German AI startup amber has raised €7 million in a Series A funding round, giving the company capital to expand and develop its AI platform for small and medium-sized enterprises. The funding arrives as businesses across Europe adopt AI at very different speeds, with smaller companies still far behind large enterprises.
amber’s platform focuses on a practical business problem: helping SMEs access and use the knowledge already held inside their companies. That knowledge can include the experience, processes, and information employees build up during their work, but the company’s stated focus is broader than any single document or database. It aims to make internal company knowledge easier for SMEs to use through AI.
The Series A was announced on August 17, 2026. Ventech, a venture capital firm, and NRW.Venture, the venture capital fund of NRW.BANK, are connected with the round. NRW.BANK is the development bank of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Why SMEs are the focus
The funding comes against a clear gap in AI use across the European Union. The European Commission’s SME Report states that 55% of large enterprises in the EU used AI in 2025, compared with 17% of small enterprises. That difference shows how much room remains for smaller businesses to bring AI into their work.
For SMEs, the challenge is not only choosing an AI tool. They also need to find useful information inside the business and make that information available in a form employees can use. amber’s stated goal is to address that part of the problem by helping SMEs access and use their internal company knowledge.
The figures place amber’s funding in a market where AI adoption has not spread evenly. Large enterprises reached a 55% usage rate in 2025, while small enterprises reached 17%. The contrast gives startups serving smaller businesses a clear area to target, especially when their products focus on existing company information rather than AI as a standalone feature.
The knowledge gap inside organizations
There is also a second problem behind amber’s focus: companies can lose valuable knowledge when employees leave. A Deloitte report from 2026 states that 92% of surveyed organizations fail to consistently capture knowledge from employees about to depart.
That figure points to a basic weakness in how organizations handle what their employees know. If information remains with individuals instead of becoming accessible across the company, other employees may struggle to find it later. amber is building its AI platform around access to internal company knowledge, making this knowledge gap central to the problem its product addresses.
The issue matters for SMEs because a smaller workforce can make each person’s experience more important to daily operations. The available facts do not describe amber’s specific methods or product features, but they do define the company’s purpose: using its AI platform to help SMEs access and use knowledge from within their own organizations.
That purpose also explains the timing of the €7 million Series A. amber now has funding to expand and develop its platform while European businesses continue to adopt AI at different rates. The company’s founders are Bastian Maiworm, Philipp Reißel, and Igli Manaj.
amber’s round does not change the adoption figures on its own, but it highlights the space between large and small enterprises. In 2025, 55% of large EU enterprises used AI, while only 17% of small enterprises did. At the same time, the 2026 Deloitte figure shows that 92% of surveyed organizations still fail to capture employee knowledge consistently before those employees leave.
Those numbers describe the opening amber is pursuing: helping smaller companies use AI while preserving and accessing the knowledge already inside the business. The €7 million Series A gives the German startup a larger base from which to develop that effort.
