German federated computing company Apheris secures €20.2M
Summary
The round was led by UK-based LocalGlobe, with support from Dig Ventures, Ross Mason (founder of MuleSoft), and Patrick Pichette (former Google CFO and Twitter board chairman).Founded in 2019 by Robin R\xf6hm and Michael H\xf6h, Apheris provides secure and governed access to data for AI and analytics, serving leading pharmaceutical companies such as Roche and Johnson & Johnson, as well as major hospitals.The company addresses governance and intellectual property protection challenges in collaborative networks.According to Apheris, most healthcare data, around 97% per cent goes unused because it is stored separately by different organisations and cant be shared due to privacy and security concerns. This lack of access slows down progress in life sciences.Apheris Compute Gateway solves this problem by allowing secure AI model training without moving sensitive data. Its members combine their expertise and data to improve the accuracy of protein structure predictions.Apheris new funds will help expand its role as a federated computing provider for top biopharmaceutical companies. By 2025 end, the company aims to create the largest and most secure life sciences data network by connecting distributed health data for AI and analytics.With its Series A funding, Apheris plans to host advanced models, like those for protein-complex prediction, achieving better performance by securely accessing previously unavailable private data.The company will also focus on enabling collaborative model training for key life sciences use cases and strengthening its position as the most secure solution for life sciences data networks, supported by the cybersecurity expertise of its investors, OTB Ventures and eCAPITAL.Robin R\xf6hm, CEO of Apheris, says, Im very excited to welcome OTB Ventures and eCAPITAL as new partners on our journey. Their deep understanding of the complexities of building a high-security, technically advanced product stood out.With their help, Apheris will unlock the potential of AI and machine learning for the life science industry by solving its critical bottleneck: access to large and diverse data.Brief about the lead investorsOTB Ventures is a European venture capital fund specialising in Series A and late seed investments.