Osborne Clarke advises Aleph Alpha on Series B financing round

Osborne Clarke has advised the German AI start-up Aleph Alpha on IT and IP law in its successful USD 500 million Series B financing round. 

Aleph Alpha is one of the leading companies for generative artificial intelligence (AI) in Europe. The Heidelberg-based start-up specialises in AI solutions for industry and public administration. Last spring, the company succeeded in reaching a milestone on the way to AI that is correct, explainable and trustworthy in terms of content. The company's proprietary language model Luminous is able to understand connections in information and factual correctness on the basis of verified facts. This makes Aleph Alpha a beacon of hope for the European AI economy.

To continue on this successful path, Aleph Alpha has now received additional capital in a recently completed Series B financing round. Led by the venture capitalist Innovation Park Artificial Intelligence (IPAI), the Bosch Group and the retail and IT group Schwarz Group (Lidl, Kaufland), the investors are investing a total of USD 500 million (equivalent to EUR 486 million). Berlin-based investor Christ&Company, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Europe's largest software group SAP and Burda Principal Investments are also involved. Existing investors, such as Earlybird and 468 Capital, completed the high-calibre group of investors.

As part of the financing round, Aleph Alpha will also transfer significant parts of its language model to the non-profit organisation for non-commercial research purposes. However, the commercial rights will remain with Aleph Alpha.

Osborne Clarke advised Aleph Alpha on IT and IP law in the implementation and negotiation of this project. The Osborne Clarke team consisted of Adrian Schneider (lead), Dr Lina Böcker and Tim Schmetzer (all IT law).