Young entrepreneurs ditched their studies and founded an AI startup: Now they get millions from prominent investors

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In a press release, the Aarhus startup Cernel announces that they have just raised DKK 5.4 million in an investment round. The capital injection will be used to expand the business and bring their solution, which automates manual workflows for webshops, even wider.

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The multi-million investment comes from the venture fundA venture fund is professional investors who scout start-ups to invest and mentor, aiming for innovation, growth, and returns. It is high risk, high reward. More Founderment, the Danish Export and Investment Fund (EIFO), and a number of experienced business angels. With this support, according to CEO Andreas Busch, Cernel is well positioned for future growth.

“We are lucky to have investors with such extensive experience in our field on board. They bring a wealth of experience in areas that we need in our further development. With the added capital, we can now accelerate our scaling to reach larger customers – also internationally,” he says.

Putting studies on the shelf

A family Christmas party where frustrations over time-consuming e-commerce tasks were aired was the starting point for Cernel.

“My uncle told me in frustration about his everyday life with his webshop. It struck me how much time is wasted on manual work writing product descriptions. That’s when the idea was born,” says CEO and co-founder Andreas Busch, who was a computer science student at Aarhus University at the time.

Andreas Busch and co-founder Mathias Fenger-Eriksen’s fascination with AI took off during the corona lockdown in 2020. Isolated in their new apartment in Aarhus, they started programming for fun. What started as a pastime quickly developed into a passion for finding technical solutions to manual tasks. In 2023, the team decided to leave both studies and competitions behind to found Cernel together with the third co-founder Magnus Bruun.

“When we started diving into the problem, we quickly realized that e-commerce is facing a perfect storm. Competition is increasing drastically while marketing costs are exploding. It requires constant optimization to survive, but few webshops have the resources to do so,” says Andreas Busch.

Investors have faith in young entrepreneurs

The investment round is led by Aarhus-based venture fund Founderment, which focuses on early stage investments and works closely with founders to create a solid foundation and scale their businesses.

“The Cernel team is both technically skilled, curious and ambitious – exactly the founder DNA we look for when we invest,” says Christian Vinther, Investment Director at Founderment.

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An angel investorAn angel investor is a high-net-worth individual for startups, offering funds, mentorship, and expertise. They take on risks for potential returns. More also has great faith in the young entrepreneurs in Cernel.

“What makes Cernel unique is the combination of deep technical innovation and practical problem solving,” says Jesper Hvejsel, who invested in Cernel after leaving Firtal Group for Matas.

The full list of investors includes Founderment, EIFO, and angel investors Jesper Hvejsel, Mikkel Salling, Stefan Rosenlund, Anders Thorhauge Sandholm, Kresten Krab Thorup.