Key facts
- Apoha, an AI startup focused on material discovery, raised $36 million in Series A funding.
- The funding round was led by Singular, with participation from Draper Associates and existing investors.
- Apoha's technology, "liquid intelligence," analyzes material wave forms to predict properties.
- The company's VIBE system captures over 1,000 numerical descriptors of material behavior in minutes.
- Apoha has partnered with pharmaceutical and food companies, including Boehringer Ingelheim and Ethris.
Apoha, a startup focused on creating new materials using AI, has emerged from stealth with $36 million in Series A funding. The round was led by European venture capital firm Singular, with participation from Draper Associates and continued backing from seed investors. Apoha's core technology, termed "liquid intelligence," analyzes the wave forms materials generate when subjected to external forces in a liquid medium. This data, captured by the company's VIBE system, yields over 1,000 numerical descriptors of material behavior in minutes, enabling AI models to predict properties like smell, taste, and reactivity. The company aims to accelerate the development of novel proteins, food products, and paints. Co-founders Anshika Srivastava and Shamit Shrivastava, who holds patents on the core technology, established Apoha in 2021. The company has already completed approximately 40 customer projects, including partnerships with pharmaceutical firms like Boehringer Ingelheim and German biotech Ethris, and has about 25 employees. The new funding will be used to scale Apoha's platform, including its custom hardware and AI models, to accommodate more customers and sample types.