Apheris Pitch Deck: All 10 Slides + Teardown

See all 10 slides of the Apheris pitch deck — a 2019 Seed deck — with a slide-by-slide teardown of what the deck does well and where it falls short.

Apheris presents a highly technical yet accessible 10-slide deck that focuses on the critical bottleneck of modern AI: the need for large, diverse datasets that are often locked behind privacy and intellectual property barriers. By positioning themselves as the infrastructure for 'privacy-preserving data ecosystems,' the founders—boasting PhDs and backgrounds at BCG and research institutions—successfully argued that they could unlock value in highly regulated sectors like pharma and chemicals. The deck is notable for its restraint, avoiding typical 'market size' fluff in favor of specific wor…

Key takeaways

The Anatomy of a Technical Seed Deck

Apheris operates in the 'Other' industry category according to catalogue data, but more specifically, they are an infrastructure play for the Privacy-Enhancing Technology (PET) market. This 10-slide deck is a masterclass in selling a complex, technical solution to a high-value enterprise problem. It avoids the common mistake of over-explaining the math, focusing instead on the business outcome: unlocking AI opportunities that were previously impossible due to regulation or risk.

The Hook: Executive Summary and The AI Bottleneck

Slide 0: Title Slide The deck opens with a clean, professional aesthetic and a clear value proposition: "Collaborate on data securely without compromising privacy." The branding is understated, signaling a focus on enterprise reliability over consumer hype.

Slide 1: Executive Summary This is one of the most information-dense slides in the deck. It immediately establishes the team's technical depth (9 FTE, 6 PhDs) and their target market (largest pharmaceutical, industrial, and chemical companies). Most importantly, it puts the ask front and center: "We are raising EUR 2m to build out our core product and ramp up Sales." This transparency allows investors to immediately frame the rest of the presentation within the context of a seed-stage investment.

Slide 2: AI Usage on the Rise Apheris uses a horizontal chevron diagram to show AI's transformation across the enterprise value chain: R&D, Planning, Procurement, Production, Maintenance, and Logistics. By listing specific use cases like "Component design" and "Supplier Risk management," they move from abstract AI talk to concrete industrial applications.

Slide 3: The Unreasonable Effect of Data This is the 'Problem' slide, but it is framed as a technical necessity. Using a graph of accuracy versus millions of words, Apheris argues that "size of data matters far more than the algorithm itself." This sets up the logical gap: if you need more data to win, but you can't share data because of privacy, you are stuck. Apheris is the solution to this specific deadlock.

The Solution: Architecture and Workflow

Slide 4: The Vision This slide contrasts the "Today" (data analysts limited to own centralized data) with the "Future with Apheris" (privacy-preserving data ecosystems). The visual of a decentralized web of data nodes connected by Apheris illustrates the shift from silos to a network effect.

Slide 5: Product Workflow For a technical deck, this slide is crucial. It explains the 'how' without getting lost in code. It shows an untrained model entering a box containing a "Privacy Engine" and "Compute Engine," which then interacts with "Distributed Data" behind a "Privacy Firewall." The key takeaway is highlighted in a callout: "Data never leaves the local environment." This is the primary objection-handler for any enterprise security officer.

Traction and Roadmap

Slide 6: Achievements Apheris demonstrates that they aren't just a research project. They cite "multiple year contracts" and their role in COVID-19 apps. The mention of a "massive pipeline" in pharma and chemistry suggests they have found product-market fit in sectors where data sensitivity is highest.

Slide 7: The Roadmap The timeline is aggressive but structured. Starting from an enterprise deal in February 2020, it leads to a Seed Round in July 2020, a goal of over 10 enterprise customers by Q4 2021, and a Series A in Q2 2022. This gives investors a clear set of milestones to track performance against.

The Team and Contact

Slide 8: The Team The pedigree here is the deck's strongest asset. The co-founders, Michael and Robin, possess the exact mix of academic rigor (PhDs, Medicine, Physics) and commercial experience (BCG) required for this space. The bottom of the slide is a 'logo soup' of prestigious institutions (Google, AstraZeneca, UBS, etc.) where the team has worked or studied, which serves as a proxy for quality in a highly technical field.

Slide 9: Closing The final slide provides direct contact information for the CEO, maintaining the professional and accessible tone of the entire presentation.

What Works in the Apheris Deck

Technical Credibility: By highlighting the number of PhDs on staff (Slide 1) and the founders' specific academic backgrounds (Slide 8), the deck establishes immediate authority in a field (cryptography/AI) where 'faking it' is impossible. · Visualizing the Invisible: Privacy-preserving computation is a difficult concept to visualize. Slide 5 does an excellent job of showing the flow of the model versus the stasis of the data. · Specific Industry Focus: Rather than claiming to solve data for everyone, they repeatedly mention Pharma, Chemicals, and Industrial sectors. This specificity makes the 'massive pipeline' claim more believable. · The 'Data Over Algorithm' Argument: Slide 3 provides a compelling reason for why their product is a 'must-have' rather than a 'nice-to-have.' If data size is the only way to improve AI, then a tool that unlocks more data is essential.

What is Missing from the Apheris Deck

Competitor Landscape: The deck completely omits a competitive analysis. While they mention 'unique positioning' on Slide 1, they do not explain how they differ from other federated learning startups or established cloud providers' privacy tools. · Unit Economics/Pricing: While they mention a "profitable SaaS business model" on Slide 1, there is no detail on contract sizes, implementation fees, or how they scale revenue. For a seed round, some indication of the pricing strategy is usually expected. · Market Size (TAM/SAM/SOM): There is no traditional 'trillion-dollar market' slide. While often inflated, a slide showing the specific spend on data integration or AI R&D in their target sectors would help quantify the opportunity. · Detailed Use Case: While they list many 'exemplary' use cases on Slide 2, the deck lacks a deep-dive 'Case Study' slide showing exactly how one of their 'multiple year contracts' (Slide 6) is actually using the platform to generate ROI.

What a Founder Should Copy

The Executive Summary Layout: Slide 1 is a perfect template for a seed deck. It covers 'Who,' 'What,' 'Why,' and 'The Ask' in a single, clean view. · The Problem Framing: Don't just say the problem is 'privacy.' Frame the problem as a barrier to a goal the investor already believes in (in this case, better AI through larger datasets). · The 'Learned From the Best' Section: If your team is young or the company is early, use the logos of previous employers and universities to borrow institutional trust, as seen on Slide 8. · The Roadmap Milestones: Use specific dates and quantifiable goals (e.g., "> 10 enterprise customers") rather than vague terms like "Scale" or "Growth."

Frequently asked questions

What is the core problem Apheris is solving?
Apheris addresses the 'data silo' problem. As shown on Slide 3, AI performance is limited by dataset size. However, companies cannot easily share data due to privacy and IP concerns. Apheris provides the infrastructure to run analytics on decentralized data without moving it, allowing for collaboration without compromising security.
How does the Apheris technology actually work according to the deck?
Slide 5 illustrates a workflow where a Data Analyst sends an untrained model into the Apheris 'Privacy Engine' and 'Compute Engine.' These engines interact with distributed data behind a 'Privacy Firewall.' Crucially, computations are executed locally; the data never leaves its original environment, and only the trained model (the 'insight') is returned.
What kind of traction did Apheris have at the time of this deck?
The company reported significant early momentum on Slide 6, including multiple-year contracts with leading enterprises and a 'very strong pharma & chemistry pipeline.' They also highlighted their role as a key privacy technology provider for COVID-19 contact tracing initiatives.
Who are the founders and what is their background?
The co-founders are Michael (CTO), a PhD in Physics and Computer Science with experience at BCG, and Robin (CEO), who studied Medicine, Philosophy, and Mathematics. Their combined expertise covers distributed computations and mathematical theories for data privacy, as detailed on Slide 8.
What was the specific funding ask in this deck?
Slide 1 and Slide 7 both state an ask of EUR 2 million. The funds were earmarked for hiring a 'world-class team,' building out data ecosystems, and creating a 'flexible core product for enterprise.' While the catalogue facts show a total of $11.7M raised, this specific deck was tailored for a EUR 2M seed milestone.
Cover slide of the Apheris pitch deck — Seed 2019
Apheris pitch deck, slide 1 (2019)

Apheris pitch deck: the facts

Company
Apheris
Year
2019
Stage
Seed
Slides
10
Sector
Data Privacy / AI Infrastructure
Deck type
Investment Pitch
Outcome
$11,700,000 Raised
Headquarters
Berlin, Germany (implied by +49 phone number)

Apheris pitch deck PDF

The full Apheris deck is embedded on this page and can be read slide by slide in the browser — no download or account required. Each slide is covered in the breakdown above.

What the Apheris pitch deck was used for

This is Apheris’s 2019 **seed-stage** pitch deck for a privacy-preserving data ecosystem and federated learning platform, reportedly used to raise around €2.5–$3m in seed funding led by LocalGlobe with Dig Ventures, Patrick Pichette and others. The company proposes infrastructure that lets enterprises, particularly in pharma, industrial and chemical sectors, train AI models across distributed datasets while keeping data local and private (slides 2, 5, 6). In the deck they state they are raising **EUR 2m** to build out their core product and ramp up sales (slide 2), with later slides framing this as building the software core and data ecosystems to empower R&D breakthroughs (slide 8). The deck positions Apheris at the intersection of data privacy, cryptography and biomedical data science, highlighting a 10-person expert team and early enterprise pilots (slides 7, 9).

Business model: Federated computing / privacy-preserving data ecosystems platform enabling organizations (especially life sciences and pharma) to train AI models on distributed data without moving or centralizing sensitive information.

Round
Seed
Lead investor
LocalGlobe
Investors
LocalGlobe (lead seed investor)., Dig Ventures, the family office of MuleSoft founder Ross Mason., Patrick Pichette, former Google CFO and later chair of Twitter’s board., another.vc., System.One., Angel investors including Charles Songhurst, Torsten Reil (NaturalMotion founder), Ian Hogarth (Songkick founder).
Founded
2019
Founders
Robin Röhm, Michael Höh.
Headquarters
Berlin, Germany

Year: 2019–2020 (deck dated 2019; seed round announcement timing around 2020 in public sources).

Raising: EUR 2m stated in the deck to build the core product and ramp up sales (slide 2), which corresponds to a publicly reported seed raise of roughly €2.5m–$3m led by LocalGlobe with other investors.

Raised: Approximately €2.5m–$3m seed round (public sources differ slightly on exact amount).

Industry: Federated computing / data privacy infrastructure for AI, with a focus on life sciences and pharma data collaboration.

Total funding: Approximately €8.7m seed extension (2022) plus earlier €2.5–$3m seed and a later ~€20.1m Series A, with total funding reported around $20.8m–$41.54m across sources.

Use of funds as presented: Build out Apheris’s core privacy-preserving data ecosystems product, hire a world-class team, and empower R&D breakthroughs via data ecosystems over 2020–2022 (slides 2, 8).

What happened after the Apheris deck

Following its 2019 seed pitch deck, Apheris successfully raised seed capital led by LocalGlobe and later a significant seed extension and Series A, growing into a leading federated computing platform provider for privacy-preserving, collaborative AI in life sciences and pharma, with named enterprise customers and a focus on drug discovery applications.

What the Apheris deck got right

What could have been stronger

How an investor would read this deck

What draws attention

Risks that stand out

Questions this deck invites

What founders can take from the Apheris deck

Apheris pitch deck: common questions

What does Apheris do, and how is it described in this seed pitch deck?

Apheris builds a **federated computing / privacy-preserving data ecosystem** platform that lets organizations train AI models on distributed, sensitive data without moving or centralizing that data. The 2019 seed deck describes "privacy preserving data ecosystems" that empower companies to securely share data and train AI models locally across multiple organizations (slides 2, 5, 6).

How much was Apheris raising with this deck, and who invested in the seed round?

According to multiple funding reports, Apheris raised about **€2.5m–$3m seed** funding around 2019–2020, led by UK seed investor **LocalGlobe**, with participation from **Dig Ventures** (Ross Mason’s family office), former Google CFO **Patrick Pichette**, and others such as another.vc, System.One and several angel investors. The deck itself states they are "raising EUR 2m" to build out their core product and ramp up sales (slide 2).

What funding rounds has Apheris raised after this 2019 seed deck?

The deck (2019) targets **Seed** stage, asking for EUR 2m (slides 2, 8). Subsequently, public sources report a **€2.5m–$3m seed round** led by LocalGlobe with Dig Ventures, Patrick Pichette and others. Later, Apheris raised an **€8.7m seed extension** led by Octopus Ventures with existing investors LocalGlobe, Dig Ventures, Another.VC and Patrick Pichette, and then a **Series A (~€20.1m)** co-led by OTB Ventures and eCAPITAL with participation from Octopus Ventures and Heal Capital.

Who founded Apheris and where is the company based?

Apheris is based in **Berlin, Germany** and was **founded in 2019**. The co-founders are **Robin Röhm** (CEO) and **Michael Höh** (CTO), both with backgrounds in medicine, mathematics, physics, computer science and privacy-preserving computations; the deck’s team slide matches these profiles (slide 9).

What early traction and customers does Apheris highlight in the deck, and is any of it externally confirmed?

The deck claims early traction with "the largest pharmaceutical, industrial and chemical companies" (slide 2) and "multiple paid pilots" and "year contracts" with leading enterprises within less than a year (slide 7). Later public sources confirm major customers and partners such as **BASF, BMW Group, Boston Consulting Group, and Johnson & Johnson’s JLABS** as part of their collaborative data ecosystems platform.

Sources

Funding and outcome facts on this page were researched on 2026-08-21 from the pages below.

Apheris pitch deck slides

Apheris pitch deck slide 1 of 10
Apheris pitch deck — slide 1 of 10
Apheris pitch deck slide 2 of 10
Apheris pitch deck — slide 2 of 10
Apheris pitch deck slide 3 of 10
Apheris pitch deck — slide 3 of 10
Apheris pitch deck slide 4 of 10
Apheris pitch deck — slide 4 of 10
Apheris pitch deck slide 5 of 10
Apheris pitch deck — slide 5 of 10
Apheris pitch deck slide 6 of 10
Apheris pitch deck — slide 6 of 10

What each slide of the Apheris pitch deck says

Slide 2

Executive Summary apheris Al is building privacy preserving data ecosystems that empower companies to securely and privately share data P o El ] ZEPra. & PhDs = 5"'\ I I8 o, by W — —= « Leaoding Start-up focusing on « Provide technical sclufions that = Unique positioning in multipie federated and privacy empower companies 10 share maorkets } P preserving mochine leaming dala while preserving the (F o Pioven profifable Saas « Team of world leading « Customers include the lorgest business modeal enfreprenaurs, engineerns and phamoceutical, industial and 3 interciisciplinary scienfists chemical componies Sunning ecxty kackon! We are raising EUR 2m to build out our core product and ramp up Sales

Slide 3

Al usage on the rise, fransforming every aspect of the modern enterprise s A ™ Distribution & Research & Development Production Logistics g » Component design + Resource * Supplier Risk * Process + Predictive * Process v ¢ Structurcl timization management opfimization Maintencnce opfimization g properties = Prize optimzation Stotegic Sourcing + Robokics + Llilecycle * Robofics * Mixtures & Reguictory . chain + Quality inspection management + Driveriess 2 Formulations assessment opfimizafion * Industry 4.0 / loT distribution analytics « Targeted Soies

Slide 4

Al is only meaningful if you have enough data The unreasonable effect of data: size of data matters far more than the algorithm itself Companies 5 need large and R IS diverse datasets e 7 P to do Al Learning curves for different Al algorithms - final accurccy of model in dependence on size of raining dataset

Slide 5

We are building privacy-preserving data ecosystems that empower companies to unlock new Al opportunities Today: data analysts are Future with apheris: privacy preserving data ecosystems limited to own centralized data within one company or across several companies Dala sharing within and ocross companies b apheris Al .""/ - - .'" - - - / Data Own cenfral Data Privacy-preserving Analyst data Analyst data ecosystem

Slide 6

Product workflow apheris Al empowers companies to frain Al models on distributed data while fully preserving data privacy e e e e Distributed Data i 4 apheris Al Unftegined Al model Privacy Englne . "u/ Trgined Al model -/j & - s S E— Compute Engine @ b Privacy : { Flrewcll 1 Data Analyst I Computations are executed locally - data never leaves the local environment and data privacy is preserved throughout the entire process

Slide 7

Our biggest achievements: our technology already empowers R&D breakthroughs for the world's largest enterprises 2 s N al In less than 1 year, we closed multiple We develop core privacy technology E.g.. poid piot for adge-based year confracts with leoding for lorge contact tracing initiafives. computations. Viery strong phama & enterprises, chemistry pipeline. &

Slide 8

We are raising EUR 2m to build our software core and empower R&D breakthroughs via data ecosystems (¥ Hire world class team [ Build out data ecosystems (¥ Flexible core product for enterprise =0 b 2020 2021 9 2022 4

Slide 9

We are a team of 10 leading experts at the intersection of data privacy, cryptography and biomedical data science Qur Co-Founders: Michael, PhD CT0 & Co-Founder Robin CEO & Co-Founder Qur team has leamned from the best: Michael studied Physics and Computer Science and is an expert in distributed computations. He built digital solutions with BCG & BCG DV, Robin studied Medicine, Philocsophy and Mathematics and is an expert in mathematical theories for data privacy. BCG & UBS Google - o cIspA o . o impetlCotee AstrazZeneca O'— VISA "\Ai'j' : Rt 353 = Fraunhofer &

Slide text above is read directly from the Apheris deck PDF embedded on this page.

Related fundraising guides (24)

This deck's categories (2)

Decks from the same year (1)

Decks from the same region (1)

Decks with a similar raise (1)

Browse companies alphabetically (1)

Decks in the same category (12)

More pitch deck teardowns (16)

Recently published pitch deck teardowns (12)

Browse by topic (1)

Fundraising library · Pitch deck examples · Investor directory · Founder database