European Modular Data Center Startup Cyanis AI Secures €250,000 in Pre-Seed Funding for 10MW Deployment

European modular data center company Cyanis AI has raised €250,000 ($285,000) in pre-seed financing, marking the initial step toward its ambition to deploy distributed, asset-light compute infrastructure across the region. The funding round highlights a growing trend among modular data center providers that aim to accelerate time-to-market by leveraging smaller, energy-efficient units compared to traditional hyperscale facilities.

Founded in May 2026 by Alexander Owolabi, a former employee of geothermal firm Eavor, raw materials company Neptune Energy, and French utility Engie, Cyanis AI offers modular data centers ranging from a 500W household unit to a “MW+” energy site unit. The company said the new capital will be used to develop its orchestration platform and support an initial deployment of 10MW, though no timeline was provided for the rollout.

The pre-seed round was backed by Christian Wichmann, managing director of hydraulics company BESI Marine Systems and pump manufacturer Heinrich Behren Pumpenfabrik. Cyanis AI describes itself as an asset-light platform, with hardware financed separately at the project level. “Equity finances our asset-light software and orchestration platform, where our core margins are generated, while compute infrastructure is financed separately through asset-backed project structures suited to long-term infrastructure returns,” said CFO Tim Kuhnert.

This approach mirrors a well-established practice among major hyperscalers, which often use special purpose vehicles to keep data centers off their balance sheets. By separating software and orchestration from physical infrastructure, Cyanis AI aims to attract third-party data center developers to use its platform as well. The modular data center sector argues that distributed energy sources and small-scale site deployments can bring compute capacity online significantly faster than traditional large-scale builds, appealing to enterprises and AI workloads that demand rapid scalability.

The Hamburg-based startup’s orchestration platform is designed to manage power distribution, cooling, and workload scheduling across distributed modular units, potentially lowering operational costs and improving energy efficiency. With the €250,000 pre-seed, Cyanis AI joins a wave of European modular data center startups seeking to disrupt the industry by offering flexible, low-capital-expenditure alternatives to conventional data center construction.