The founders behind Nord Security have quietly returned — this time to tackle enterprise AI.
In a sharply timed move, Nexos.ai has raised €30 million in a Series A round and is pitching itself as the “Switzerland for LLMs” — a neutral enclave for safe, governed large-language-model use by corporations.
Key Takeaways
- Strong founders: the Nord Security/Hostinger duo behind Nexos.ai.
- Series A: €30 M at ~€300 M valuation, led by Index Ventures & Evantic.
- Product: AI Workspace + AI Gateway; access to 200+ models from OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, Meta.
- Mission: Enable enterprises to adopt AI securely — data-sovereignty and governance front and centre.
- Focus areas: regulated sectors in Europe & North America; targeting rapid demo cadence.
Nexos.ai, founded in late 2024 by the former Nord VPN-backed founders, has closed a €30 million Series A at about a €300 million valuation. The startup offers enterprises an AI orchestration platform — a unified “AI Gateway” plus “AI Workspace” — to access, secure, manage and govern over 200 large-language-models across providers like OpenAI, Google, Anthropic and Meta.
Background: From VPNs to enterprise AI
Lithuanian entrepreneurs Tomas Okmanas and Eimantas Sabaliauskas — known for founding Nord Security, which built the popular VPN brand NordVPN and grew toward a roughly US $3 billion valuation — launched Nexos.ai in late 2024.
Their new venture enters the enterprise AI infrastructure space, aiming to fill a gap: companies eager to deploy large-language-models (LLMs) at scale but worried about data security, governance, cost and complexity.
In January 2025, Nexos.ai emerged from stealth with an $8 million seed raise led by Index Ventures (with participation from Creandum and Dig Ventures). Now, just months later, it has secured a €30 M Series A.
What Nexos.ai Offers: AI Workspace & Gateway
AI Workspace for employees
Nexos.ai offers an interface where employees across an enterprise can safely interact with AI-powered tools — without exposing sensitive corporate data directly to third-party LLMs.
AI Gateway for developers and governance
The “AI Gateway” is the linchpin: it provides a single layer of security, compliance, cost-tracking and orchestration as enterprises access dozens (200+) of models from providers such as OpenAI, Google DeepMind/Google, Anthropic, and Meta Platforms.
The platform handles smart model-routing (choosing which model or provider to use for a given task), caching, cost optimisation and load balancing — all designed to ease the transition from pilot to production AI use.
Why It Matters: Governance + Data Sovereignty in Enterprise AI
The enterprise AI market is facing a sharp pivot: many organisations moved quickly into pilot LLM projects, but they now face critical hurdles of governance, oversight and cost. Nexos.ai positions itself in this exact space.
With regulatory frameworks evolving (especially in Europe) and corporations grappling with data leaks (via ad hoc employee use of LLMs), a neutral “gateway” that doesn’t tether enterprises to one provider becomes strategically compelling. The founders liken the company to Switzerland — neutral ground in the AI model wars.
Competitive Landscape & Strategic Fit
Nexos.ai is entering a crowded field of enterprise-AI tooling — incumbents such as Kore.ai, Botpress, IBM (with WatsonX Orchestrate) and UiPath each offer AI automation, agent orchestration or tooling. However, Nexos.ai’s value proposition claims to differ by offering cross-model orchestration plus governance across providers — rather than automating only within one ecosystem.
What Happens Next: Expansion & Scaling
With the new capital, Nexos.ai plans to grow its team toward ~100 employees and accelerate expansion into Europe and North America — with particular focus on regulated sectors and public institutions where data-governance concerns are highest.
The company currently reports running 50–60 weekly demos with enterprise clients already using AI, seeking to help boardrooms define strategy rather than pilots alone.
Risks & Watch-Points
- Execution risk: Transforming demo momentum into large-scale enterprise contracts is challenging in the AI-governance space.
- Competitive risk: Big cloud vendors and AI platform providers could incorporate similar governance layers, reducing differentiation.
- Sovereignty/region risk: Serving regulated institutions means stricter compliance demands, slower sales cycles.
- Market timing: With AI investment still exuberant, expectations are high; managing cost, ROI and governance issues remains non-trivial.
Conclusion
Nexos.ai arrives at the right moment: enterprise AI is shifting from experimentation to production, and governance + security are now front-of-mind. Founded by proven tech entrepreneurs and backed by strong VCs, the startup has the credentials — and the capital. Whether it can deliver truly enterprise-grade, multi-model governance at scale will determine whether it becomes the “Switzerland for LLMs” its founders are pitching.