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§ Private Profile · Berlin, Germany
Federated computing platform for secure data collaboration and AI model training on decentralized, sensitive enterprise data.
The Berlin-based company Apheris provides a federated machine learning and data collaboration platform that enables enterprises to train artificial intelligence models on distributed datasets without centralizing sensitive information. Operating primarily within the pharmaceutical, healthcare, and financial services sectors, the enterprise software allows organizations to extract analytical insights while maintaining strict regulatory compliance and protecting intellectual property rights. The software-as-a-service company operates with an estimated workforce of 30 to 50 employees and has raised over €11 million in total venture funding, including an €8.7 million seed extension round in 2022. Apheris is backed by venture capital firms such as Octopus Ventures and LocalGlobe, and its technology serves as the backbone for collaborative research initiatives involving major pharmaceutical customers like AbbVie and Johnson & Johnson. Apheris was officially founded in 2019 by Robin Röhm and Michael Höh.
Apheris has raised $41.7M across 4 funding rounds.
Apheris has raised $41.7M in total across 4 funding rounds.
Apheris has raised $41.7M in total across 4 funding rounds.
Apheris's investors include OTB Ventures, eCAPITAL, Dig Ventures, eCapital Entrepreneurial Partners, LocalGlobe, Octopus Ventures, Specialist VC, Target Partners, Trind Ventures, Verve Ventures, Charlie Songhurst, Ian Hogarth.
Apheris has raised $41.7M across 4 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $21.0M Series A in January 2025.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 1, 2025 | $21M Series A | OTB Ventures, ECAPITAL | DIG Ventures, Ecapital Entrepreneurial Partners, LocalGlobe, Octopus Ventures, Specialist VC, Target Partners, Trind Ventures, Verve Ventures, Charlie Songhurst, IAN Hogarth, Torsten Reil | Announced |
| Nov 8, 2022 | $8.7M Seed Plus | Octopus Ventures | — | Announced |
| Nov 1, 2022 | $9M Seed | — | 83North, DIG Ventures, Ecapital Entrepreneurial Partners, Founder Collective, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, LocalGlobe, Octopus Ventures, Olima Ventures, OTB Ventures, Seedcamp, Shorea Ventures, Target Partners, Visionaries Club, Charlie Songhurst, Fredrik Hjelm, IAN Hogarth, JAN Dzulko, Martin Olczyk, Michael Stoppelman, Torsten Reil | Announced |
| Aug 1, 2020 | $3M Seed | LocalGlobe | DIG Ventures, Founder Collective, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Olima Ventures, Passion Capital, Seedcamp, Shorea Ventures, Visionaries Club, Fredrik Hjelm, JAN Dzulko, Martin Olczyk, Michael Pennington, Michael Stoppelman, Ramesh Haridas | Announced |
Apheris is a Berlin-based deep tech company founded in 2019 that builds the Apheris Compute Gateway, a platform enabling federated machine learning and analytics on distributed, sensitive data without centralization or exposure.[1][2][4][5] It primarily serves life sciences and pharmaceutical organizations, such as AbbVie, AstraZeneca, and Bristol Myers Squibb, solving the core problem of data silos caused by privacy regulations, IP protection, and compliance needs by allowing secure collaboration to train higher-accuracy ML models.[3][4] The company powers networks like the AISB (Artificial Intelligence Structural Biology) for AI drug discovery and ADMET for predictive modeling, with strong growth evidenced by $32.3M in total funding (including a $20.6M recent round) and pilots expanding beyond pharma.[2][4][5]
Apheris emerged in 2019 from a team of world-class researchers at the intersection of data privacy, cryptography, and computational sciences, addressing the AI data bottleneck in life sciences where proprietary health and pharma data remains unused due to privacy and IP barriers.[2][5] CEO Robin Röhm, a German entrepreneur, leads the effort, emphasizing not just federated learning but incentivizing new data-driven business models; the company raised an initial €2.5M in September (likely 2021 or earlier) and has since secured substantial follow-on funding.[2][5] Key advisors include Dr. Woody Sherman (Founder & Chief Innovation Officer at Psivant Therapeutics, ex-Schrödinger), Dr. Mohammed AlQuraishi (Columbia University, creator of OpenFold), and Dr. Joseph Lehár (ex-Owkin, Merck), bringing expertise in ML, protein prediction, and computational biology to validate early traction in federated networks.[3]
Apheris rides the federated learning and privacy-preserving AI wave, critical as life sciences data explodes but remains siloed amid tightening regulations like GDPR and HIPAA, enabling AI-driven drug discovery without compromising patient privacy or proprietary IP.[1][2][4] Timing is ideal with surging demand for collaborative AI in biopharma—exemplified by AISB's scale across rivals like Sanofi and Takeda—amid public data limitations for high-precision models in protein structure, ADMET prediction, and beyond.[3][4] Market forces like generative AI needs and multi-modal healthcare data favor it, positioning Apheris to influence the ecosystem by unlocking unused data value, fostering networks that accelerate precision medicine and reduce R&D costs.[2][5]
Apheris is poised to dominate federated data networks in life sciences, with expansion into custom networks for healthcare and adjacent sectors like finance via AWS integrations.[4][6] Trends like AI agents, multi-party computation advances, and regulatory pushes for data sovereignty will propel growth, potentially scaling AISB/ADMET-like consortia globally. Its influence may evolve from enabler to standard-setter, as biopharma reliance on collaborative, privacy-first ML deepens—unlocking the "world's leading federated life sciences data networks" to transform drug discovery efficiency.[3][4] This positions Apheris as a foundational player in secure AI collaboration, directly tackling the data access challenge that powers next-gen therapeutics.