A startup that helps data centers cool down just secured $1.85 million in pre-funding.
Zurich-based company Apheros, founded in August last year as a spin-off of ETH Zurich, has developed and patented a new cooling solution for data centers.
Data centers are notoriously energy-intensive and currently consume 3% of global energy – a number that is expected to rise with the increasing adoption of AI.
“We take a device called a heatsink, whose job is to transfer heat from your chip, your GPU, to the environment and the coolant – and we’ve optimized it by using a metal foam,” said co-founder and CEO Julia Carpenter.
Essentially, this manufacturing process creates foam structures with a surface area that is a thousand times larger, which in turn maximizes heat dissipation in data centers.
These foams could be integrated into existing cooling systems, reducing data center energy consumption by as much as 10 to 20 percent, Carpenter said.
Apheros is currently generating revenue by collaborating with leading design experts in this field and is also in discussions with semiconductor manufacturer Broadcom to improve the design of its solutions.
Fundraising went relatively smoothly for the startup. “We’re in Switzerland, which is known as a very important hub for early-stage deep-tech companies. So for us there were a lot of opportunities here and really good networks,” Carpenter told BI.
The $1.85 million pre-seed round was led by Swiss fund Founderful.
With the financial injection, Apheros wants to scale its production and increase the number of employees to 15.
Check out the 10-slide pitch deck used to secure the new funding.
