A new French AI startup has raised $41 million to develop basic AI models for biology. Just as OpenAI’s ChatGPT has taken the world by storm for its super-smart generative AI tools that can converse in natural language in text form, Bioptimus takes the concept but trains the model specifically for downstream biological applications – which comes with its own unique set of tools. challenging, as the required clinical training data tend to be sensitive, and not publicly available. Bioptimus co-founder and CEO Jean-Philippe Vert said the company wants to develop a greater understanding of biology by studying how it works from raw data molecules to whole organisms. This, he said, would allow scientists and researchers to synchronize the biological world to “predict disease outcomes” and develop more effective treatments. And this simulation called Vert makes the technology somewhat similar to the basic model of ChatGPT. “Essentially, it’s like a biological GPT – but instead of generating text, we’re simulating biology,” he said in a statement. Hotbed France has emerged as a hotbed for AI startups, with generative AI companies across the country receiving the largest amount of funding in the past year. Mega funding rounds include Mistral AI’s $640 million tranche, H which secured $220 million, and Hugging Face closed a $235 million investment – all within the last 18 months. Bioptimus, for its part, was founded only last year, but has raised a seed round of $35 million. That it has now raised a total of $76 million, less than a year since its founding, is a testament not only to the current AI hype, but also to the backgrounds of the six founders of Bioptimus. Chief technology officer (CTO) Rodolphe Jenatton, for example, was previously a senior research scientist at Amazon and Google. Vert, meanwhile, is not only the co-founder and CEO of Bioptimus, but also the chief R&D officer of Owkin, a French unicorn and another AI biotech startup with backers including GV. This dual role shows the origins of Bioptimus. Owkin uses AI and machine learning to accelerate drug discovery, and has established partnerships with top biopharmaceutical companies. As part of this work, Owkin has also collected tons of multimodal patient data, which Bioptimus uses to train its basic model. Instead of creating tangential units in Owkin that focus on the base model, it’s easier to create separate entities. “Building biology [foundational models] not part of Owkin’s roadmap, but Owkin supports and is keen to partner with companies like Bioptimus,” Vert explained to TechCrunch in an interview last year. “Exercises are very large scale [foundational models] it requires significant resources in terms of data volume, computing power and depth of data modalities that are easier to open as specific entities. As a ‘pure player’ in the base model, Bioptimus is better at doing this. In the intervening months, Bioptimus launched H-Optimus-0, an open source basic model for pathology, trained on millions of images to help research and diagnose diseases, such as cancer. However, with the new $41 million in the bank, the company will strengthen its AI platform with multiple data sources covering a wider range of therapeutic areas, and will also forge further partnerships with the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors. As part of this, it is preparing to release a new multi-modal basic model at the end of this year, covering the entire biological spectrum, which can drive development in sectors including medical, biotechnology, and even cosmetics. “Beyond medicine, this model will open up endless possibilities in many other industries, driving biological discoveries in ways that are just beginning,” Vert said. Bioptimus’ latest cash injection was led by US venture capital firm Cathay Innovation, with participation from Sofinnova Partners, Bpifrance, Andera Partners, Hitachi Ventures, Boom Capital Ventures, Pomifer Capital, Sunrise, and several angel investors.
Bioptimus raises $41M to develop ‘GPT for biology’
