Voi Founders' Pit AI Crowned Stockholm's Latest Star

Swedish startup Pit has rapidly emerged as a notable AI innovator from Stockholm, despite initially drawing attention for some provocative social media content.

The company is spearheaded by the co-founders of the prominent European scooter firm Voi, including its CEO Fredrik Hjelm. The leadership team is further strengthened by former engineers from iZettle and Klarna. Pit has successfully secured $16 million in seed funding, with a16z leading the round, underscoring Stockholm's position as a key hub where a16z actively seeks out prospective European unicorns.

Pit's strategic focus is on enterprise AI, developing products designed to meticulously learn the operational intricacies of client businesses. This understanding then enables the creation of bespoke software solutions aimed at automating various processes, as revealed by Pit CEO Adam Jafer in an interview with TechCrunch.

Jafer's departure from Voi last summer concluded a seven-year tenure during which he witnessed the company's remarkable expansion to nearly 1,000 employees across 13 countries. From his engineering perspective, Jafer observed the maturation of AI to a point suitable for widespread enterprise adoption. While his initial vision involved replacing basic SaaS tools with in-house applications, he soon recognized a far broader opportunity extending beyond Voi's scope.

“The aha moment for the bigger opportunity was when the models were no longer just chatbots that generate text, but became more agentic and could do things,” Jafer explained to TechCrunch. Distinguishing itself from competitors offering AI agent-building or "vibe-coding" products, Pit positions its offering as an "AI product team as a service."

Entering a competitive market, Pit aims to differentiate through two core offerings: Pit Studio and Pit Cloud. Pit Studio empowers enterprise employees to guide the platform through processes suitable for AI-generated software, while Pit Cloud promises to deliver this software in a manner that adheres to stringent enterprise requirements for governance, certifications, and auditability.

In mid-January, the startup commenced pilot testing with customers across diverse sectors such as telecom, healthcare, and logistics. The exclusive focus remains on automating internal processes. "Nothing customer facing, no conversational AI, just pure back-office, service and support functions that we turn into automations so that you can give back time to people to focus on your core business," Jafer stated.

As Pit prepares for commercial scaling, it maintains a hands-on approach. Aligning with the trend of AI companies deploying "forward-deployed engineers" (FDEs) to facilitate enterprise adoption, Pit is actively recruiting solution engineers. Jafer emphasized that the objective is to meet the high expectations of their target large customers. “They’re looking to buy outcomes. They want processes to go faster. They want to see productivity unlock and time unlock,” he affirmed.

Jafer clarified that Pit does not position itself as a means to reduce human labor or eliminate jobs. “The theme is more around moving people upstream to do more valuable things for the business, rather than repetitive back-office work.” He added that success metrics extend beyond mere time and cost savings to include aspects such as "quality of work improvement, reducing human errors and so on."

However, Pit's internal staffing philosophy sparked controversy a few months prior when Jafer posted on LinkedIn, declaring: “Yes, our team currently has no junior engineers. At Pit, agents now do most of what junior engineers used to do.”

While the post remains publicly accessible, Jafer has since distanced himself from the statement. “It may have started like that, but you need a good mix as you scale,” he noted with a smile.

Fredrik Hjelm also proactively addressed potential scrutiny regarding the initial all-male team. In a post on X, he acknowledged Pit was “founded by tech bros, from Voi and Klarna,” but immediately qualified, “We have tech girls on the team as well, fyi.” This clarification was not immediately evident from Pit’s LinkedIn profile, though TechCrunch confirmed the presence of a woman on Pit’s communications team.

The company's formation, however, largely reflects a reunion of familiar faces. Three of Voi's four co-founders—Hjelm, Jafer, and Filip Lindvall (now a founding engineer at Pit)—have embarked on this new venture, maintaining their friendship over the years. Furthermore, Andreas Hjelm, an engineer at the startup, is Fredrik Hjelm’s brother, underscoring the close-knit nature of the founding group.

Despite being named a co-founder of Pit, Fredrik Hjelm's continued role as Voi's CEO suggests a less hands-on involvement for the foreseeable future. Voi, having achieved profitability in 2024 and closing 2025 with robust results, is widely considered a potential IPO candidate. Nevertheless, Hjelm's extensive network and entrepreneurial acumen are invaluable assets to Pit, already evident in securing a16z's investment.

In a tweet, Hjelm elaborated on how a16z partners Alex Rampell and Gabriel Vasquez came to lead Pit’s funding round. He recounted forming acquaintances with Ben Horowitz, Gabriel Vasquez, and Jen Kha "a few years ago when they came to Stockholm to understand what they could do for European tech. We stayed in touch. When it came to picking partners for Pit, we didn’t need the money to get going, but we wanted the strongest backers we could find. So we picked them, and they picked us.”

Jafer corroborated the swift fundraising process, noting that Pit engaged with few other firms. The round also saw participation from Pit’s founders, Lakestar, executives from American tech companies, and affluent Nordic families. This transatlantic cap table highlights the burgeoning interest in AI emerging from Stockholm, which has solidified its status as one of Europe's most dynamic startup ecosystems. Pit is also poised to leverage its European heritage for sales, particularly in the industrial sector, which is abundant across the continent, Jafer pointed out. He further reported that clients appreciate Pit’s agnostic approach, which allows for the use of various AI and cloud vendors based on client preferences, a strategy that aligns well with the growing demand for sovereign technology, especially in critical industries.

“EU models running on EU compute is top of mind for almost every CIO we’re meeting,” Jafer concluded, emphasizing a critical client priority.