Scape email startup raises $3.2 million for AI inbox

Scape, a Stockholm-based Scape email startup, has come out of stealth with $3.2 million in funding and an early-access launch of an AI-powered inbox. The round includes backing from Y Combinator, General Catalyst and FundersClub, putting another YC company into the crowded effort to replace or wrap Gmail for knowledge workers.

The company did not disclose a valuation, revenue, customer count or detailed round terms. Scape says its product is aimed at professionals who spend much of their day in email, a workflow the company argues has seen little interface-level change for decades.

Scape’s angel investors include Max Junestrand, co-founder of Legora; Sebastian Knutsson, co-founder of King; Jacob Wallenberg Jr. of Ramp and EQT; Sophia Bendz, formerly CMO of Spotify; and operators from OpenAI, Google, Meta and Ramp, according to the company.

What is Scape's email product?

Scape is an email client that keeps the familiar inbox format but tries to do more of the surrounding work before a user opens a thread. The company says the product can prepare suggested replies, create or edit attachments, and use information from email history and meetings to add context.

Its inbox view is designed to show messages that need action, while lower-priority items such as newsletters and notifications are hidden by default. Users can organize work with custom labels, including categories such as Customers and Hiring, according to Scape.

The company’s pitch is that a client email often requires more than writing a response: reviewing past threads, checking meeting notes, handling forms or attachments, sending files and then tracking the next reply. Scape claims it can compress that sequence into a review-and-send workflow. That claim will depend on accuracy, permissioning and whether users trust software to prepare work across private inbox and meeting data, none of which Scape quantified in its announcement.

Who founded Scape?

Scape was started by Melvin Hagberg during Y Combinator’s summer 2024 batch, when he was a 21-year-old solo founder. The company began as a customer-support email tool before Hagberg changed direction after deciding the underlying product could address his own email workflow problems, according to Scape.

Elis Hodzic, 23, joined as co-founder in 2025 after first investing in the company. Scape now says it has a five-person team based in Stockholm and plans to hire across engineering and product.

Hagberg said Scape is built around the view that professionals need an interface made for work that takes place inside email, rather than another chatbot or Gmail add-on. Gustaf Alströmer, a general partner at Y Combinator and an early investor, said AI will change email and claimed Scape users do not return to Gmail after using the product.

Email has become a repeated target for AI startups because it contains high-value work context and a persistent distribution problem: users already live there, but switching clients is hard. Scape’s early test is whether proactive drafting and attachment preparation are enough to move users away from incumbent inboxes, especially without disclosed usage or retention metrics.

Scape is available for early access through scape.app.

This story draws on original reporting from Tech.eu.