Digitalizing supply chains is a hot topic, but for many European small and medium pharmaceutical and chemical enterprises, it remains a distant goal. Between Excel sheets carried from one room to another, legacy systems, and aging employees with hard-to-transfer know-how, the technology gap is enormous. Kyrok, a Berlin-based startup founded this year, has just raised €3.1 million in a pre-seed round led by Speedinvest to try to close that gap with an AI-agent-based operating system.

An application layer on top of ERP, without disruptive migrations

Kyrok’s platform is built as an application layer that sits on existing ERP systems, avoiding costly rip-and-replace migrations. Instead of jumping between interfaces – ERP, management tools, spreadsheets – supply chain teams work in a single environment where AI agents guide workflows. The first module targets customer service: it handles order intake and industry-specific procedures. In active pilot projects, the system already captures over 80 percent of complex orders without errors, reducing mistake rates and freeing up employee time. Future modules will address production planning, material planning, and procurement.

The importance of digital sovereignty for chemical and pharma SMEs

The news lands at a time when discussions around digital sovereignty and supply chain resilience are intensifying across Europe. Chemical and pharmaceutical sectors handle sensitive data – formulas, batch records, strategic stock levels – and face strict regulatory demands. For many SMEs, entrusting this information to third-party cloud services raises legitimate concerns. Kyrok’s layered approach doesn’t specify whether the infrastructure runs on-premises or in the cloud, but the ability to keep data within the corporate perimeter becomes a critical factor for those seeking control and compliance. For organizations evaluating on-premise deployment, trade-offs exist between operating costs, in-house skills, and agility. A platform of this kind, if deployable locally, could reduce exposure risks while capturing the tacit knowledge that currently resides only with veteran employees.

What the deal signals in the broader picture

Kyrok’s investment is part of a larger trend of European industry seeking vertical AI tools that integrate without turning existing systems upside down. Interest from backers like the former CPO of SAP or the CEO of TWAICE points to real appetite for solutions that solve operational pain points without generic promises. For IT teams in pharma and chemical SMEs, a system that digitizes operational expertise – and potentially runs on-prem – promises to lighten workloads and safeguard skills at risk of vanishing. The challenge now is to move from pilot projects to scaled adoption, while maintaining the simplicity that won over early users. Kyrok will use the fresh funding to build more modules, grow its team, and meet market demand that recent global disruptions have made even more urgent. For those tracking sovereignty and on-premise deployments, the startup represents a noteworthy piece of the puzzle: an AI application that doesn’t force a rewiring of existing IT but rather inserts itself into a gradual, data-respecting modernization path.