Valarian Raises $50 Million To Deliver Sovereign AI and Enterprise Infrastructure

London-based sovereign infrastructure startup Valarian announced it closed a $50 million Series A funding round led by New Enterprise Associates. The round brings the company's total funding to $70 million following a $20 million seed round. Additional investors included Lightbank, XTX Markets, Sequel, LitVC, and angels Gokul Rajaram and Nikesh Arora. Valarian said the capital will be used to address structural problems created by government and enterprise reliance on American public clouds for sensitive AI systems. The company, co-founded by CEO Max Buchan and former US Army officer Josh McLaughlin, has developed a proprietary control architecture called ACRA that sits on top of Kubernetes to create secure enclaves around workloads. Valarian said the technology allows customers to retain encryption keys and instantly seal or revoke workloads in real time. The funding attracted public backing from UK AI Minister Kanishka Narayan, who called sovereign AI capabilities crucial for national safety. Under chairman Nick Trim, Valarian plans to scale across two tracks: Valarian Enterprise for regulated private companies and Valarian Defence for nations and defense programs requiring absolute infrastructure control.