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A woman-owned venture company in Munich.

We build technology companies that earn trust.

Verdas Ventures founds and backs six deep-tech companies in health, agriculture, and care. Each gets the same rare pairing: the engineering to build something that genuinely works, and the governance to keep it standing as Europe's rules on AI get real.

Venture
building
Governance
& ethics
Life sciences
& AI
Regulatory
expertise

Founded by

Dr. Allison Fisher Co-Founder & CEO
Dr. Denise Vandeweijer Co-Founder & COO

Softmax

Neurinos

Infinimol

Real, operating companies in fields where the technology has to hold up under real scrutiny. All six are further down.

The portfolio

What we've built so far.

Roughly one company a year since 2019, 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 optimisation, 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↗

Trustworthy technology is becoming the thing that decides which AI companies survive.

As the rules tighten and public scrutiny sharpens, the companies left standing will be the ones that can answer for what they've built. That's the bet we have built Verdas Ventures around.

Doing it takes two things that rarely sit together. One is engineering that actually holds up, which lives with our teams, 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, too, and that operating experience shapes how we structure and support each one.

Companies across health, agriculture, care, and applied AI.

Markets served directly, in Germany and Malaysia.

2019

The year the first company in the portfolio began.

How we build.

Governance from the start

On every company we build, we work out how the AI handles data, makes decisions, and where it could go wrong before we build it, not after a regulator asks. It's far cheaper, and far more honest, than retrofitting it later.

By design

Regulation

Engineers and ethicists on one team

The people writing the code and the people thinking about the ethics sit on the same team and argue it out as the product takes shape. That's the only way responsibility actually changes what gets shipped, rather than showing up as a note at the end.

Both disciplines, in house

Two disciplines

We don't grade our own homework

We work with the IEEE Standards Association on AI ethics certification, so the bar our companies meet is one the wider field sets and recognises: the same standard our clients are certified against.

IEEE Standards Association

Standards

The founders

Two founders for the two things a venture group can't outsource.

The engineering sits with our teams, and it's genuinely strong. What can't be delegated is the judgment that keeps six companies responsible, and the discipline that keeps them running as one. That's the two of us: Allison on the first, Denise on the second.

Co-Founder & CEO

Dr. Allison Fisher

Allison is the responsibility half. She spent fifteen years in academia, first as a professor and then as a dean, before moving into AI, where she built an AI academy from the ground up and now leads Verdas AI, our governance and ethics company. When we say a company should be able to answer for what it ships, she's the one who knows what that actually takes.

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.

Co-Founder & COO

Dr. Denise Vandeweijer

Denise is the operator. She spent a decade at BMW and went on to lead AI solutions and projects before founding companies of her own. She puts that experience into the thing that actually turns six separate businesses into a group: one structure, one set of standards, one way of running them. She holds board roles across the portfolio, including Softmax.

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 centre 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.

Across borders

We operate in Germany and Malaysia, with a network reaching into the wider European tech scene.

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 programmes. 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.