Pruna AI, a German-French AI startup that is on a mission to democratize access to efficient AI, raised $6.5 million (€6.2 million) in its first seed round in November 2024.
The company is tackling a big goal: to make AI models cheaper, faster, and more sustainable. Right from the start, the team knew that to achieve that, they needed to bring in the right angel investors – those who have the expertise, connections, and credibility to help them succeed internationally.
Managing multiple angel investors across different countries presented a challenge, which is why they decided to use Roundtable to create and manage an SPV. Angel investors contributed a small part of the total investment – but their experience is a strategic resource for the Pruna AI team.
We interviewed Rayan Nait Mazi to find out more about Pruna AI’s first funding round, how Roundtable helped them manage investments from business angels in multiple countries, and what they plan to do next.
Key takeaways:
- Roundtable simplified a complex, international fundraising process for Pruna AI’s business angels and helped the company attract investors who could provide long-term, strategic value to the team, thanks to their expertise and connections.
- Using Roundtable’s SPV structure simplified the entire process, reduced the necessary paperwork to a minimum, and provided a better experience for both the Pruna AI team and their investors.
- The flexibility and ease of use was key for Pruna AI’s founders, because it enabled them to focus on engaging investors and building relationships, rather than on administrative work.
- The funding will enable Pruna AI to expand its team, invest in AI infrastructure, and accelerate research.
Roundtable: Could you introduce Pruna AI? What are the challenges it aims to tackle?
Rayan Nait Mazi: Pruna AI is a German-French company with a strong presence in both countries, and a team of around a dozen people that is evenly split between the two countries.
We launched Pruna AI just over a year ago, building on years of research in AI efficiency. Our core mission is to make AI faster, more cost-effective, and significantly reduce its carbon footprint, which is an increasingly important challenge. We come from research where we’ve published a lot of papers on AI efficiency & reliability.
Today, it’s mostly the large tech companies with vast resources – mainly in the U.S. and China – that can afford to run highly efficient, state-of-the-art AI models with ROI. Pruna AI enables any AI company, whether in Europe or elsewhere, to optimize their AI models and achieve the same level of efficiency as these big tech players, without the massive budget or in-house research teams.
In short, our technology helps companies maximize AI performance while reducing their costs and environmental impact.
Roundtable: Could you tell us more about your first fundraising round? What was Roundtable’s role in it?
Rayan Nait Mazi: We raised a $6.5 million seed round, with angel investments making up a small portion of it – and to manage those, we used Roundtable.
I discussed with our lawyers how to streamline the paperwork for our business angels, possibly by using an SPV (special purpose vehicle). Fundraising in Germany is a very bureaucratic and slow process, so we wanted to make it as simple as possible.
In Germany, they’re used to fewer angels investing larger amounts to minimize paperwork. When we told people we planned to bring in about a dozen, the reaction was “That’s way too many.” But for us, it was a strategic choice – our angels were selected for their industry expertise and influence, not just the investment size. This made an SPV through Roundtable the obvious choice.
Since our angels were from multiple countries, the platform was very useful for us: It streamlined everything, especially in terms of paperwork and logistics. We decided to go with an SPV in Luxembourg, which made it easier to attract international investors.
Roundtable: Would you say that Roundtable helped facilitate the international aspect of your fundraising? Was this an important factor?
Rayan Nait Mazi: Yes, it was definitely important for us. It was much easier to manage everything through Roundtable than handling all angel investors separately.
We had investors from multiple countries – France, Germany, Sweden, the US, Israel – so managing them individually would have been a nightmare in terms of paperwork. With Roundtable, we never even had to look into that, because the platform handled everything. It definitely removed a lot of complexity for us.
Roundtable: That leads me to my next question – how was your experience with Roundtable at an operational level?
Rayan Nait Mazi: Roundtable made things much smoother. Many angels had already used it before, so they didn’t even ask questions, and for those who were new, the process seemed seamless. It was definitely a more structured and efficient way to handle angel investments.
There are a few benefits I’d like to mention:
- Simplified business angel management: Instead of managing each angel individually, we only had to deal with the SPV, which makes everything much more efficient.
- Flexibility in selecting and onboarding angels: Roundtable made it easy for us to add or remove investors as needed. Normally, that would have involved lengthy legal processes, but with Roundtable, we could just invite new investors directly.
- Better experience for angels: Fundraising can be chaotic, and startups don’t always have the time or resources to provide a smooth experience for investors. Roundtable took care of that by making the process seamless for our angels. Happy investors mean fewer questions and smoother interactions down the line.
Overall, it was a simpler structure, which gave us more control over the investor selection process and improved our angels’ experience.
Roundtable: If you were to advise other founders on fundraising – especially those running international companies operating across Germany, France, or other EU countries – what would be your key recommendations?
Rayan Nait Mazi: Our company is still young and we’re figuring things out, so I wouldn’t claim to have all the answers just yet.
But I’ve noticed that, especially in Europe, startups often struggle to expand beyond their home countries. Fundraising reflects that challenge. French startups often have mostly French business angels, and German startups have German angels. The two ecosystems are connected, but not as much as you’d think.
For us, since we had European ambitions from day one, we intentionally sought out angels across multiple markets – Germany, France, Sweden, the US, and more. So, it wasn’t a question of where they were based, but rather:
- Who could be most useful for our company?
- Who has the expertise, connections, or credibility we need?
But when you go international, paperwork gets more complicated. That’s where Roundtable was particularly helpful – it made managing investors from different countries much easier.
So, my advice to other founders would be: don’t limit yourself to your own ecosystem and home market. Think big from the start and don’t let the paperwork stop you.
Roundtable: When you say “useful” when you talk about angel investors, what do you mean exactly?
Rayan Nait Mazi: We’re trying to build something really impactful: A company that changes an entire industry at scale. There aren’t that many people who’ve successfully done it.
So when I say “useful,” I mean investors who have built something relevant to what we’re trying to do. That could mean:
- Founders of big AI companies who have gone through the same challenges
- Those who are at different stages – not just those who built billion-dollar companies, but also those who are at Series A or B and still close to the journey we’re on now
- Industry experts with deep knowledge in specific areas, like AI efficiency or scaling models
For example, we wanted investors with experience in the US mid-market because we knew we’d be expanding there; one of our angels (Olivier Pomel, Datadog’s CEO) has deep expertise with that, which is strategically important for us.
Another business angel (Caroline Therwath-Chavier) is a leader at Women in Machine Learning and Data Science (WiMLDS) and an expert in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. She helped us from the beginning, not just with hiring but with building a better company culture. She wasn’t a traditional angel investor, but we wanted her involved because her expertise was uniquely valuable to us.
For us, it was key to attract investors who bring something strategically important to the company – and this certainly goes beyond money.
Roundtable: It sounds like this fundraising round was not just about the investments, but also about assembling the right people. What will the funding allow you to do next? What are your next priorities?
Rayan Nait Mazi: Broadly speaking, this funding round allows us to scale faster and to:
- Grow the team: We were a small team, and now we can hire the right talent to accelerate our work.
- Invest in AI infrastructure: More money means more computing power, which speeds up our research.
- Expand our reach: We’re working with companies that are already big AI players, helping them optimize their models.
It was never just about raising money – we wanted to be able to go stronger and faster in the right direction.
Roundtable: Do you consider this fundraising round a success?
Rayan Nait Mazi: Absolutely. Roundtable delivered exactly what we needed: an easier, smoother experience for us, our angels, and our lawyers.
Would we have raised the funds without Roundtable? Yes. But it made the process better, faster, and more efficient, which is what matters.
Roundtable: Would you consider using Roundtable for another round of fundraising?
Rayan Nait Mazi: Definitely. As fundraising gets more complex with more investors and more countries involved, we’ll definitely need an easy solution. Complexity increases over time, and we’ll want the easiest solution available.
Roundtable: Last question – if you were to recommend Roundtable to other founders, what would you tell them?
Rayan Nait Mazi: Actually, I already do recommend it, especially to founders looking to raise investments from angels.
A lot of founders focus mostly on VCs and don’t think as much about angels, but I believe angels should be seen as a strategic resource. It’s not just about securing investments; it’s about getting the right people involved.
Roundtable helps make that easier by providing a structured way to bring in valuable angels without the administrative hassle.
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