Forward Deployed AI Engineer

Edra raises $30 million in Series A funding round. Edra, a New York-based workflow automation startup, has raised $30 million in a Series A funding round led by Sequoia Capital, marking its emergence from stealth mode. Edra's $30 million Series A round was led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from 8VC, A* (the venture firm founded by serial entrepreneur Kevin Hartz), and HubSpot Ventures. This brings Edra's total funding to more than $30 million, following an earlier seed round of approximately $6.5 million co-led by 8VC and A*, with HubSpot Ventures also participating in both rounds. The company was founded by CEO Eugen Alpeza and CTO Yannis Karamanlakis, who met at university 13 years ago and spent several years at Palantir Technologies. Alpeza led major commercial client acquisition and the launch of Palantir's AI platform, while Karamanlakis served as the company's first forward deployed AI engineer, focusing on moving AI models from prototypes into production environments. Their combined enterprise AI deployment expertise forms the foundation of Edra's approach. How Edra works? Edra builds AI agents that automatically learn how a business actually operates by ingesting existing operational data (such as support tickets, logs, emails, chat histories, and messages) from systems like ServiceNow, Jira, Zendesk, Salesforce, and Outlook. Using what the company calls "agentic learning," thousands of specialized AI agents explore the data, surface gaps, simulate decision paths, and synthesize findings into a transparent, white box library of executable knowledge expressed in plain English instructions. These agents then execute business processes reliably and verifiably on top of the customer's existing tools, without requiring interviews, workshops, or manual process mapping. Deployment typically takes as little as one week, delivering immediate visibility and automation. The platform targets IT service management (ITSM) and technical support initially but is positioned for horizontal expansion across enterprise workflows. Real world results include ASOS expanding automated knowledge coverage from 30% to 90%, and live deployments at customers such as HubSpot (which is both a user and strategic investor), Cushman & Wakefield, and Ergeon. Revenue generation has already begun through these enterprise implementations. Sequoia partner Luciana Lixandru highlighted the dual opportunity: dominating the ITSM vertical first, then scaling into a broader enterprise platform. The investment underscores confidence in Edra's ability to solve a core enterprise AI challenge, grounding agents in proprietary operational data to eliminate hallucination risks and deliver auditable, self improving automation. Proceeds from the Series A will fuel team expansion (Edra is actively hiring AI engineers and full stack talent in New York and London), accelerated product development, and go to market efforts. With top tier backing, Palantir proven founders, early customer traction, and a differentiated "data to knowledge" flywheel, Edra is positioned as a leader in the emerging category of operational AI agents that learn and execute real business processes autonomously. The round reflects strong market validation in a competitive landscape where reliable enterprise automation remains a high barrier opportunity. Please email Superbcrew your feedback and news tips at hello(at)superbcrew.com

Two Palantir veterans just came out of stealth with $30 million and a Sequoia stamp of approval. Edra, a New York-based startup that says it helps companies automate workflows by turning their existing operational data into a living knowledge base, just picked up a meaningful vote of confidence: a $30 million Series A led by Sequoia, with participation from 8VC and A*, the venture firm founded by serial entrepreneur Kevin Hartz. The founders are worth paying attention to. Eugen Alpeza and Yannis Karamanlakis say they met at university 13 years ago and spent years at Palantir before going out on their own - Alpeza building out major commercial accounts and leading the launch of Palantir's AI Platform; Karamanlakis as the company's first Forward Deployed AI Engineer, focused on getting AI models out of demos and into actual production. The problem they're tackling is straightforward. Companies are sitting on loads of useful operational data - emails, logs, support tickets, chat histories - but have no good way to act on it. Edra says it analyzes that data automatically, builds a knowledge base from it, and keeps it updated. Current use cases center on IT service management and customer support. Customers already include HubSpot, ASOS, Cushman & Wakefield, and easyJet.