OpenAI and Datadog leaders back AI deployment startup Arrakis

London-based AI deployment startup Arrakis has emerged from stealth, having raised nearly $40m in just over three months. Arrakis was founded by former Accel investor Rafael Quintanilla, along with former Palantir executive Haroun Beltaifa, Romain Fouilland, also previously of Palantir, and Mikhail Galkov, a former Delivery Hero engineer. It has raised $38m in over three months, including a $30m Series A co-led by Blossom Capital with participation from Accel, which invested at seed in March.

Others contributing to the funding include Olivier Pomel, founder and chief executive of Datadog, Olivier Godement, OpenAI’s head of business products, and Junaid Hussein, founder of Cambridge Aerospace. Arrakis, founded in January this year, helps industrial companies design, build and scale AI agents. It helps companies deploy AI agents into key operations across aerospace, energy, logistics, manufacturing, construction and telecommunications.

Its pitch is that companies are experimenting with AI chatbots but struggle to deploy AI that can carry out business tasks effectively. Arrakis says it has a model-agnostic approach and uses forward-deployed AI engineers. It says its approach allows companies to leverage their data to train, deploy, and scale AI agents in weeks.

Arrakis will use the funding to open offices in New York and the Middle East, platform development and AI deployment. It says it has secured customers including NYSE-listed enterprises across the energy, logistics, and industrial sectors. Quintanilla, co-founder and CEO of Arrakis, said: “The West is under growing pressure to reindustrialise, but that renaissance won't be powered by net new companies alone.

It requires equipping our industrial champions with the tools to harness their data, navigate the AI transition and compete on a global stage.”