Apoha, an AI startup building models to create new materials, emerges from stealth with $36 million Series A funding

Apoha raised $36 million in Series A funding led by Singular, with participation from Draper Associates and continued backing from seed investors Redalpine, Seedcamp, Wilbe, and Nucleus. The London- and San Francisco-based company also received a grant from Innovate UK.

The startup's technology, called 'liquid intelligence,' uses measurements of wave forms that materials generate when suspended in liquid and subjected to physical stress. Its first commercial product, VIBE (Variations in Inter-facial Behaviour Under Excitation), yields more than 1,000 distinct numerical descriptors of material behavior in minutes rather than days or weeks.

Apoha has completed about 40 customer projects to date and works with pharmaceutical firm Boehringer Ingelheim, biotech Ethris, and multiple Fortune 500 customers in pharma, food and beverage, and materials. In a benchmark on 236 antibodies that reached clinical trials, the company says its platform outperformed 12 industry-standard tests pharma firms currently use to predict drug failure.