Automation startup Tequipy raises £2.6m led by Smedvig Ventures with Manta Ray
This article covers Tequipy, an automation startup, which has raised £2.6 million in a seed funding round to scale its hardware-first platform and expand into software and security operations. The development aims to simplify cross-border device onboarding, servicing and retrieval for startups and IT teams, reducing operational friction for distributed hiring.
Tequipy, an automation startup that handles shipping, servicing and retrieval of employee IT devices in more than 180 countries, has raised £2.6 million in a seed funding round to scale its hardware-first platform and push into software and security operations. The raise backs a business that says it automates much of the cross-border device work that has traditionally been done manually by IT teams.
Why it matters
As hiring becomes increasingly distributed, the operational burden of getting devices to employees across multiple jurisdictions has become a hidden pain point for fast-growing companies. Tequipy targets that gap by replacing country-by-country manual coordination with a single system that orchestrates local partners, reducing time and friction on device onboarding, servicing and recovery. For companies that hire across borders, improvements in these processes can materially cut costs and speed up productivity for new starters.
Inside the product
Tequipy combines a software layer with a network of several hundred local partners who source, configure, deliver, service and retrieve devices in the employee’s country. There is no central warehouse or cross-border shipping for clients; the platform routes work locally instead.
The company says it serves more than 150 customers and handled growth of 7x in the last year. Customers include Booksy, Connecteam, Gigs, ICEYE, RemoFirst and Taptap Send — firms that frequently run distributed teams or need predictable, cross-border device flows. Tequipy reports average onboarding times of three days and positions itself as a substitute for spreadsheets, local suppliers and ad hoc courier and customs arrangements.
In the announcement, Bart Czerkies, co-founder at Tequipy, said:
Companies often come to us with one country or one urgent problem. They cannot get a device to a new hire quickly and predictably. With Tequipy, onboarding starts in five minutes instead of two months, and the device reaches the employee in three days on average. After that, they usually give us more countries, because they see our process working better than their own.
The company started with hardware because of the physical complexity involved. It plans to extend its automation upward to include employee accounts, licences and access provisioning, followed by security workflows.
In the announcement, Albert Podraza, co-founder at Tequipy, said:
Hardware is the toughest test for IT automation because it touches the physical world. If we can run that process across 180 countries, we can automate the layers above it. The next step is a tool that removes thousands of small decisions and exceptions from IT teams’ plates. Instead of handling every ticket manually, IT will control the process, step in only where human judgment is actually needed, and focus on building systems rather than pushing operations.
Who are the investors?
The seed round totals more than €3 million (reported as £2.6 million) and was led by Smedvig Ventures with participation from Manta Ray and Unfold.vc.
The investors describe the thesis as operational automation for distributed hiring. Smedvig’s involvement follows Tequipy’s early traction across multiple countries and customers.
In the announcement, Freddie Kalfayan at Smedvig Ventures said:
Tequipy has unlocked exceptional operational efficiency in global IT hardware management driven by their back-end automation. For Tequipy’s customers this means significant time and cost saved through a service and platform they can’t live without.
In the announcement, Lawrence Barclay, managing partner at Manta Ray, said:
Distributed hiring is now the default, but the operational layer around it – devices, accounts, access – is still stitched together country by country. Tequipy is providing the missing layer. This team is one of the best placed to solve this, having built this system inside Europe’s most valuable private company.
In the announcement, Adam Jarmicki, managing partner at Unfold.vc, said:
We invested in Tequipy very early and our conviction only enhanced from that time, thus doubling down in the second round. The Tequipy team delivered on growth, customers and product direction and we cannot be more confident about great prospects ahead.
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Founder perspective
Tequipy was founded by former Revolut IT leaders who experienced the problem firsthand while scaling device operations across dozens of countries. The founding team comprises Tomek Stawarski, who led global IT functions at Revolut and serves as co-founder and CEO, Bart Czerkies on growth and marketing, and Albert Podraza heading engineering.
In the announcement, Tomek Stawarski, co-founder and CEO at Tequipy, said:
I’ve seen ambitious, talented IT specialists, who should have been building scalable systems, end up repacking boxes and wiping laptops with rags, while also trying to solve the problem of a device stuck at the border. Across thousands of companies, this is not an exception. It is an everyday reality. We built Tequipy so IT can supervise the process instead of executing every step of it by hand.
The founders frame the company as automating routine operational work so IT teams focus on systems and policy rather than logistics.
The bigger picture
Tequipy’s approach highlights a recurring theme in enterprise tooling: automating the operational plumbing that enables distributed teams. If the company can reliably coordinate hundreds of local partners at scale, the same model could be applied to account provisioning and security workflows that follow device delivery.
The raise also signals investor interest in practical automation plays that remove low-margin manual labour from enterprise processes. For UK and European tech companies hiring across borders, easier device and access management is an incremental but critical enabler of remote-first teams and international growth.
The funding and product roadmap come at a time when startups across the region are investing in operational infrastructure to support global hiring. Tequipy’s next steps — moving beyond hardware toward accounts and security — will be one to watch for companies that need predictable, compliant onboarding at scale.
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