Paris-based Bioptimus, an AI-powered bioscience startup, announced on Tuesday that it has emerged from stealth following a seed funding round of $35M (approximately €32M).
This funding round is led by Sofinnova Partners, with Bpifrance Large Venture and additional support from global funds based in France, including Cathay Innovation.
Top global tech investors Headline, Hummingbird, NJF Capital, Owkin, and Top Harvest Capital, as well as notable tech entrepreneur Xavier Niel, have joined the round.
Under the leadership of Professor Jean-Philippe Vert, PhD, Bioptimus unites a world-class team of scientists from Owkin and Google DeepMind alumni to transform biology with cutting-edge AI foundation model technologies that capture the various scales of biology.
Bioptimus: Build foundation models for biology
Led by Professor Jean-Philippe Vert, Ph.D., Bioptimus is building the first universal AI foundation model in biology to drive advancements in scientific research and biotechnological innovation.
Professor Jean-Philippe Vert, PhD, co-founder and CEO of Bioptimus, Chief R&D Officer of Owkin, and former Research Lead at Google Brain, says, “The application of foundation models and generative AI to biology is set to have a profound impact in science. By harnessing the power of foundation models and advanced algorithms trained on massive amounts of biological and multimodal data across scales, we aim to capture the laws of biology that have hitherto remained too complex to be properly understood. This holistic understanding of biology across scales will be critical to accelerate biomedical and environmental science.”
The French company plans to connect the different scales of biology with generative AI — from molecules to cells, tissues, and whole organisms, to fuel breakthroughs and innovation in biomedicine and beyond.
In addition to the funding, Bioptimus will use Owkin’s data generation capabilities and global access to patient data from top academic hospitals.
The company will also have access to a scalable and secure computing environment from Amazon Web Services.
Fueled by an abundance of data from all scales and modalities, this gives the power to create computational representations that establish a strong differentiation against models trained solely on public datasets and a single data modality that is not able to capture the full diversity of biology.
Based out of New York, Owkin is a TechBio company that combines the best of human and artificial intelligence to ensure every patient gets the right treatment.
By understanding complex biology through AI, the company identifies new treatments, de-risks and accelerates clinical trials, and develops AI diagnostics.
The investor
Sofinnova Partners is a European venture capital firm in life sciences, specialising in healthcare and sustainability. The VC invests in companies from seed to late-stage and actively partners with ambitious entrepreneurs as a lead or cornerstone investor to develop innovations that will positively impact our collective future.
Edward Kliphuis, Partner at Sofinnova Partners, adds, “Foundation models in biology are game-changers. They unlock unprecedented potential to personalise medicine, capturing the uniqueness of each individual while harnessing the collective knowledge of all. Bioptimus stands out by seamlessly blending unparalleled data resources and access, elite talent, and extensive computational power. Together with Sofinnova’s deep expertise in life sciences and our expansive network, we’re poised to redefine the future of the industry.”
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