lyceum: reimagining access to compute in the ai era
- michellekuepper
- Jun 24
- 3 min read
In an AI-driven world, access to compute is becoming as fundamental as access to electricity. But despite surging demand, today’s cloud platforms remain slow, complex, and expensive - designed for hyperscale corporations, not for developers, startups, or public-sector innovators.
Lyceum is here to change that. Co-founded by Magnus Grünewald (CEO) and Maximilian Niroomand (CTO), the company is building a next-generation GPU cloud that strips away complexity and makes deployment as easy as clicking “Run on Cloud.” With such a stellar founding team and an ambitious tech hedge, we were delighted to lead their €10.3M pre-seed round - supporting their mission to deliver Europe’s first sovereign, user-centric compute layer.
bridging the compute accessibility gap
From foundation model training to digital twin simulations, access to high-performance compute is becoming mission-critical for innovation. But the current landscape is dominated by hyperscalers with opaque pricing, complex DevOps, and infrastructure controlled outside of Europe. Lyceum tackles these barriers with a radically simplified approach including a one-click GPU deployment, automated hardware selection and elastic workload scheduling and transparent, upfront pricing based on real-time energy use and datacenter capacity
Designed for performance and usability, Lyceum lets anyone - from AI researchers to product teams - run large-scale workloads without needing to master DevOps or navigate hyperscaler pricing menus. The platform is anchored in its own EU-based GPU datacenters, developed with regional partners to ensure full sovereignty, energy transparency, and compliance with Europe’s strict data residency standards.
“Our goal is to put the defining resource of tomorrow - compute - into everyone’s hands,” said Grünewald. “We believe that in a few years, calling GPU power will be as easy as charging a device. We’re building the infrastructure to make that future real - and to ensure it’s built in Europe.”
an all-star team driving the mission forward
At the helm of Lyceum are two exceptional founders with a rare blend of commercial and technical expertise. CEO Magnus Grünewald brings leadership experience from Enpal and Arbio and a hustler mentality - we continue to be blown away by his executional speed and strategic clarity. CTO Maximilian Niroomand has built models at McKinsey’s QuantumBlack, conducted ML research at Synteny, and traded at Citadel. He holds a PhD in Theoretical Machine Learning from Cambridge and leads Lyceum’s technical development with a deep understanding of AI infrastructure. Together, they’ve attracted a top-tier early team of engineers and operators - and are now expanding across Zurich and Berlin.
“Lyceum is building the sovereign European answer to AI compute,” said redalpine General Partner Sebastian Becker. “We’re deeply impressed by the team’s bold vision, relentless ambition, and exceptional speed of execution.”
a massive market, ready to be rethought
Cloud computing is a $500B market on track to surpass $2 trillion by 2030. While global demand for compute skyrockets - driven largely by AI - the European ecosystem remains underserved. Lyceum’s model combines intuitive UX with sovereign infrastructure and competitive pricing, giving developers and institutions a credible alternative to US-based hyperscalers.
With strategic investments in European datacenter capacity, energy-aware compute routing, and partnerships across the semiconductor ecosystem, Lyceum is laying the groundwork for long-term platform expansion. The team is currently developing purpose-built GPU zones across Denmark and France - designed for scale, performance, and full environmental traceability.
what’s next for Lyceum?
With this funding, Lyceum will: Expand its engineering and go-to-market teams across Zurich and Berlin, launch its first GPU zones in the EU with local infrastructure partners and deepen relationships with hardware players to further grow its compute stack
As AI becomes a general-purpose technology, accessible infrastructure will be the key to European competitiveness. We’re proud to support Magnus, Max, and the entire Lyceum team on their journey to democratize compute - and to help shape Europe’s digital future from the ground up.