A science-focused French seed company has secured another US$41 million to propel development of what it describes as the “GPT of biology.”
The new funding round, led by San Francisco’s venture capital firm Cathay Innovation, brings the startup’s total funding to US$76 million.
“The funding will accelerate Bioptimus’s mission to build the world’s first universal AI foundation model for biology,” the startup explained in a press release on Tuesday, “aimed at revolutionizing research and innovation across the medical, biotech, cosmetic industries, and beyond.”
The news follows Bioptimus releasing an AI model specializing in disease know-how last summer. The debut of “H-Optimus-0” was a major development in the pathology field.
The Chief Technical Officer of Bioptimus, Rodolphe Jenatton, was formerly a senior research scientist at Google. Additionally, multiple members of the company’s founding team previously served as researchers at Google DeepMind.
The AI-biotech company Owkin, also based in France, was instrumental in the creation of Bioptimus too, and it is providing a vast trove of data to help train the new biotech bot.
Bioptimus’s CEO, Jean-Philippe Vert, is Owkin’s Chief R&D Officer.
Bioptimus just secured $41M to revolutionize biology with AI! They're building a 'GPT for biology' to simulate and predict biological processes, potentially transforming medical research. Exciting times for biotech! #AI #Biology #Innovation
— Pratap (@Mr_Pratap_Singh) January 14, 2025
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COO speaks at top startup and tech event in Helsinki
Mathilda Strom hit the stage at the SLUSH 2024 conference in Finland’s capital city in November to enlighten attendees about the company’s biology and artificial intelligence aspirations.
She also discussed the financial challenges that many startup companies face due to economic turbulence and rising interest rates.
“While I hope to see some stabilization in funding conditions next year, I remain cautious,” the chief operating officer said. Strom was appointed to the position only weeks before she attended the event.
Many other French startups made their way to Slush too. These include the microbiology-focused company Ebiose; the clean energy specialist Leviathan Dynamics; and the cybersecurity expert Prelude.
Over 13,000 people attended the prominent event last year.
See all photos from Slush 2024 now.
From the energy of over 21,000 booked meetings to the inspiring stage talks and unforgettable afterparty moments, our photography team was hard at work capturing the Slush Magic into photos. We hope they do the trick 🪄
See if you can find… pic.twitter.com/kd7u5qgRNT
— Slush (@SlushHQ) December 3, 2024
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