Emergence Capital vs Progress Partners

Verda Raises $189M to Expand AI Cloud and Compute Capacity

European AI cloud company Verda, formerly DataCrunch, has raised $189 million (€164.8 million) in Series B funding, propelling it to unicorn status with a valuation over $1 billion. The oversubscribed round was led by Emergence Capital, with participation from MUFG Innovation Partners, Supermicro, Varma, Lifeline Ventures, 6 Degrees Capital, byFounders, Tesi, and angel investors including Ola Tørudbakken and Mark Saroufim. This brings Verda's total funding to over $450 million (€392.3 million). The company plans to scale its full-stack AI cloud, accelerate product development, multiply compute capacity, and expand internationally, including deploying Nvidia's upcoming VR200 NVL72 generation. Verda's renewable-powered data centres in Finland support its operations across Europe, the US, and Asia. The company reported an annualized revenue run rate of $165 million (€143.85 million) in July 2026, serving customers in over 50 countries.

• Verda raised $189 million (€164.8 million) in Series B funding led by Emergence Capital.
• The funding values Verda at over $1 billion, making it Europe's latest unicorn, with total funding exceeding $450 million (€392.3 million).
• Investors include MUFG Innovation Partners, Supermicro, Varma, Lifeline Ventures, 6 Degrees Capital, byFounders, Tesi, and angel investors.

Emergence Capital Publishes New Thought Leadership on AI Workforce and Open-Weight AI

Emergence Capital's thoughts page now features two new articles: 'Building the AI Workforce for Construction Finance' (September 17, 2026) and 'Our Open-Weight Bet on American AI Leadership' (September 16, 2026). The latter discusses the firm's investment in Arcee, an open-weight AI company, and its stance on American AI competitiveness.

AI-Native Services (AINS) as the Next SaaS

Investor Jake Saper and Emergence Capital are promoting the idea of AI-Native Services (AINS): startups that pair human professionals (lawyers, accountants, insurance brokers) with AI-focused engineers to sell the underlying services rather than standalone software. AINS firms aim to boost practitioner productivity with AI and price by outcome (e.g., per completed contract) instead of billable hours. The concept was presented at a small summit held at AI-native law firm Crosby in New York City; Saper shared a private deck outlining a playbook for founders building these businesses.

• Jake Saper (Emergence Capital) is promoting the concept of AI-Native Services (AINS).
• AINS combines human professionals (accounting, insurance, legal) with AI-focused software engineers.
• AINS business models often charge for outcomes/results rather than billable hours.

Progress Partners Advises Apriva on the Divestiture of Apriva ISS to ITC Federal

Progress Partners advised Apriva on the divestiture of Apriva ISS to ITC Federal, announced September 21, 2026.

Ad Tech's Public Market Woes: Investment Banker Explains Small-Cap Problem

At ExchangeWire's ATS London conference, investment banker Josh Wepman of Houlihan Lokey argued that the struggles of publicly-traded ad tech companies stem from their small market capitalizations, not performance. Most companies are too small to attract significant investment from index funds and mutual funds, with 'it's hard to be a $7 billion company' serving as a key quote. Deal activity has picked up to around $14 billion so far in 2026, but transactions are fewer and larger. Nick Macshane of Progress Partners noted extreme volatility in ad tech stocks, with some companies swinging 60% up or down, suggesting many should not be public. The article highlights take-private trends, mentioning Criteo's rumored buyout, and companies like DoubleVerify, LiveRamp, and Integral Ad Science moving off public markets. It also notes enterprise interest from Salesforce, Adobe, ServiceNow, Workday, Databricks, Snowflake, and OpenAI.

• Josh Wepman, MD at Houlihan Lokey, says public ad tech companies are too small for index/mutual funds to invest meaningfully.
• Public ad tech stocks have underperformed broader tech indices, with declining multiples through 2025-2026.
• Deal activity reached approximately $14 billion so far in 2026, spread across fewer, larger deals.