• AQEMIA

  Participated · Equity · Dec 2024

  Aqemia combines physics-based algorithms and statistical mechanics with generative AI to design novel drug candidates without relying on experimental data. The company is expanding its computational platform to target RNAs, building on work in epitranscriptomics while continuing protein-targeting programs. Aqemia is adapting its platform to handle highly flexible proteins and RNA targets and plans to experimentally determine various RNA and RNA-modifying targets to refine its technology. It reports multiple drug discovery successes across its internal pipeline and collaborations, with its most advanced programs demonstrating efficacy in animal cancer models. A partnered program with Novalix has shown a strong effect on cancer cells and is progressing in vivo models. Aqemia combines quantum-inspired physics, statistical mechanics algorithms and machine learning to train generative AI that designs potential drug molecules. Its approach generates synthetic data to predict molecular properties and interactions, aiming to reduce reliance on costly experimental data. The company’s initial therapeutic focus is oncology and immuno-oncology. Aqemia has an existing multi-year collaboration with Sanofi that could be worth up to $140 million contingent on R&D milestones. With a fresh $38M raise, the company plans to expand hiring and open a London office in early 2025 to access UK talent. This fundraising follows a €30M ($31.5M) raise in January and takes total funding past $100M. AQEMIA operates a proprietary drug discovery platform that combines generative artificial intelligence with quantum and statistical mechanics (deep physics) algorithms to design novel small-molecule candidates. The company reports several drug discovery successes both in its internal pipeline and in collaborations with pharma partners. Its internal pipeline already includes multiple projects being tested in animals, primarily in oncology and immuno-oncology, with plans to expand into the full spectrum of therapeutic areas. AQEMIA intends to scale its GenAI and deep-physics platform, expand its team with top-tier talent, and accelerate its wholly-owned pipeline of projects and assets. Leadership states the company is advancing programs toward clinical trials. The company cites a recent $140 million drug discovery deal with Sanofi as an example of its external collaboration successes. Aqemia has built a technological platform—Aqemia’s Launchpad—that pairs deep physics algorithms with generative AI to design novel drug candidates without relying on prior experimental datasets. The company grew from a spin-off of École Normale Supérieure to a 50-person team in three years and claims its deep-physics algorithms are up to 10,000x faster while maintaining costs and accuracy. Its Launchpad has produced collaborations (disclosed and undisclosed) worth up to millions of euros with major pharma partners including Sanofi, Janssen and Servier. Aqemia has launched a proprietary pipeline of several drug discovery projects spanning in vitro to in vivo stages, with a focus on oncology and immuno-oncology. The firm intends to scale a massive pipeline of wholly owned discovery projects and advance candidates into clinical trials either alone via biotech spin-offs or with partners. The company is actively recruiting to address further technology and drug discovery challenges. Aqemia develops core software, derived from academic research at École normale supérieure (PSL), that predicts the affinity between pharmaceutical targets and molecules in minutes. The company says its method is faster than other software, which can take up to a week, enabling rapid screening of millions of compounds. With a mission to disrupt the $60 billion drug discovery market, Aqemia aims to improve the speed and success rate of identifying drug candidates. The €1 million pre-seed financing led by Elaia will support spinning off the academic lab and recruiting a world-class team. Management includes CEO Maximilien Levesque, Ph.D., and COO Emmanuelle Martiano, who plan to hire in silico drug hunters, a software developer, and experts in generative artificial intelligence. Elaia framed the investment as aligned with its PSL Innovation Fund strategy to back early-stage, disruptive deeptech.

• Astraveus

  Led · Seed · Jun 2023

  Astraveus develops Lakhesys, marketed as The Benchtop Cell Factory™, a compact platform using microfluidic technologies to produce hundreds of cell therapy doses per year. The company positions its instrument to improve quality and dramatically reduce manufacturing costs for cell therapies, facilitating scale-up from preclinical stages to commercial production. Astraveus emphasizes making these therapies more accessible and affordable worldwide. It was founded in 2016 by Jérémie Laurent at Hôpital Saint-Louis in Paris. The company intends to support commercialization and manufacturing capability expansion, including a new line of microfluidic consumables enabled by the recent public funding. The article does not disclose revenue, user, or other operating metrics.

• Ringover

  Led · Series B · Jun 2023

  Ringover is a Paris-based provider of cloud communication solutions that aims to modernize the business phone system into a productivity tool by combining telephony, video conferencing, SMS and group messaging. The company integrates with more than 70 business tools (CRMs, helpdesks and productivity apps) and aims to double that figure in the coming months. In recent months Ringover launched Cadence, a sales prospecting tool, and Empower, an AI-based conversational analysis solution. Led by co-founder and CEO Renaud Charvet, Ringover operates in France, Spain and the UK and has established an office in Atlanta, GA. The company recently closed a €20m Series B and plans to use the funds to expand R&D—mainly in AI—and to recruit across all departments. Ringover offers a SaaS smart‑calling platform that replaces traditional enterprise telephony and adds native integrations for video, email, SMS and contact‑center functionality within CRM workflows. Launched in 2018, the product aims to streamline commercial campaigns and customer support by exposing real‑time and historical customer data to users. The SaaS model enables global delivery and the company reports more than 10,000 clients using its contact‑center solution. Ringover plans to evolve its offering through initiatives leveraging artificial intelligence and deeper integrations with collaborative messaging tools (Slack, Teams) and professional mail platforms (Gmail, Outlook). The company has expanded internationally with subsidiaries opened in London, Barcelona and recently Atlanta (USA). Headcount growth accelerated in 2021, with over 70 hires that year and a recruitment plan targeting 100 new positions by the end of 2022. Ringover is a Paris-based SaaS company developing integrated VoIP, video, chat and SMS communication solutions for professional teams at European SMEs. The platform offers integrations with CRM software such as Salesforce, Zendesk and Microsoft Dynamics. Customers include European tech recruitment platform talent.io, digital marketing platform Sendinblue, and freelancer marketplace Malt. The company raised €10m in a Series A round from Expedition Growth Capital. Ringover intends to use the funds to expand its reach into Spain, the US and the UK. Founded in Paris in 2005 by Chairman Jean-Samuel Najnudel and CEO Renaud Charvet, the company positions itself as a unified communications provider for SMEs.

• TreeFrog Therapeutics

  Led · Series B · Sep 2021

  TreeFrog Therapeutics develops stem cell–derived cell therapies and a proprietary C‑Stem™ high‑throughput cell encapsulation platform to mass‑produce and differentiate stem cells in industrial bioreactors. The company intends to deploy C‑Stem for clinical‑grade manufacturing and advance a pipeline of cell therapies toward the clinic, and to open technology hubs in Boston and Kobe. TreeFrog plans to use the new funds to scale manufacturing and support clinical development. Since incorporation in November 2018 in Bordeaux, France, the team has grown to more than 50 employees and moved into a 13,000 sq. ft. production facility in June 2020. The company previously raised over €10M ($11.7M) in 2019 and joined the FrenchTech120 in January 2020. Current leadership changes tied to the round include the appointment of Frederic Desdouits as CEO and the creation of a U.S. subsidiary to be led by co‑founder Kevin Alessandri. TreeFrog Therapeutics develops C‑Stem, a proprietary 3D cell culture system designed to enable mass production of pluripotent stem cells while preserving genomic integrity. C‑Stem is compatible with conventional bioreactors and aims to lower cell‑therapy production costs and accelerate bioproduction for diseases such as Parkinson’s, type 1 diabetes, and heart failure. The company says C‑Stem will turn into a bioproduction platform to supply stem cells and differentiated therapeutic cells and targets first clinical‑grade batches by 2021. TreeFrog has secured intellectual property, closed a Series A round, and established operations and governance. The recent funding will be used to attain cGMP certification (a prerequisite for FDA approval), extend production capacity, and further develop the C‑Stem platform. Management is recruiting executives to lead cGMP efforts and scale manufacturing. TreeFrog Therapeutics, incorporated in November 2018 and based in Bordeaux, France, has developed C-Stem™, a proprietary 3D stem cell culture platform intended to provide scalable, higher-quality therapeutic cells while reducing treatment costs. The company aims to apply the technology across multiple indications including Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, heart failure, diabetes and NASH through proprietary and collaborative research programs. TreeFrog plans to transition C-Stem™ to cGMP standards by 2021 and targets a first-in-man clinical trial in 2024. Management is led by Kevin Alessandri (CEO & CTO) and Maxime Feyeux (President, CSO). The company pursues strategic partnerships and co-developments with pharma and cell therapy initiatives to accelerate clinical development and facilitate market access. Financially, TreeFrog completed a Series A financing and obtained non-dilutive public support to advance its development and manufacturing plans.

• Owkin

  Participated · Series A · May 2020

  Owkin is a Parisian AI biotech startup that uses machine learning to speed drug development and enhance clinical trials. It enables doctors, medical researchers, and pharmaceutical companies to identify new drug candidates and improve trial design by linking health data from typically siloed hospitals across the U.S. and Europe. The company emphasizes multimodal and rich biological data, including advanced spatial single-cell omics technologies. Owkin says it will use the new $80 million to support its data generation strategy across multiple therapeutic areas. The $80 million comprises a Series B-1 equity round and up-front fees for clinical trials, focused in part on cardiovascular drugs. The fresh funding brings total capital raised to over $300 million following a prior $180 million partnership with Sanofi that helped it reach unicorn status. Founded in 2016, Owkin aims to bring new drugs to market faster and improve patient outcomes through cutting-edge ML methods. Owkin is an AI biotech company that applies federated learning to train models across decentralized hospital and research center data without exchanging patient-level records. Its platform focuses on multimodal patient data, including histology and genomics, to identify biomarkers, therapeutic targets, and prognostic signals. Owkin aims to assemble what it calls the world’s most comprehensive histology and genomic cancer database and to power predictive models of treatment response. The company positions privacy-preserving collaboration at the center of its product and research network. Financially, Owkin has raised $324.1 million to date and now sits at a valuation above $1 billion following the latest investment. The company was founded in 2016 by Gilles Wainrib and Thomas Clozel and is based in Paris. Owkin builds an AI platform designed to create global, collaborative medical datasets by connecting data scientists, clinicians, academic researchers and pharmaceutical companies. The company emphasizes protecting patient data by keeping information within a hospital's local infrastructure. Its medical research ecosystem comprises four tools: Owkin Loop (the network), Owkin Connect (technology infrastructure), Owkin Studio (AI software) and Owkin Lab (expertise). Owkin positions itself to break down silos and augment research capabilities at scale, enabling discoveries of multimodal biomarkers and disease mechanisms that can affect drug development and clinical treatment plans. The startup has raised a total of $70 million to date following an $18 million Series A extension. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in New York City, Owkin says the funding and partnerships will help it strengthen its leadership in AI for biomedical research. Owkin operates a secure, privacy-focused virtual research environment called the Owkin Studio where data scientists, clinicians and pharma can access anonymized datasets and models to advance studies. In the platform, parties refine algorithms and predictive models to discover biomarkers, mechanisms of action and improve drug development while keeping underlying data protected. Owkin monetizes by enabling remote access to datasets for pharmaceutical companies and by licensing models developed by academic partners, creating additional revenue for research institutions. The company positions its technology as a solution to privacy and data‑security concerns in collaborative research and aims to improve patient outcomes. During the COVID-19 pandemic it launched the Covid-19 Open AI Consortium (COAI) to accelerate collaborative research, initially focusing on cardiovascular complications with CAPACITY (over 50 centers worldwide) and on patient outcomes, triage and immune-response prediction. Financially, Owkin raised $25 million in fresh financing as a Series A extension, bringing total capital raised to $55 million (the extended round was reported at $52 million). Owkin builds machine-learning technologies and infrastructure to enable medical and scientific discoveries, focused on predictive models that support drug development by forecasting treatment outcomes and disease evolution. The company develops interpretable models to discover multimodal biomarkers and works with clinicians to biologically validate those biomarkers. Owkin’s network enables federated learning, allowing researchers to train predictive models on heterogeneous real-world data while preserving patient privacy. Its predictive models are implemented in clinical trials through analysis enrichment, surrogate endpoints, patient stratification, patient selection, and high-value subgroup identification. The company intends to use the new funding to expand its partner network worldwide and deploy its flagship machine-learning platform to augment medical research. Owkin was founded in 2016 by Thomas Clozel, M.D., who serves as CEO, and is based in New York City.

No current team members are available.