Swiss startup Prem AI is raising $100M so hedge funds and law firms can own their AI instead of renting it

TL;DR

Prem AI is raising $100M at $500M+ valuation. It builds private AI infrastructure for hedge funds and law firms. “Enterprise intelligence must be owned, not rented.”

Prem AI, a Swiss startup that helps hedge funds and law firms run AI models on their own infrastructure, is raising $100 million in a Series A at a valuation of at least $500 million. The company expects to close the round in the third quarter. CEO and founder Simone Giacomelli said the pitch is simple: “Enterprise intelligence must be owned, not rented.”

The Lugano-based company previously raised a $14 million seed in 2024, followed by a $6.1 million bridge at a $200 million valuation. Backers include Jim Breyer (Breyer Capital), Index Ventures, Marvel Studios founder David Maisel, and Sequoia Capital China co-founder Fan Zhang.

Prem builds AI products for organisations that cannot send sensitive data to OpenAI or Anthropic. The model is self-hosted: the AI runs inside the customer’s own environment. Prem combines security with what Giacomelli calls a “ready-to-use application layer,” giving customers “absolute control without sacrificing usability.”

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Alongside the raise, Prem announced Fluso, an encrypted AI workspace that runs agents and automates tasks. The product is designed for firms where data leaving the building is not an option, whether for regulatory, competitive, or security reasons.

The timing maps to a growing concern among enterprises about the “rented AI” model. Companies paying OpenAI or Anthropic for API access are sending their most sensitive data, including legal documents, trading strategies, and client information, to third-party servers governed by someone else’s terms of service. The sovereignty question applies to companies, not just countries.

Prem’s team currently has 35 people and is expanding. The company sits in the same category as Databricks’ on-premise AI offerings and self-hosted open-weight models from Meta and Mistral, but packages the full stack, from model deployment to agent automation, as a product rather than a toolkit.

For hedge funds, the value proposition is competitive intelligence that stays inside the firm. For law firms, it is privilege-protected work product that never touches a third-party cloud. For both, the alternative, renting AI from an American company that could change its terms, raise prices, or be compelled to share data with a government, is a risk that grows with every API call. Europe’s cloud dependency is already a political risk. Prem is betting it is also a commercial opportunity.