sci2sci raises US$1.3M (€1.2M) to build trusted AI infrastructure for regulated industries
HeliadCompany
IBB VenturesInvestor
Robin CapitalInvestor
SuperangelsInvestor
Berlin‑based AI‑trust startup sci2sci raised €1.2 million (US$1.3 million) in a pre‑seed round co‑led by Heliand and IBB Ventures, with participation from Robin Capital and Superangels. The funding will accelerate product rollout in biopharma and other regulated sectors, underscoring investor interest in SaaS solutions that embed data provenance and compliance into AI workflows.
sci2sci closed a €1.2 million (US$1.3 million) pre‑seed round on Sept. 8, 2026, co‑led by Heliad and IBB Ventures, with Robin Capital and Superangels also participating. The Berlin‑based startup aims to build a trusted AI infrastructure for regulated industries, starting with biopharma.
Deal Terms
The round will fund an expansion of sci2sci’s engineering team, deepen existing deployments, and support go‑to‑market efforts beyond biopharma into other regulated domains such as banking. No valuation or revenue multiples were disclosed.
Product Overview
sci2sci’s flagship offering, Integrity Cortex, links claims to source documents and verifies citations to create an auditable record that meets 21 CFR Part 11 requirements. The platform runs on Parseltongue, an open‑source framework the company released under the Apache 2.0 licence. A second product, VectorCat, acts as a data‑integration layer that catalogs information across cloud storage, network drives and laboratory systems without forcing data migration.
Co‑founder and CTO Valerii Kremnev explained the company’s philosophy: “Instead of shipping capabilities first and patching trust and security afterward, we built Parseltongue and Integrity Cortex to permit only safe outputs. A model’s lockpicking skills are useless when there’s no door — and our software guarantees there is none. The same holds for deception: our systems don’t have ungrounded statements as a primitive. The model is forced to produce evidence for every claim it makes.”
Strategic Rationale
Investors are betting on a nascent niche where AI adoption collides with strict compliance regimes. By embedding provenance and auditability into the AI stack, sci2sci addresses a pain point that many generic AI‑tool vendors overlook. The pre‑seed size signals modest but meaningful confidence in the company’s ability to capture early market share in a segment where ARR growth is tied to long‑term contracts and high net‑revenue retention.
The funding also positions sci2sci to broaden its addressable market. While the current focus is on pre‑clinical research, contract clinical research, and bioprocess operations, the roadmap includes extensions into banking and other regulated fields, where data traceability is equally critical.
Why It Matters
For sci2sci, the capital infusion accelerates product maturity at a stage when regulatory compliance can be a decisive barrier to entry. By deepening deployments in biopharma, the company can lock in high‑margin, multi‑year contracts that boost net‑revenue retention and create a defensible ARR base. Competitors that offer generic AI tooling without built‑in audit trails may find it harder to win in these regulated verticals, forcing them to either develop similar provenance layers or cede market share.
The round also validates a broader investor thesis that SaaS platforms which embed trust, provenance, and compliance into AI workflows will attract premium valuations as they move from proof‑of‑concept to enterprise‑scale adoption. Early‑stage players that can demonstrate a clear path to regulated‑industry ARR will likely see stronger deal flow, while incumbents in the broader AI‑SaaS space may need to partner or acquire niche trust layers to stay competitive.
Key Points
- sci2sci raised €1.2 million (US$1.3 million) in a pre‑seed round on Sept. 8, 2026.
- The round was co‑led by Heliad and IBB Ventures, with Robin Capital and Superangels participating.
- Funding will be used to expand engineering, deepen biopharma deployments, and target other regulated sectors such as banking.
- Integrity Cortex provides auditable AI outputs that meet 21 CFR Part 11 compliance, while VectorCat offers data integration without migration.
- Investors are targeting the emerging AI‑trust niche where compliance and data provenance are essential for enterprise adoption.
Analysis
The undisclosed valuation of sci2sci’s pre‑seed round suggests a modest seed‑stage multiple, but the €1.2 million raise signals strong investor appetite for SaaS that embeds compliance into AI pipelines. As regulated industries accelerate AI adoption, platforms that can guarantee traceable, auditable outputs will command premium pricing and higher net‑revenue retention. For operators, the deal underscores the importance of building data provenance into product roadmaps now, rather than retrofitting trust layers later. Investors can expect a wave of similar micro‑fundings as venture firms chase early entrants that can lock in long‑term contracts in high‑margin verticals such as biopharma and banking.