Pit Raises Funding to Scale AI Agents for Enterprise, With Backing From a16z

As Pit prepares to scale commercially, the startup is taking a hands-on APProach to enterprise adoption. Following the model of AI companies deploying forward-deployed engineers, Pit is hiring solution engineers to embed with CLIents, according to CEO Jafer. The aim is to meet the expectations of large industrial customers. “They’re looking to buy outcomes. They want processes to go faster. They want to see Productivity unlock and time unlock,” Jafer said.

Jafer emphasized that Pit is not positioning its Technology as a way to reduce headcount. “The theme is more around moving people upstream to do more valuable things for the business, rather than repetitive back-office work.” Success, he added, is measured not only in time and cost savings but also in improved work quality and reduced human error.

The startup’s own staffing approach sparked controversy months ago when Jafer posted on LinkedIn that the team had no junior engineers, stating that AI Agents now handle most of what junior engineers once did. While the post remains online, Jafer has since walked back that stance. “It may have started like that, but you need a good mix as you scale,” he acknowledged.

Co-founder Fredrik Hjelm anticipated that the all-male founding team might draw attention. In a post on X, he described Pit as “founded by tech bros, from Voi and Klarna,” but quickly added, “We have tech girls on the team as well, fyi.” That clarification is not immediately evident from Pit’s LinkedIn profile, though TechCrunch has spoken with one woman working on the communications side.

The founding team reflects a reunion of former Voi colleagues. Voi’s four co-founders have remained close over the years, and three are now part of Pit: Hjelm, Jafer, and Filip Lindvall, who serves as a founding engineer. Another team member, engineer Andreas Hjelm, is the brother of Voi CEO Fredrik Hjelm.

Although Fredrik Hjelm is listed as a Pit co-founder, he remains CEO of Voi, which has been profitable since 2024 and is viewed as a potential IPO candidate after closing 2025 with strong results. His role at Pit will likely be less Operational for now, but his connections as a prominent entrepreneur are already paying off, most notably with Andreessen Horowitz.

Hjelm explained on X how a16z partners Alex Rampell and Gabriel Vasquez came to lead Pit’s funding round. He first met Ben Horowitz, Gabriel Vasquez, and Jen Kha several years ago when they visited Stockholm to explore ways to support European tech. “We stayed in touch. When it came to picking partners for Pit, we didn’t need the money to get going, but we wanted the strongest backers we could find. So we picked them, and they picked us.”

Jafer confirmed that Pit did not spend extensive time courting other firms for the round, which was also backed by the founders themselves, Lakestar, executives from U.S. tech companies, and wealthy Nordic families. The transatlantic investor base underscores growing interest in AI emerging from Stockholm, now firmly established as one of Europe’s most ACTive startup hubs.

Pit’s European roots could also prove advantageous in sales. “We’re going after industrials, and there’s plenty of that in Europe,” Jafer said. He noted that clients value Pit’s agnostic approach: the platform can work with different AI and cloud providers based on customer preferences, a flexibility that aligns with rising demand for sovereign technology, particularly in critical sectors.

“EU models running on EU compute is top of mind for almost every CIO we’re meeting,” Jafer said.