Trust Tech Ventures

Backing European deep tech that drives AI’s adoption.

AI will hit an adoption ceiling without trust. We back the researcher-founders building the technology that makes AI trustworthy.

Why now

AI has an adoption ceiling. Trust tech can break through it.

01RoI depends on trust.

Most businesses are piloting AI, some claim to be scaling it, far fewer are seeing real RoI. AI cannot be trusted for work that matters.

02Bigger is not more trustworthy.

Today’s models are probabilistic and opaque. However large they get, there will always be an unknowable residue of unreliable outputs.

03Rules and compliance won’t fix it.

Transparency and compliance – mandatory or voluntary – is limited by AI’s inability to mark its own homework, and cannot be done by humans at scale.

04Technology can.

An emerging ‘trust tech stack’ makes AI more reliable, controllable, and secure. European institutions already produce around 30% of the leading research in it.

The trust tech stack

Seven categories of deep tech, each addressing a distinct aspect of building trustworthy AI.

  1. Identifiable AIMaking it easy to tell whether content is AI-generated.
  2. Controllable AIAgents that only act within defined boundaries.
  3. Reliable AIOutputs that are factual, consistent and stable.
  4. Explainable AIMaking the logic behind AI decisions understandable.
  5. Fair AIDetecting and mitigating bias across protected attributes.
  6. Privacy-preserving AITraining and running AI without exposing sensitive data.
  7. Secure AIProtecting AI systems from adversarial attack and misuse.
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How we work

Capital is just the start. Support is the real offer.

Where we look

University research groups and research and technology organisations across Europe, with a particular eye on Spain, Portugal and Italy, where there is great research happening but specialist early-stage capital for this field is scarce.

What we back

Researchers with promising trust tech (around TRL 4/5) who seek impact through taking their research to market. We aim to be the first cheque.

How we work

Alongside founders at the hardest stages: testing the value proposition, stress-testing market position, building the team, and opening doors in industry. The parts research doesn’t prepare you for.

Who we are

Built by trust tech insiders.

We have spent more than a decade inside the trustworthy AI community. We don’t read about trust tech; we’ve been shaping it.

Tarek R. Besold

Tarek R. Besold, PhD

Founding Partner

Has held CEO and chief scientist roles in AI and digital health, including at Sony AI and Telefónica Alpha Health. Led Europe’s first industrial trust tech lab, was the founding chair of Germany’s national AI standards working committee and headed Strategic AI at DEKRA SE.

LinkedIn
Oliver Smith

Oliver Smith

Founding Partner

Previously a director at Koa Health, the Telefónica spin-out that raised a €50m Series A and reached a million covered lives in two years, and before that at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Foundation, where he managed a £100m innovation portfolio. Led AI ethics at Koa, integrating it into strategy and product, and has worked with leaders in building trust in AI, such as Eticas, IADB, and various EU Horizon projects.

LinkedIn

Contact

If you’re building trust tech for AI in Europe, we should talk.

Founders

Tell us what you’re building. A few lines and a link to your paper or deck is plenty.

Tell us what you’re building

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Investors

For investor enquiries, email us.

Barcelona · Madrid · LinkedIn