Longdock, headquartered in Berlin, is reversing the usual path of European startups by transferring its parent company from the United States to Germany. This decision comes amid growing discussions on how Europe can build its independent artificial intelligence infrastructure and reduce its reliance on American cloud and AI service providers.
Structural Change and Its Benefits
Many European startups typically register a holding company in the U.S. to attract investment. However, Longdock has put an end to this trend, dismantling its American holding structure and registering the parent company under European law. A representative of the company stated that Longdock has reorganized its corporate structure into a European public company (Societas Europaea or SE) in Germany.
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This process began in early 2026 and has cost several million euros, and it is now complete. Founded in 2023, Longdock is an enterprise AI platform serving around 13,000 organizations. This platform allows employees access to multiple AI models and enables companies to connect these models to their workplace data and software.
Data Transparency and Security
Longdock has stated that establishing a registered parent company in the U.S. was initially a "critical step" that helped attract investors and benefited from the support and network of the American startup accelerator Y Combinator. However, the operations and customer data of this company remained in Germany.
By eliminating the American parent company, Longdock's European structure will be clearer to customers, especially during times of geopolitical uncertainty. The company told Euronews Business: "We believe Europe is a powerful place to build a global technology company, and we want to contribute to its sovereignty and competitiveness." About 80% of Longdock is owned by founders and employees living in the European Union.
The company's annual recurring revenue reached $50 million (€42 million) in August, a significant increase from $1 million (€870,000) in October 2024. Longdock's long-term ambition is to build a "fully-fledged and independent AI platform" that can compete with American hyperscalers.
The company plans to launch three new services by the end of the year and will utilize its dedicated data center in Germany to run open-source AI models and provide computational power. This initiative will start on a small scale and will expand as customer demand increases.
Despite rapid growth, Longdock still has a long way to go to compete with American tech giants. The company's annual revenue of $50 million is negligible compared to Amazon Web Services' projected revenue of $128.7 billion (€108 billion) in 2025. Longdock's decision to relocate its parent company will be a test to see if European regulations and concerns about digital sovereignty can turn into a competitive advantage.
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