France-based GenSensor bag €2M to develop robot for industrial biomedical manufacturing

Nantes-based GenSensor, a deeptech company that optimises the development and production of biomedicines, announced that it has secured €2M in a fresh round of funding.

GenSensor seeks to advance the research, manufacture, and use of novel medicines by reindustrialising their production in France and, more widely, by becoming a vital partner for innovators in the pharmaceutical industry.

Investors in this round

The funding came from GO Capital, Sodero Gestion and Bpifrance.

GO Capital is an independent management company that claims to be a major player in seed capital and venture capital in the region. The firm has nearly €350M AUM and mainly finances technology leaders in the digital, health and industry of the future sectors.

Alexandre Boulay, investor at GO Capital, says, “GenSensor responds to territorial development issues with an environmental, social and technological concern that echoes our convictions. Its first-rate management team now has a solid implementation capacity while being guided by a concrete vision of biotechnological innovation.”

“By investing alongside this startup, we are now actively contributing to the formation of a new generation industry in France,” adds Boulay.

Sodero Gestion is a private equity firm in the Great West with offices in Nantes, Rennes, Brest, and La Roche-sur-Yon. It finances startups, SMEs and ETIs with equity in their development and transmission projects.

Capital utilisation

Founded in 2021, GenSensor has been developing a system for monitoring biological parameters during the manufacturing of biological pharmaceuticals, such as gene therapy vectors, vaccinations, and monoclonal antibodies.

These biomedicines offer a significant improvement in patient treatment. They currently make up 56 per cent of the pharmaceutical pipeline on the planet. 

According to GenSensor, despite making up just 4 per cent of prescription medications, these compounds currently account for 33 per cent of the pharmaceutical market’s value.

The money raised will allow GenSensor to finish the industrial development of its robot and launch the first gene therapy, vaccine, and antibody manufacturing applications. 

“The deployment of this robot, and the optimisation of the associated bioproduction performances, will make it possible to reduce the ecological impact of the latter and to take full advantage of the potential of these new innovative therapies by facilitating their access to patients,” says the company.

“Genomic companion for biologics”

GenSensor is a deeptech firm with a focus on biotech. The company was founded by Jean-Marie Charpin and Charles Hébert with the goal of creating online companion tools for more ethical and effective manufacture of biological pharmaceuticals.

Jean-Marie Charpin, President of GenSensor, says, “GenSensor was born out of a shared passion with my partner Charles for innovative DNA sequencing technologies in the service of health and strong expectations from bioproduction manufacturers.”

“By bringing together a brilliant multidisciplinary team and an ecosystem of loyal partners, we want to support the biological medicine industry towards a 4.0 model,” adds Charpin.

The company hopes to provide access to biological treatments by enhancing bioproduction. It includes all test procedures from sampling to bioinformatics analysis and is the first automated online robot for real-time monitoring of biological parameters.

GenSensor locates indicators of bioreactor health by fusing “cutting-edge” technology in microfluidics, robotics, sequencing, and analytics. The company takes part in assuring the creation of biomolecules at every step of their evolution as a genuine genomic companion.

The French company assists firms in their transition to Industry 4.0 by producing biological data in real time. Thus, GenSensor allows:

• Increase production capacity,
• To increase industrial process expertise,
• To reduce the ecological impact of bioproduction while making these novel molecules more accessible to patients.

As a member of France Biolead, GenSensor is part of the state-supported national initiative to re-industrialise the industry and develop new solutions in collaboration with local, national, and European partners. 

Charles Hébert, CEO of GenSensor, says, “Our development methods are guided by strong environmental, human and technological convictions: trusting our local talents, helping to train in new analytical methods in order to understand the challenges of genomics and data in an industrial context.”