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AI thrives on data, yet much of the valuable health data remains untapped, primarily due to critical concerns such as patient privacy, regulatory frameworks, and intellectual property protection.
“This is the foundational challenge when building AI solutions for life sciences and related fields like pharmaceuticals,” explains German entrepreneur Robin Röhm. Compounding this issue is the difficulty of collaboration involving sensitive data. Röhm’s startup, Apheris, tackles this challenge through federated computing—a decentralized approach that enables secure data accessibility for AI training without relocating the data.
Apheris already boasts an impressive client base, including Roche and several prominent hospitals, Röhm shared.
At its core, federated computing operates under the principle that computations occur locally where the data resides, with only the results, such as model parameters, being aggregated centrally. Marcin Hejka, co-founder and managing partner at OTB Ventures, elaborates: “This approach is essential for privacy and security. We are witnessing the rise of a mature ecosystem of third-party tools, and Apheris integrates seamlessly with complementary privacy-enhancing technologies like homomorphic encryption, differential privacy, and synthetic data.”
Hejka recently co-led an $8.25 million Series A investment into Apheris, alongside deep-tech investor eCAPITAL.
This funding follows a significant pivot by Apheris. Initially founded in 2019 by Röhm and co-founder Michael Höh to develop a federated learning framework, the startup shifted its focus in 2023. Drawing from their experiences at Janus Genomics, they reoriented towards empowering data owners in pharma and life sciences.
This strategic shift yielded remarkable results. Röhm reports that the company achieved product-market fit with its revamped solution launched in late 2023, quadrupling its revenue since then. Backed by investors like Octopus Ventures and Heal Capital, Apheris has now secured a total of $20.8 million in funding. This capital will fuel the hiring of senior talent with expertise in life sciences, particularly in commercial roles.
One standout feature of Apheris is the Apheris Compute Gateway, a software agent bridging local data and AI models. This tool is already in use by the AI Structural Biology (AISB) Consortium, which includes major players like AbbVie, Boehringer Ingelheim, Johnson & Johnson, and Sanofi, all collaborating on AI-driven drug discovery.
With its latest funding, Apheris aims to deepen its focus on protein complex prediction. While the platform remains use-case agnostic, its greatest value lies in addressing scenarios with minimal public data yet significant potential in untapped private datasets. The company’s technology ensures that life sciences firms feel confident and secure in leveraging their data.
“Unless we resolve the concerns of data owners in sharing their information with AI systems, we won’t unlock AI’s true transformative potential,” Röhm asserts. “That’s the ultimate mission driving our work at Apheris.”
