Building Tomorrow's Digital Infrastructure: Inside Revaia's Vision for European Tech Leadership
Revaia recently brought together two of its newest portfolio companies for an intimate LP dinner to discuss the future of European technology leadership.
The evening's conversation between AMPECO Founder & CEO Orlin Radev and Sekoia.io Founder & CEO Freddy Milesi offered fascinating insights into how European entrepreneurs are finding big opportunities by tackling some of the biggest social and economic challenges.
At first glance, AMPECO, which has developed EV charging software, and Sekoia.io, which has created a powerful cybersecurity platform, might seem worlds apart. But both companies represent a common mission: laying the essential infrastructure that enables our digital and sustainable future.
"These two entrepreneurs are building companies that are shaping the world in a better way, and that are protecting and building digital infrastructure of the future,” said Revaia Partner Morgan Kessous, who led the discussion.
The Quiet Builders of Digital Transformation
AMPECO, headquartered in Sofia, Bulgaria, has quietly become a global force in EV charging infrastructure software. In November 2024, Revaia led AMPECO’s $26 million Series B funding round.
"We enable the companies that build the EV charging infrastructure, and in this way, facilitate this transition to more sustainable transportation,” Orlin explained. “Our software helps them launch, scale, and grow. We service customers that operate a total of 180,000 charge ports in almost 70 countries."
AMPECO's CPMS powers more than 180,000 Charge Points globally
Meanwhile, Sekoia.io, founded by Freddy, who is a cybersecurity veteran, is tackling an equally critical challenge. In April, Revaia led the company’s €26M Series B round.
"Our mission now is clearly to scale the technology," Freddy stated. "Our global ambition is to democratize high-performance cybersecurity because we consider that every single company needs to have a world-class defense for its activities, not only the Fortune 500 or Fortune 1000."
The Eureka Moments That Change Everything
Both entrepreneurs pinpointed specific moments when they knew they were onto something transformative.
For Orlin, validation came early and from an unexpected source. Just three months after founding AMPECO and armed with nothing but mockups on his phone, he attended a UK industry event. "We were showing the mockup on my phone of the mobile app on some very precisely designed screens that only I can navigate," he recalled. "And we got amazing excitement there. And we met what became a few months later our first UK customers."
Freddy's validation took a longer view. Recounting a 2013 visit to Splunk's San Francisco headquarters, he observed a fundamental disconnect: "For them, cybersecurity was just an opportunity for more business. It was not their clear, unique mission. It was a product designed for data scientists and not security professionals. So from there, I wanted to build an alternative.”
Last year, Splunk was acquired by Cisco for $28 billion. Freddy said this opened the doors with customers to a new product that was more focused on security rather than a feature that was part of a larger platform. “It's an opportunity for us to bring a new, modern approach designed for security professionals.”
David vs. Goliath in the Digital Age
Both companies operate in markets dominated by tech giants, yet they've found ways to thrive through focused differentiation.
"We are facing big giants like Microsoft, Google, Cisco, but we are all using the same playbook. They want to be on every single subject,” Freddy said. “And at the end of the day, you don't make a great product. You make an average or good enough product.”
The solution, he argued, lies in specialization and ecosystem thinking: "We are not working well together, so there's a lot of room for a player like us in the field of cybersecurity. I definitely think David is a better positioning than Goliath because of the agility you need to go against the new, emerging cyber threat and to bring all the innovation that the market can bring to you."
The Sekoia AI SOC platform provides an unified interface allowing extended detection and immediate response to cyber threats on the entire information system
For AMPECO, the competitive advantage comes from network effects built across their global customer base. "There is a level of network that affects what we're doing, that comes from the different companies that are using our software and the knowledge and the data that we acquire across the different use cases," Orlin explained.
Building Global Champions from Unexpected Places
Perhaps most striking was the discussion about building a global company from Sofia, Bulgaria, a reality that challenges conventional wisdom about where tech innovation happens.
Orlin recalled his reaction when diverse customers from Taiwan to the Middle East began adopting AMPECO's platform. "It wasn't so much a surprise, per se, but a very nice early validation of this global capability of the product we're building. Because while they're unique markets, the points in common are just enough,” he said.
The Revaia Partnership Decision
When asked about their decision to partner with Revaia, both entrepreneurs emphasized the firm's deep sector expertise over pure financial considerations. Orlin admitted he initially reached out to Revaia as a second option, expecting little response during August in France.
"I was surprised to actually get a term sheet from Revaia,” he said. “What we found is that with Revaia, we wouldn't be just getting the capital that we needed, but we'd be getting a partner that brings strategic balance."
Freddy echoed this sentiment: "We understood that the cybersecurity space is quite complex. But the Revaia team was sharper than some pure players in the cybersecurity investors ecosystem."
Orlin Radev - Freddy Milesi - Morgan Kessous
The Execution Game and Network Effects
Looking forward, the founders emphasized that success would depend on superior execution while building defensible network effects. Both companies have set their sights on market leadership within three to five years.
Orlin acknowledged the challenge: "It seems that I've gotten so many notes from VCs because they say, well, it's very interesting what you're doing, and your KPIs are great. But this seems like an execution game."
He sees network effects as the long-term differentiator. "We intend to leverage this network effect as we grow to this market position to out-compete newcomers and others that have a small reach,” he said.
For Sekoia.io, the strategy centers on ecosystem orchestration. Freddy said: "We are building our positioning and the capacity of the whole ecosystem to bring innovation to adapt to tomorrow’s threats.”
From Revaia’s perspective, both companies are emblematic of the European ecosystem’s strengths and potential. These European entrepreneurs represent a maturing European tech ecosystem that's moving beyond flashy consumer apps toward the fundamental building blocks of tomorrow's economy.
By leveraging Europe’s deep technical expertise, global perspective, and patient capital, they can focus on solving real-world problems while quietly building the resilient and sovereign infrastructure that will power and secure a digital and sustainable future.