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A woman-owned venture company in Munich.

We build technology companies that hold up.

Verdas Ventures founds and backs deep-tech companies in AI engineering, governance, capability building, health, agriculture, and care. Each is built by people who ship working products and who know what it takes to keep them credible as the rules tighten.

Venture
building
Governance
& ethics
Life sciences
& AI
Regulatory
expertise

Founded by

Dr. Allison Fisher Managing Director
Dr. Denise Vandeweijer Managing Director

Softmax

Neurinos

Infinimol

Real, operating companies in fields where the technology has to hold up under real scrutiny.

The portfolio

What we've built so far.

Roughly one company a year since 2020, each in a field where technology has to earn trust to work. We are proud of having every one operating today.

September

Verdas AI

Responsible AI & governance

Governance advisory and certification (IEEE CertifAIEd and ISO/IEC 42001), plus custom AI built to ethical principles.

Operating verdas.ai↗

April

Infinimol

AI drug discovery

Virtual screening across billions of compounds, property-driven lead optimization, and semantic search in one platform.

Operating infinimol.com↗

February

Cognicare

Elder care AI

Round-the-clock voice assistance for residents and visual recognition for safety risks, with dashboards for staff and family.

Operating cognicare.ai↗

January

Softmax

AI company builder

A repeatable operating system for founding AI-native companies alongside domain experts, from idea to MVP in under six weeks.

Operating softmax.ai↗

The AI companies still standing in five years will be the ones with a product that works and an answer for how it was built.

Most groups have one or the other. Building both into a company from day one takes engineering that holds up under load, which lives with our teams and most visibly at Softmax, the studio we founded to stand up new AI products fast. The other is the governance and ethics expertise to keep those products credible as the rules change, which is the ground we were built on. Every company in the portfolio gets both, from the first version.

We've built and run companies before, and that operating experience shapes how we structure and support each one.

6 Companies

Founded since 2020. All six are operating today.

6 weeks

From idea to working MVP at Softmax, our AI product & company builder.

500K+

Animals under portfolio computer vision, across 100+ cameras.

2 Markets

Served directly, in Germany and Malaysia.

2020

The year the first company in the portfolio began.

How we build.

A working product before the pitch deck

We co-found with a domain expert and get to a functioning first version quickly, in weeks. Six companies since 2020, and something real was running in each of them before anyone raised money on a slide.

Six companies, all operating

We ship hardware, not just software

Cameras in working barns, devices in care homes. When a product needs physical components, we source and specify them in house rather than sending a founder off to find a supplier.

Hardware in production

Governance designed in, not bolted on

Before the build starts, we work out how the system handles data, how it makes decisions, where it could fail, and who is impacted. Engineers and ethicists sit on the same team and settle it while the product takes shape. Retrofitting this after a regulator asks costs far more and convinces nobody.

Both disciplines, in house

One commercial and operating team behind all of them

Sales, marketing, legal, finance, hiring, and hardware sourcing run centrally. A portfolio company gets a sales function and a supply chain on day one instead of building each from scratch, and founders spend their time on the product.

Group operations

A bar someone else sets

We work with international organizations like ISO and IEEE, so the standards our companies meet are the ones the wider field recognizes. We don't grade our own homework.

Global Standards

The founders

Two founders who have built companies, and run them.

Most venture groups hand a new company to an associate and check in quarterly. There are two of us and six companies, and both of us are in the operating detail of all of them. If you bring us something, you work with us.

Managing Director

Dr. Allison Fisher

Allison builds the businesses that have to get it right. Fifteen years in academia, first as a professor and then as a dean, before moving into AI and building an education program that reached 25,000 people. She now leads Verdas AI, our governance and ethics company, in Germany and Malaysia.

25,000+: People reached by the AI education programs she's built.
2024: Named one of the 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics.
IEEE CertifAIEd: Lead assessor and instructor for AI ethics certification.

Managing Director

Dr. Denise Vandeweijer

Denise ships. A decade at BMW, then leading AI solutions and projects, then founding companies of her own. She is the one who takes a product from an idea to a working demo to something customers pay for, which in practice means the business model, release date, the supplier who can actually deliver, the first three hires, and the contract that has to be signed this week. She sits on boards across the portfolio and is in the operating detail of all six.

Operations: Builds and runs the group across all six companies.
BMW: A decade in industry, then leading AI solutions and projects.
Boards: Director and board roles across the portfolio, including Softmax.

Network & ecosystem

Rooted in Munich, working well beyond it.

We built Verdas Ventures inside Munich's deep-tech scene, and that's still where our closest research and industry ties sit. From that base we work across Germany, into the wider European tech community, and out to Malaysia. We stay close to the standards work that defines responsible AI, and on top of the regulation as it develops.

Munich roots

We founded the group in the Munich area, at the center of Germany's deep-tech and applied-AI community, and that's still where we're most connected.

Close to the standard-setters

Through our work with the IEEE Standards Association on AI-ethics certification, we stay near the people actually shaping how responsible AI gets defined.

Germany and Malaysia

Verdas Malaysia has been operating since 2023, with certification and governance work for Malaysian organizations and delivery partners on the ground. Our Southeast Asia practice is a market we serve directly, not one we advise from Munich.

On top of the regulation

AI rules in Europe are moving fast, and we follow them closely, so the companies we build are designed around where the regulation is heading, not just where it stands today.

Working with Verdas Ventures

We work with investors, corporate and technology partners, and public programs. Whether your interest is the group as a whole, one company in particular, or a partnership we haven't thought of yet, we'd like to hear from you.