Artificial intelligence infrastructures are not limited to data centers or GPUs. They now extend to the software layer that structures data, automates operations and connects physical networks. And it is precisely on this strategic link that the global funds accelerate their control.
The acquisition of Deepomatic by the British Iqgeo, supported by KKR, illustrates this tilting. Founded in 2014 in Paris, the company has developed a computer vision platform used by telecom and energy operators to automate quality control and field maintenance. His algorithms analyze the photos of technicians to detect anomalies, non-compliance or risk of failure before they occur. In a few years, Deepomatic has established itself as a standard of “Field AI”, used by nearly 30,000 workers in the field and one million operations documented each month.
For Iqgeo, this acquisition is part of a logic of convergence between Visual AI and geospatial management. By integrating Deepomatic technology as a software suite, the publisher strengthens its control over the full cycle of networks: planning, construction, activation and maintenance. Supported by KKR, the group now has a European software brick capable of transforming the way in which telecom and energy infrastructure is managed. An operation which also extends the perimeter of influence of American capital on critical tools for managing European networks.
This movement exceeds the only case of EPOMATIC. In recent months, several strategic actors in applied AI have changed scale. Build joined the Finnish One Click LCAwhileUnified was integrated into French Akeneo, Two operations illustrating the consolidation of B2B software in Europe. In parallel, groups supported by global funds such as Kkr,, EQT,, Blackrock,, General Atlantic Or Carlyle Multiply the acquisitions targeting the software bricks of infrastructure, environmental data and cybersecurity. Their goal is to lock the technological layers that will feed the smart networks and industrial AI models of the next decades.
This internationalization of capital accelerates the consolidation of the European market, but it also raises the question of Critical software infrastructure control. Behind acquisitions presented as purely industrial, it is an entire part of European digital sovereignty that moves outside the continent.
Faced with this concentration, the answers remain fragmented. The European Innovation Fund (EIC Fund) or PIIEC on AI initiatives seek to support local alternatives, but investment tickets remain incommensurate with KKR or EQT capacities. For European startups, for lack of long funding, the choice to integrate into players with a global network and massive capital, is for the moment the only option.
Deepomatic raised 18.5 million euros in total, with a lifting of 10 million euros in series B from the corporate investment fund of the German energy company Enbw New Ventures and Orbia Ventures, with the participation of its historic investors. The startup had already raised 2.3 million euros from Swisscom and Octave Klaba (OVH) in April 2021 and $ 6.2 million in 2019, especially with Hi Inov and Alven.
