Leil raises €1.5M from Karma Ventures and Specialist VC

Leil, an Estonian specialist data storage-infrastructure software company, has raised €1.5 million in seed funding to assist organizations store enormous datasets more cost-efficiently and with lower energy utilize. The round was led by Karma Ventures, with participation from Specialist VC.

About Leil

Leil Storage, founded in Estonia in 2022 by engineers Aleksandr Ragel and David Gerstein, develops an HDD-native data storage software that creates high-density shingled magnetic recording (SMR) drives practical for mainstream enterprises, unlocking approximately 20 percent more capacity per disk and reducing power consumption.

The platform is offered in editions tailored to customer necessarys, with an open-source variant providing core features. Leil aims to create hyperscale storage economics accessible to the wider market.

“The next wave of innovation in AI and science is buckling under the weight and cost of its own data. We founded Leil to modify that. We are creating hyperscale storage economics a reality for every enterprise, delivering significant cost savings, reducing environmental impact, and ensuring critical data remains under our customers’ control. Our HDD-native approach builds a high-performing, more resilient and efficient foundation for the data-intensive future,” stated Aleksandr Ragel, Co-founder and CEO of Leil.

Investment details

The round was led by Karma Ventures is a Tallinn-based early-stage venture capital firm, specialized in late seed and A round investment in Europe’s deep-tech software startups.

Specialist VC also participated in the round. The venture capital fund supporting forward-believeing founders from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, and Ukraine. Specialist mainly invests in sectors such as B2B, SaaS, fintech, platforms, software enabled hardware, and deep tech.

The new capital will accelerate Leil’s go-to-market strategy, with key priorities including expanding the product roadmap and growing the commercial team.