Ghent, Belgium, 21 May 2025 – Ravical has secured €7.3 million in pre-seed funding to bring domain-trained AI agents to professional services firms in tax, legal, accounting and insurance. European venture-capital firm Lakestar led the round backing the Ghent-based startup, which was co-founded by entrepreneur Joris Van Der Gucht, second-time founder who previously launched a leading accounting-automation platform.
Ravical delivers AI agents - “virtual employees” that combine domain specific expertise, firm know-how and client context - to automate and scale up to 80 percent of professional-services work, allowing human experts to concentrate on the strategic 20 percent that drives profit and deepens client relationships.
Joris Van Der Gucht, CEO and founder of Ravical said: “We don't believe AI will replace expert firms – but we do think that 80 percent of the work in these firms lends itself to AI automation. We offer these firms agents which deliver high-quality digital services which respect their unique knowledge and culture.”
Solving the professional sector’s twin challenges: talent and productisation
Ravical answers a number of strategic challenges that professional services face today, not the least of which is the war for talent. Increasingly, professional services firms have a hard time finding and retaining top talent, which leads to staff shortages and distressed client relationships. On top of that, knowledge becomes less of a differentiator as AI models become smarter and smarter.
At the same time, Ravical enables the “productisation” many professional-services firms have chased for a decade, turning their repeatable expertise into scalable, packaged services.
Joris Van Der Gucht continued: “Productisation has proven a hard nut to crack for many professional services firms. Our solution can deliver this almost overnight through the automation of expert professional services. It unlocks the ability to focus the firm’s employees on higher value and strategic support, while offering new possibilities to grow revenue.”
Proven success in professional services
Ravical’s founding team brings together proven success in professional service automation with deep AI expertise. The company’s co-founder and CEO, Joris Van Der Gucht, previously co-founded a cloud-based accountancy automation platform, and the Ravical co-founders alongside Van Der Gucht include proven AI builder and founder Ken Bastiaensen and Benjamin Vandermarliere, an AI product leader with a PhD in physics & AI research.
“Agentic AI is moving from buzzword to board-level priority,” said Enrico Mellis, Partner at Lakestar.“Ravical’s team has already proven they can automate professional workflows at scale; we’re excited to support them as they bring that playbook to a much broader services market.”
Ravical has already undertaken 10 pilot projects with professional services firms of various sizes and across multiple industries. The funding round will enable Ravical to further develop its solution, add to its team, and fuel the company’s international expansion.
About Ravical
Ravical is an AI agentic software company on a mission to redefine customer experience for accounting, tax, insurance, HR and legal expert firms, by delivering high-quality, timely communication at scale. Backed by leading European VC Lakestar, Ravical raised a €7.3 million pre-seed round to build AI agents that turn client conversations into actionable insights, productised opportunities and more profitable services.
About Lakestar
Lakestar is one of the leading pan-European venture capital firms. Lakestar’s mission is to find, fund and grow disruptive businesses that are enabled by technology and founded by exceptional entrepreneurs in Europe and beyond. Founded by Klaus Hommels in 2012, Lakestar manages an aggregated volume of over €2bn across four early-stage funds and two growth funds. The team actively advises and supports portfolio companies in marketing, recruitment, technology, product development and regulatory insight, accompanying founders from seed to early stage, growth stage or exit. Lakestar currently has the privilege of holding investments in Aleph Alpha, Auterion, Blockchain, Builder.ai, Colossyan, GetYourGuide, HomeToGo, IsarAerospace, Neko Health, Revolut, sennder and Terra Quantum, to name a few. A long-standing champion for Europe’s digital sovereignty, Lakestar has a presence in London, Berlin and Zurich with a team of 40 talented individuals from 18 countries. Visit us on LinkedIn and www.lakestar.com
1. The issues confronting professional services firms were highlighted in the 2025 Professional Services Maturity Benchmark, an annual report from professional services research firm, Service Performance Insight (SPI). Finding year-on-year revenue growth falling to 4.6% – nearly half the 10-year average – headcount growth slowing to 1.9%, and profitability (EBITDA) declining by 36%, SPI highlights that effectively employing AI “isn’t just a competitive advantage, it’s becoming the cost of staying competitive”.