The real ROI lies in the 70% running industrial operations. We’re building from Europe for the world, with the ambition to build the Operating System our industrial champions need to win.”
Ophelia Brown, Managing Partner, Blossom Capital, said: “Rafael and the Arrakis team have an exceptional combination of technical depth, operational expertise and commercial ambition. While many companies are focused on AI applications at the edge of the enterprise, Arrakis is tackling some of the most complex operational challenges facing large industrial organisations. Their early traction demonstrates both the scale of the opportunity and the demand for solutions that deliver measurable outcomes.”
Sonali De Rycker, Partner, Accel, said: “Rafael’s vision of how AI will transform the physical economy and his deep understanding of the challenges industrial companies face means he and the team are building a transformative company. In a short period of time, they’ve built an impressive business, attracted world-class talent and secured significant customer demand. We’re excited to continue supporting Arrakis as it scales globally.”
Arrakis will use the funding to triple headcount, strengthen its platform and security capabilities and accelerate expansion across Europe, the United States and the Middle East. The company currently operates from London and Paris, has already signed its first US customer, and is seeing growing demand across aerospace, energy and logistics markets.
About Arrakis
Arrakis is an AI software company helping industrial organisations deploy AI agents into mission-critical operational workflows. Founded in 2026 by former Accel investor Rafael Quintanilla and a team of operators and engineers from Palantir, Revolut and Delivery Hero, the company works with customers across energy, logistics, aerospace, telecommunications and manufacturing. Arrakis has raised around $38 million to date from investors including Blossom Capital and Accel. https://www.arrakistechnologies.ai/
