Sherpa.ai, a Bilbao-based artificial intelligence company and member of the EIC Scaling Club, has raised €16 million to accelerate the development and international deployment of its privacy-focused artificial intelligence platform.

The funding round brings Forgepoint Capital, a Silicon Valley investor specialising in cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, into the company’s shareholder base, which consists of investors Mundi Ventures, Ekarpen, Allegra Holdings, and Spain’s state-owned technology investment company Sociedad Española para la Transformación Tecnológica (SETT).

Scaling privacy-preserving artificial intelligence

Sherpa.ai develops technology that enables organisations to train and use artificial intelligence models without transferring sensitive data to a central location. Instead, its platform brings the model to the data.

Its technology allows artificial intelligence models to learn from data held in different locations without requiring the original information to be shared, therefore helping hospitals, banks, companies and public institutions benefit from a broader pool of information while maintaining control over their data.

The new capital will help Sherpa.ai:

• accelerate the development and deployment of its platform;
• expand internationally;
• introduce new platform capabilities;
• strengthen its work with large companies and public institutions; and
• increase its presence in highly regulated sectors.

The company has previously signed agreements with organisations including Indra, the United States National Institutes of Health, Centogene, Laboral Kutxa, Unicaja, and Prosegur.

Supporting Europe's technological sovereignty

The investment comes as data sovereignty becomes a growing strategic priority for European companies and governments. Organisations are looking for ways to adopt advanced artificial intelligence while reducing their dependence on centralised technology providers and maintaining control over sensitive information.

Sherpa.ai’s platform is designed to support distributed artificial intelligence deployments in which data remains private, secure and under the control of its owner. The company is also developing applications for large language models and multi-agent systems.

Xabi Uribe-Etxebarria, founder and CEO of Sherpa.ai, said the round would support the company’s ambition to develop a secure and scalable platform that allows companies and governments to use artificial intelligence without giving up control, privacy or sovereignty over their data.

About the EIC Scaling Club

The EIC Scaling Club is a curated community where 120+ European deep tech scale-ups with the potential to build world-class businesses and solve major global challenges come together with investors, corporate innovators and other industry stakeholders to spur growth.

The top 120+ European deep tech companies will be carefully selected from a pool of high-growth scale-ups that have benefitted from EIC financial schemes, other European and national innovation programmes, and beyond.

The EIC Scaling Club is an EIC-funded initiative run in partnership by Tech Tour, Bpifrance (EuroQuity), Hello Tomorrow, Tech.eu, EurA and IESE Business School.

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