German AI agent startup n8n raised $180M in a Series C funding round at a $2.5B valuation.
The current financing brings the Berlin-based company’s total funding to $240M.
The company said the round was led by Accel, with support from Meritech, Redpoint, Evantic and Visionaries Club. Nvidia’s venture capital arm NVentures, and T.Capital also joined the round, with previous backers including Felicis Ventures, Sequoia, Highland Europe and HV Capital making follow-on investments too.
N8n, which was founded by Jan Oberhauser in 2019, sells software that can be used with third party web applications or custom in-house tools to automate repetitive tasks.
It has a visual drag-and-drop interface, and users can create customized workflows that connect their own databases with platforms such as Slack and Google Docs. While some AI startups are targeting specific sectors, such as law and health, n8n is trying to sell tools across several industries, according to a report from Bloomberg News.
The startup has rivals such as Zapier in the U.S. and Canada’s Gumloop. Earlier this week, it another competitor came up: OpenAI (OPENAI). Earlier this week, the Microsoft (MSFT)-backed AI company launched a new feature called AgentKit designed to let software developers build and roll out AI agents.
Oberhauser said to the news outlet that his company gives enterprises more flexibility because its technology links to AI models from multiple providers, including Alphabet’s (GOOG) (GOOGL) Google and Anthropic. “If OpenAI is releasing something, you’re going to be locked into the OpenAI model,” he said. “What makes us special is you don’t have this lock-in,” the report added.
OpenAI’s entry into the market is “good for n8n,” said Ben Fletcher, partner at Accel, adding that more agents means more potential uptake for n8n’s services.