The German AI startup Aleph Alpha has secured $500 million in a Series B funding round, with participation from a consortium of seven new investors and existing investors from prior rounds.
Owner of Lidl and Bosch Ventures Jointly Invest $500 Million in a Series B Funding Round
Founded in 2019, Aleph Alpha may not have the massive funding of Microsoft-backed OpenAI ($11.3 billion), but it highlights that its clients retain ‘full sovereignty’ over the integration of AI into their operations. While it’s tempting to draw comparisons to foundational models like Open AI, Aleph Alpha aligns more closely with startups such as France’s Mistral ($112 million in funding), which collaborates with large corporations to implement LLMs internally.
The consortium is led by the Innovation Park Artificial Intelligence (Ipai). Schwarz Group, the owners of the Lidl supermarket chain, and Bosch Ventures co-led the round. New investors, including Berlin-based Christ&Company Consulting, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, SAP, and Burda Principal Investments, also joined in. Existing institutional investors participated.
Ipai, an AI hub in the south-west German city of Heilbronn jointly established by a foundation founded by Dieter Schwarz, the Lidl founder, receives funding from the state of Baden-Württemberg and aims to become Europe’s largest AI cluster.
Recent Developments and Growth at Aleph Alpha
In July, SAP invested in Aleph Alpha, along with two other AI startups, Anthropic and Cohere.
Back in 2021, the startup secured $27 million in a Series A funding round co-led by Earlybird VC, Lakestar, and UVC Partners, following a seed round of €5.3 million from LEA Partners, 468 Capital, and Cavalry Ventures in November 2020.
Aleph Alpha, with around 70 employees, focuses on areas like EU-regulated data protection and security, often collaborating with governmental bodies, law enforcement, and healthcare organizations.
Jonas Andrulis, CEO and founder of Aleph Alpha, stated that the company “will expand its offerings while ensuring independence and flexibility for customers in infrastructure, cloud compatibility, on-premise support, and hybrid setups.
