BIOPTIMUS
20.2.2024 09:01:26 CET | Business Wire | Press release
Today, French startup Bioptimus emerged from stealth following a seed funding round of $35M. 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. This funding round is led by Sofinnova Partners, with Bpifrance Large Venture, and additional support from global funds based in France, including Frst and multistage VC 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 to create a global leader in AI for biology in France.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240220205004/en/
Professor Jean-Philippe Vert, PhD, co-founder and CEO of Bioptimus, Chief R&D Officer of Owkin and former Research Lead at Google Brain, said: “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.”
Edward Kliphuis, Partner at Sofinnova Partners, added: “Foundation models in biology are game-changers. They unlock unprecedented potential to personalize 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."
Laurent Higueret, Senior Investment Director at Bpifrance Large Venture, commented: “Founded on the ambition to make a quantum leap in our understanding of the complexity of human biology and bringing together a top team of accomplished experts in the fields of data science and generative AI, Bioptimus holds the promise to go even deeper in the analysis of patients’ data across multiple levels and help unveil biological connections hitherto unthought-of. We at Bpifrance are delighted to team-up with such an impressive team and group of investors and support the development of a category defining company that has the potential to disrupt many R&D activities.”
Bioptimus will benefit from Owkin’s data generation capabilities and federated global access to multimodal patient data sourced from leading academic hospitals worldwide, as well as a best-in-class, scalable and secure computing environment from Amazon Web Services, Inc (AWS). 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 are not able to capture the full diversity of biology.
About Bioptimus
Bioptimus is building the first universal AI foundation model in biology to drive advancements in scientific research and biotechnological innovation. Leveraging a team of world-class experts, employing state-of-the-art AI technologies and accessing unique proprietary data at scale, we aim to fuel breakthrough discoveries and accelerate innovations in biomedicine and beyond. For more information, please visit https://www.bioptimus.com.
About Owkin
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, we identify new treatments, de-risk and accelerate clinical trials and develop AI diagnostics. Owkin uses privacy-enhancing federation to access up-to-date multimodal patient data that unlocks AI’s potential to power precision medicine. We merge wet lab experiments with advanced AI techniques to create a powerful feedback loop for accelerated discovery and innovation. Owkin founded MOSAIC, the world’s largest multi-omics atlas for cancer research. Owkin has raised over $300 million through investments from leading biopharma companies (Sanofi and BMS) and venture funds (Fidelity, GV and Bpifrance, among others).
About Sofinnova Partners
Sofinnova Partners is a leading European venture capital firm in life sciences, specializing in healthcare and sustainability. Based in Paris, London and Milan, the firm brings together a team of professionals from all over the world with strong scientific, medical and business expertise. Sofinnova Partners 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.
Founded in 1972, Sofinnova Partners has backed over 500 companies and created market leaders around the globe. Today, Sofinnova Partners has over €2.5 billion under management. For more information, please visit: sofinnovapartners.com
About Bpifrance and its Large Venture fund
Bpifrance is the French Public Investment Bank and acts as one-stop-shop offering domestic companies a comprehensive range of financial products and services to support them at every stage of their development including equity, loans, guarantees and export insurances, as well as consultancy or training.
Large Venture - the late-stage VC arm of Bpifrance - is a €1.75 billion fund dedicated to fast-growing, highly innovative startups looking to accelerate organic or external growth. Large Venture was incepted in 2013 with the mission to bring the most promising French technologies from the lab to the market, and ultimately to profitability. Large Venture invests in private and public companies across three main sectors: healthtech and life sciences, digital and greentech. For more information, please visit us at: bpifrance.fr
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240220205004/en/
About Business Wire
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Arc'teryx Introduces System 0™, a New Framework for the Future of Product Design and Circularity26.8.2026 15:00:00 CEST | Press release
Sperro SV, a multisport mountain-grade hardshell built with circular design principles, available September 4, 2026 Arc'teryx Equipment, the global design company specializing in technical high-performance apparel and equipment, today introduced System 0™, a new framework that reimagines how products can be designed, manufactured, used, repaired, and ultimately regenerated. System 0 represents the next evolution for sustainability in the outdoor industry, as it embeds circular thinking across an entire product lifecycle while maintaining the uncompromising performance standards that define the Arc’teryx brand. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260826686539/en/ Arc’teryx athlete, Craig Murray, wearing the Sperro SV, a multisport mountain-grade hardshell built with circular design principles, available September 4, 2026. The first product being introduced as part of the System 0 platform is the Sperro SV jacket, a
Xsolla Announces Five-Year Partnership With the Global Esports Federation26.8.2026 15:00:00 CEST | Press release
Partnership Represents a Structural Shift in Esports, Placing Xsolla's Infrastructure Behind GEF’s Entire Ecosystem, Spanning Commerce, Payments, Wallet, Loyalty, and Distribution Across Global Esports Games, Global Esports Tour, and 180+ Member Federations Xsolla, a global commerce company, today announced a landmark five-year strategic partnership with the Global Esports Federation (GEF), the world-convening body for esports. As GEF's exclusive partner for commerce, payments, wallet, loyalty, and distribution, Xsolla will power the entire GEF ecosystem, including the flagship Global Esports Games, pro-series Global Esports Tour, global GEFcon, and 180+ Member Federations across five continents. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260826948844/en/ Graphic: Xsolla The announcement comes as GEF marks 100 days to go to the Los Angeles 2026 Global Esports Games (GEGLA26), adding further momentum to the road to Los An
NABEP Appoints Sara Chouraqui as General Counsel26.8.2026 15:00:00 CEST | Press release
Company expands legal team as it prepares for significant growth North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP) has appointed Sara Chouraqui as General Counsel, with Elizabeth Collery and Victoria Jacobson each joining as Deputy General Counsel. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260826168543/en/ Sara Chouraqui joins NABEP as its General Counsel, bringing decades of legal expertise. These additions significantly strengthen NABEP’s senior leadership team and legal expertise as the company improves its operations, increases production and develops new strategic and commercial partnerships. As General Counsel, Chouraqui will lead NABEP’s global legal function and advise the company’s leadership on its legal, regulatory and corporate priorities, including major transactions and partnerships, governance, compliance and the management of legal and regulatory risk across the company’s operations. Her experience navigating
Grafana Labs Crosses 10,000-Customer Milestone as AI Adoption Accelerates Growth Across the Platform26.8.2026 15:00:00 CEST | Press release
Grafana Labs was recently recognized as a Leader in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Observability Platforms for the third consecutive year, launched six AI-native products during its inaugural AI Week, and surpassed $600M in Annual Recurring Revenue. Grafana Labs, the company behind the open observability cloud, today announced it has crossed 10,000 customers worldwide and surpassed $600 million in annual recurring revenue, as organizations standardize on open observability for the AI era. Teams need AI to help them understand their own systems faster, especially as complexity and overhead remain the top observability concern cited in Grafana Labs' 2026 Observability Survey – a need reflected by the adoption of Grafana Assistant, Grafana Cloud's context-aware AI agent for exploring and troubleshooting observability data, now used by more than 18,000 organizations. Teams also need observability purpose-built for AI systems themselves: When teams move AI into production, models dri
FlightSafety International Reaches Agreement to Acquire Acron Technologies’ Commercial Training Solutions26.8.2026 15:00:00 CEST | Press release
Agreement will expand FlightSafety’s training and simulation capabilities in the global commercial aviation market FlightSafety International Inc. (FSI), a leading global provider of aviation training and simulation technology, today announced it has signed a definitive agreement with Acron Technologies, a portfolio company of TJC LP, to acquire its Commercial Training Solutions (CTS) business, including its Training Systems, Training Services, Aviation Academy, and Driver Training portfolio. The agreement marks a significant expansion of FSI’s capabilities in the commercial aviation market, broadening and complementing its simulator manufacturing capabilities and global training footprint. CTS brings over eight decades of experience in commercial aviation training and simulation. With a long-standing heritage in commercial airline simulator manufacturing, CTS has delivered more than 850 training devices throughout its history, with over 300 full-flight simulators currently in operatio
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom