AI startup funding developments

Recent activity in the artificial intelligence sector includes significant capital raises for companies specializing in workflow automation.

Ravical, a Ghent-based startup founded by Joris Van Der Gucht, Ken Bastiaensen, and Benjamin Vandermarliere, secured $17 million in seed funding led by MMC Ventures. This investment, which included participation from Lakestar, Pitchdrive, and Shapers, brings the company's total funding to $25 million. Ravical provides an AI-powered platform designed to standardize workflows by converting professional expertise into shared organizational processes, helping firms scale despite recruitment and retention challenges. The company currently serves over one hundred accounting firms in Europe and intends to use the capital to expand into the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany, with long-term goals of entering the United States.

Meanwhile, San Francisco-based Serval raised $150 million in a Series C round led by Sequoia, bringing its valuation to $3 billion. This latest investment triples the company’s valuation from $1 billion in December and brings its total funding to $277 million. Serval intends to use the funds to scale its Catalyst platform, an AI agent platform designed to automate workplace workflows. While initially focused on IT operations, the company plans to expand into human resources, finance, security, and legal departments. Serval also plans to establish a professional services arm, ProServal, and hire more than 500 employees over the next year, including over 100 automation engineers.