UpCloud – Building a resilient European digital future
UpCloud has established itself as a trusted European cloud provider. What began as a mission to democratize access to high-performance cloud services has evolved into a broader role: enabling Europe’s digital independence.
Why?
As a Finnish company, UpCloud has embraced data sovereignty from the very beginning. Secure data storage within Europe is central to protecting economic growth, competitiveness, and strategic autonomy. In times of geopolitical uncertainty, this commitment to autonomy and resilience is more critical than ever.
In a market dominated by global giants, UpCloud stands out by prioritizing European digital resilience and data sovereignty. Unlike many competitors, UpCloud ensures that customer data remains within jurisdictions aligned with GDPR and European data protection standards and legislations. With eight data centers across Europe, UpCloud is also able to meet national standards in key markets, giving customers confidence that their data stays secure, compliant, and close to home.
What and how?
UpCloud was founded with a clear mission: to make high-performance cloud services accessible to everyone. UpCloud delivers cloud infrastructure services such as servers, storage, databases and GPU capacity for AI, all powered by its own high-performance MaxIOPS storage technology.
What sets the company apart is its developer-first approach, transparent pricing, customer-centricity, and commitment to privacy and compliance that offer a compelling alternative to hyperscale providers. UpCloud enables businesses to build in the cloud on their own terms – secure, scalable and aligned with European values.
Growth and internationalisation
International expansion has been a key pillar of UpCloud’s journey since its beginning. By establishing data centers across Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia it has steadily grown its global reach while ensuring low latency and regional compliance. Telia, Solita, and Hailey HR are examples of large companies who rely on UpCloud’s European-based cloud services to meet demanding performance, compliance, and data residency requirements.
Looking ahead, UpCloud continues to invest in product innovation and partnerships, with a strong emphasis on serving the Nordic region while supporting Europe’s broader goal of building a resilient and sovereign cloud ecosystem.
The importance of venture capital
Venture capital has played a pivotal role in UpCloud’s ability to scale and innovate. The 2020 funding round, which was led by Connected Capital and which marked Tesi’s initial investment in the company, provided the resources needed to accelerate international expansion, enhance product development, and strengthen customer support.
The investment is aligned with Tesi’s broader mission to strengthen domestic and European ownership and value creation, in this case by UpCloud providing secure data storage within Finland and Europe. As a result, the region’s economic competitiveness, strategic autonomy, and digital self-sufficiency are also reinforced.
General information
UpCloud was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Helsinki, Finland. The company provides cloud servers, storage, networking, and private cloud services through 13 global data center locations, 8 of them in Europe.
With a team of 120 employees for 18 different nationalities, UpCloud continues to grow under the leadership of CEO Arno Schäfer, reinforcing its role as an emerging European player in cloud infrastructure. Founder Joel Pihlajamaa continues to serve as CTO, guiding the company’s technical vision and innovation.
Building a resilient European digital future
“One of the key goals of our 2020 funding round was to bring in European investors – like Tesi – who would strengthen, not dilute, our strategic position. We are well positioned to grow even further to become the leading European sovereign cloud provider.”
- Arno Schäfer, CEO, UpCloud