Berlin, January Second 2025 – Apheris, the leading federated computing company powering data networks for the life sciences sector, today announced the completion of a Series A funding round, bringing total funding to date to $20.8 million. The round was led by leading European DeepTech VC firms, OTB Ventures and eCAPITAL, followed by existing investors including Octopus Ventures and Heal Capital.
Founded in 2019 and headquartered in Berlin, Germany, Apheris enables governed, private, and secure access to data for artificial intelligence (AI), and analytics for several of the world’s top 20 pharmaceutical companies such as Roche and Johnson & Johnson and leading hospitals. Apheris is the only company addressing the governance and IP protection needs data owners have when providing sensitive data to collaborative networks – affording the Company an unchallenged > $30 billion addressable market.
97% of all healthcare data remains completely unused – the data is siloed across organizations and cannot be shared due to regulatory and commercial sensitivity. Insufficient access to data is limiting important innovations and breakthroughs in life sciences due to privacy and security concerns and a lack of trust among collaborators. The Apheris Compute Gateway addresses this critical challenge by making data securely accessible for AI model training without moving any sensitive data. The software protects data owners’ data, unlocking the potential for cross-institutional collaboration.
The fundraise provides the capital to expand Apheris’ reach as the chosen federated computing provider for the world’s leading biopharmaceutical organisations. This new milestone emboldens Apheris in its mission to build the largest and most secure life science data network through the connection of distributed health and life sciences data for analytics and AI, which it expects to achieve by the end of 2025.
This Series A additionally allows Apheris to host leading foundational models, such as for protein-complex-prediction, surpassing the state-of-the art model performance based on unprecedented access to more training data which is currently locked down in private data repositories. Other critical focuses post-fundraise include providing end-to-end functionality around industry critical life sciences use cases where collaborative model training will lead to step changes in performance and cementing its position as the most secure solution for life sciences data networks, supported by the robust cybersecurity expertise of its backers, OTB Ventures and eCAPITAL.
“I’m 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.” – Robin Röhm, CEO of Apheris
“We are thrilled to partner with Apheris as the lead investor in this equity round. Apheris is pioneering the future of distributed data infrastructure, enabling organizations to unlock the full potential of their AI/ML workloads while keeping sensitive raw data secure and local. By addressing the most pressing data challenges and allowing seamless, secure collaboration, Apheris product is setting new standards for data-driven innovations. We are confident that Apheris’ exceptional team and cutting-edge technology will drive significant value and redefine the future of AI-powered decision-making." – Marcin Hejka, Co-Founder and General Partner at OTB Ventures.
“We have closely followed Apheris’ journey since its inception and have been impressed by Apheris’ technological advancements in federated computing. As cybersecurity investors, we recognize the growing importance of secure and private data collaboration, particularly in the life sciences sector where such capabilities can drive transformative outcomes. Apheris enables organizations to unlock value out of their IP-sensitive data while maintaining full control over it. We are proud to support the Apheris team in scaling its technology and redefining secure data collaboration in healthcare and beyond.” – Hannes Schill, Managing Partner at eCAPITAL.
About OTB Ventures
OTB Ventures is a pan-European deep tech VC fund specializing in Series A and late seed rounds. Its focus lies in supporting startups that pioneer unique technologies across four key verticals: Enterprise AI & Automation, SpaceTech, FinTech Infrastructure, and Cybersecurity. Established in 2017, OTB Ventures currently manages over €350 million and has offices in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and Warsaw, Poland.
About eCAPITAL Founded in 1999, eCAPITAL is an entrepreneur-led venture capital investor focusing on early and growth-stage deep-tech companies with a positive impact on society. eCAPITAL is based in Germany and invests with its own funds with a total volume of over € 400 million in the areas of Sustainability, Enterprise Software, Cybersecurity, IoT and New Materials. In addition to financial resources, eCAPITAL offers its portfolio companies strategic support and access to an international network of entrepreneurs, scientists, investors, and founders. eCAPITAL was lead investor in several deep-tech companies such as sonnen, Novaled or Jedox, which were sold very successfully to international corporates or investors.
To learn more about eCAPITAL, please visit www.ecapital.vc or follow eCAPITAL on LinkedIn.
About the European Investment Fund (EIF)
This operation benefits from support from the European Union under the InvestEU Fund.
Appendix
Apheris supports industry-critical federated data networks
Apheris product powers some of the leading life science data networks enabling Pharma companies to collaborate with other Pharma & Biotech companies as well as hospitals and clinical sites. One example is the AI Structural Biology (AISB) Consortium that leverages Apheris’ secure, federated learning infrastructure to customize AI drug discovery models on proprietary pharma data while preserving data privacy. The consortium brings together the leading pharmaceutical companies AbbVie, Boehringer Ingelheim, Johnson & Johnson, and Sanofi, combining collective expertise and proprietary data for AI model customization to achieve higher precision accuracy for protein complex structure prediction.
For more information visit: https://www.apheris.com/industries/aisb
