Arrakis raises $38 million to deploy AI agents in industrial operations
The London startup, founded in January by former Accel, Palantir and Delivery Hero staff, emerged from stealth with a Blossom-led Series A.
By Dominic Okoye · Staff Writer
· 3 min read
Arrakis, a London-based startup building AI deployment tooling for industrial companies, has raised $38 million in a little over three months, including a $30 million Series A led by Blossom Capital. The company, founded in January, is entering a crowded AI agents market with a services-heavy pitch aimed at aerospace, energy, logistics, manufacturing, construction and telecoms customers.
Accel, which backed Arrakis at seed in March, also participated in the Series A. Other investors include Olivier Pomel, founder and chief executive of Datadog, Olivier Godement, OpenAI’s head of business products, and Junaid Hussein, founder of Cambridge Aerospace. Arrakis did not disclose its valuation, the size of its seed round as a standalone figure, revenue, headcount or detailed terms of the financing.
The startup was founded by Rafael Quintanilla, a former Accel investor who is chief executive, alongside Haroun Beltaifa and Romain Fouilland, both previously at Palantir, and Mikhail Galkov, a former Delivery Hero engineer. That mix points to the company’s stated model: a platform combined with forward-deployed AI engineers, a phrase closely associated with Palantir-style enterprise implementation rather than pure self-serve software.
Industrial AI agent deployment
Arrakis says it helps large industrial businesses design, build and scale AI agents for operational work. Its argument is that many companies have moved beyond AI chatbot pilots but still struggle to put systems into production that can execute business tasks reliably across core operations.
The company says its technology is model-agnostic and allows customers to use their own data to train, deploy and scale AI agents within weeks. It did not name the underlying models it supports or provide performance metrics, deployment volumes or customer case studies to substantiate that timeline.
Arrakis said it has secured customers including NYSE-listed enterprises in energy, logistics and industrial sectors. It did not identify those customers or disclose contract values. For buyers in those sectors, the bar for deploying AI into operational workflows is high, since reliability, integration with legacy systems and accountability often matter more than model novelty.
Quintanilla said Western economies face pressure to reindustrialise and argued that existing industrial companies need tools to use their data and compete globally through AI adoption. His statement frames Arrakis as infrastructure for incumbents rather than a startup trying to replace them.
Funding use and market context
Arrakis plans to use the funding to open offices in New York and the Middle East, continue platform development and support AI deployments. The geographic expansion suggests the company is prioritising large enterprise and industrial accounts where sales cycles are relationship-driven and implementation often requires on-site or near-site work.
The round lands as venture investors continue to fund AI agent companies, even as differentiation remains thin across much of the category. Arrakis is trying to separate itself through industrial focus, model flexibility and hands-on deployment. That may appeal to enterprises that do not want another chatbot layer, but it also makes execution dependent on talent, customer access and the ability to turn bespoke work into repeatable software revenue.
This story draws on original reporting from Tech.eu.
