Wodan AI, a Spanish Belgian startup focused on privacy first artificial intelligence, has closed a €2 million pre seed funding round to accelerate the development of secure AI systems for Europe’s most sensitive sectors.
The round was led by JME Ventures, Swanlaab and Adara Ventures, with additional backing from Belgium based ScaleFund. The new capital will be used to strengthen Wodan AI’s technology stack and support its ambition to become a leading European player in secure and sovereign AI infrastructure.
Enabling AI On Fully Encrypted Data
Founded by Bob Dubois and Manuel Pérez Yllán, Wodan AI develops technology that allows machine learning models, computer vision systems and large language models to operate directly on encrypted data. Using advances in homomorphic encryption, the platform ensures that sensitive information is never decrypted during processing.
This approach addresses a critical barrier to AI adoption in highly regulated environments, where data privacy, compliance and digital sovereignty are non negotiable. Wodan AI’s technology is designed for use cases in banking, defense, healthcare, public administration and other critical infrastructure domains.
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Positioning For European Digital Autonomy
By enabling AI workloads to run securely without exposing underlying data, Wodan AI aligns closely with European regulatory requirements and strategic priorities around digital sovereignty. The company positions its platform as a foundational layer for organizations seeking to deploy advanced AI while remaining compliant with strict privacy and security standards.
According to CEO and co founder Bob Dubois, recent progress in homomorphic encryption makes it possible for large organizations to unlock the value of sensitive data without compromising security, opening the door to a new generation of trustworthy AI systems built in Europe.
Product Development And Market Expansion
The funding will allow Wodan AI to expand its research and development team and accelerate its technical roadmap. A key focus will be extending encrypted AI capabilities to more advanced computer vision and LLM workloads, with the aim of delivering these technologies at real world scale.
In parallel, the company plans to strengthen its commercial efforts and move toward production deployments with organizations across Europe in strategic sectors.
Madrid As A Strategic Base
As part of its growth strategy, Wodan AI will relocate its global headquarters to Madrid and centralize its R&D activities in Spain. The company is building a technical team specialized in cryptography, machine learning and applied privacy, and is already running pilot projects with a Spanish financial institution.
From its base in Madrid, Wodan AI plans to serve customers across Europe and Latin America, positioning Spain as an early hub for the validation and deployment of fully encrypted AI in critical environments.
CTO and co founder Manuel Pérez Yllán notes that Spain offers strong technical talent and an ideal foundation for building sovereign AI technologies designed for the most demanding use cases.
About Wodan AI
Wodan AI is a European technology company developing homomorphic encryption based solutions for artificial intelligence. Its platform enables machine learning, computer vision and large language models to run directly on encrypted data, ensuring privacy, security and regulatory compliance without exposing sensitive information.
