Newsletter Spring 2025

🚀 New investments in ElevenLabs and Openlayer

✨ Exciting updates from our portfolio companies

👋 Team update: Emmarique starts a new role within KPN

☕ Where to meet the KPN Venturesteam

KPN Ventures invests in ElevenLabs, the leader in AI voice technology     

🗣️Thrilled to welcome ElevenLabs in our portfolio by joining their Series C, led by Andreessen Horowitz and ICONIQ Growth. ElevenLabs uses AI to create lifelike synthetic voices. The company has significantly advanced text-to-speech technology, whilst making it far more accessible. Their voices are used across a wide range of use-cases from customer service to content creation, enriching the customer journey at multiple touchpoints. By partnering with ElevenLabs, KPN is positioning itself at the forefront of AI voice innovation and communication technology, which is core to the KPN business.

KPN Ventures invests in AI testing company Openlayer       

💡 We’ve also joined Openlayer’s $14.5M Series A round, led by Race Capital with continued participation from their first backer Y Combinator. Openlayer tackles one of the biggest challenges in AI: reliability. Unlike traditional testing tools, Openlayer integrates directly into the AI development workflow, helping teams continuously evaluate, monitor, and troubleshoot models, even in production. Leading companies like eBay, Virtu Financial, Amdocs, and Telefónica already use the platform to detect unexpected errors, trace their root causes,and safeguard generative AI models in real time. Through this partnership, we’re driving AI innovation that benefits both KPN and its customers.

Airalo surpasses 20 million users

🌍 Airalo, the world’s leading eSIM marketplace for travelers, has hit another major milestone: 20million users worldwide! Since reaching 10 million last summer, the momentum hasn’t stopped. Airalo continues to grow as the go-to eSIM solution for travelers, enabling seamless connectivity in over 200 destinations, available in 53 languages!

CloudTalk launches human-Sounding AI Voice Agent       

🤖 CloudTalk, a cloud-based call center solution, has officially launched its AI Voice Agent, a big step forward in their customer engagement. This next-gen AI agent is more than just a voice on the line. It understands, acts, and integrates directly with business workflows to deliver 24/7 customer support that feels natural and efficient. Whether it’s handling outbound calls or managing routine conversations, CloudTalk’s AI Voice Agent (CeTe) is designed to improve team productivity and redefine what’s possible in voice automation!

Wirepas hits 5 million smart meter connections in Indial        

⚡️Wirepas, a global leader in IoT connectivity, is playing a key role in India’s nationwide smart metering rollout. With over 5 million smart electricity meters deployed across 9 states, Wirepas is currently the most widely used AMI (Advanced Meter Infrastructure) connectivity solution in the country. Every 8 seconds, a new meter is added to the Wirepas mesh network, demonstrating its scalability and resilience. In partnership with companies like Schneider Electric, Genus, and HPL, Wirepas supports India’s shift toward a more efficient and digitally managed energy grid. The successful rollout is supported by a Service Level Agreement (SLA) of 99.9%, ensuring reliable, real-time data transmission, that is critical to maintaining energy efficiency.

Perlego launched AI Research Assistant 

📚 Perlego, the online learning library with over 1 million academic titles, just launched Research Assistant. The tool is designed to help students and researchers find inspiration for their topic, swiftly identify relevant sources, and dig deeper to uncover new insights. When you ask a research question, Perlego searches for the most relevant passages within their library of 1M+ titles, gives you an overview, and points you toward the full text of every title cited. Less time searching and more time thinking!

Emmarique becomes VP Data, AI & Adoption at KPN

💚 After 4 incredible and exciting years at KPN Ventures, Emmarique has moved to a new role within KPN as VP Data, AI & Adoption in the Consumer market. During her time with us, she played a key role in transforming KPN Ventures into a real value-adding CVC: initiating revenue-generating partnerships and driving strategic impact. We will miss her sharp insights and energy, but we are happy she will continue creating impact at KPN, and that we will keep working together on AI initiatives!

Meet KPN Ventures        

🤝 After a long winter break, we are excited to hit the road again. KPN Ventures will be present at the following events:

• HTGF Family Day, Berlin, 19-20 May

• ECSO Cyber Investors days, The Hague, 21-22 May

• Latitude 59, Tallinn, 21-23 May, (we’re also co-hosting a side-event!)

• Infosecurity, London, 3-5 June

• Viva Technology, Paris, 11-14 June

• The Next Web, Amsterdam, 19-20 June, (we’re also co-hosting a side-event!)

• TechBBQ, Copenhagen, 27-28 August

• Bits & Pretzels, Munich, 29 September-1 October

• OneConference, The Hague, 30 September-1 October

• ARRtist Summit, Berlin, 9 October

• Slush, Helsinki, 19-20 November

📩 Want to join our side-events at Latitude59 or The Next Web? Send us a message for an invite, we’d love to see you there!

☕ Attending one of these events and want to grab a coffee? Reach out, we’re always up for a good chat.

🔔And lastly, don’t forget to follow KPN Ventures on LinkedIn for the latest news and updates!

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