Lerna AI and Genesis Ventures
Meet Lerna AI (https://lerna.ai), a deep-tech startup committed to revolutionizing the way mobile apps understand their users and optimize their campaigns.
Traditionally, user insights have been based on data collection, heavily depending on invasive third-party cookies and data brokers. Due to privacy laws and blockers, this is no longer possible. But there is a new way of collecting insights in a post-cookies world: in a secure, private, and decentralized manner. Lerna AI enhances the understanding of each user by seamlessly deploying machine learning on the mobile phone to learn from enriched first-party data that never leaves that device. The secret sauce behind the product entails a mix of Federated Learning, with security and privacy techniques, which render the system highly scalable while still privacy-preserving.
Traditionally, user insights have been based on data collection, heavily depending on invasive third-party cookies and data brokers. Due to privacy laws and blockers, this is no longer possible. But there is a new way of collecting insights in a post-cookies world: in a secure, private, and decentralized manner. Lerna AI enhances the understanding of each user by seamlessly deploying machine learning on the mobile phone to learn from enriched first-party data that never leaves that device. The secret sauce behind the product entails a mix of Federated Learning, with security and privacy techniques, which render the system highly scalable while still privacy-preserving.
Both founders are originally from Greece and studied in Athens for their undergrad, but they followed different paths and geographies around the globe. What brought them together is the joint vision that personalization does not have to exist at the expense of privacy. Dr. Kellaris, explained that: “Since my post-doctoral studies, my focus has been on deploying true privacy in a practical manner. Federated Learning brings in a new paradigm on how to enable insights generation at scale, without the need of collecting sensitive data”.
According to Lerna’s co-founder and CEO, Georgios Depastas, “Data enablement in the post-cookies world is already one of the largest challenges in the mobile world. We’ve been used to hearing that data is the new gold, but in reality, raw data has been becoming toxic for most businesses. Insights are the real gold, and Lerna AI is on a mission to prove that app publishers can benefit from the utility of the insights, without the toxicity of sensitive data.”
Stergios Anastasiadis, General Partner and Founder of Genesis Ventures, says: "We really like the team and what they want to build. They both have a tech background and are also former founders with deep experience in this space. Competition in the security/privacy space will likely increase but the team is technically capable of having an advantage over competition."
A number of angel investors are also backing Lerna AI in their mission. Among them, Dr. Stavros Papadopoulos, Founder, and CEO of high-growth data management startup TileDB, he mentions "I am excited to invest in Lerna AI, a startup with a strong tech founding team with great expertise in data privacy, building a disruptive product for mobile developers that protects users’ data. I love the fact that Lerna AI combines deep-tech innovation with data ethics."
Both founders are originally from Greece and studied in Athens for their undergrad, but they followed different paths and geographies around the globe. What brought them together is the joint vision that personalization does not have to exist at the expense of privacy. Dr. Kellaris, explained that: “Since my post-doctoral studies, my focus has been on deploying true privacy in a practical manner. Federated Learning brings in a new paradigm on how to enable insights generation at scale, without the need of collecting sensitive data”.
According to Lerna’s co-founder and CEO, Georgios Depastas, “Data enablement in the post-cookies world is already one of the largest challenges in the mobile world. We’ve been used to hearing that data is the new gold, but in reality, raw data has been becoming toxic for most businesses. Insights are the real gold, and Lerna AI is on a mission to prove that app publishers can benefit from the utility of the insights, without the toxicity of sensitive data.”
Stergios Anastasiadis, General Partner and Founder of Genesis Ventures, says: "We really like the team and what they want to build. They both have a tech background and are also former founders with deep experience in this space. Competition in the security/privacy space will likely increase but the team is technically capable of having an advantage over competition."
A number of angel investors are also backing Lerna AI in their mission. Among them, Dr. Stavros Papadopoulos, Founder, and CEO of high-growth data management startup TileDB, he mentions "I am excited to invest in Lerna AI, a startup with a strong tech founding team with great expertise in data privacy, building a disruptive product for mobile developers that protects users’ data. I love the fact that Lerna AI combines deep-tech innovation with data ethics."
