Generare funding news – Paris-based Generare Secures €5Million in Seed Funding

Based on ten years of award-winning research in computational biology, synthetic biology, and DNA sequencing, Generare has developed a data-driven discovery platform. It uses genetically modified soil-dwelling bacteria to quickly and efficiently identify previously undiscovered bioactive compounds known as Natural Products (NPs).

In the past, NPs were considered the gold standard for drug discovery; an excellent example is penicillin. They have produced more than 500 anticancer, antibiotic, and immunosuppressive medications; yet, despite the fact that compounds derived from microorganisms have a 100x higher chance of being approved for use than those derived from plants or chemistry, research on them has stalled recently.

Surprisingly, 97% of the chemical variety of microorganisms is yet unexplored. As a result, pharmaceutical behemoths, like Novartis, are placing bets on the potential of "nature's medicine chest" to advance drug discovery.

Generare is employing shotgun cloning to split thousands of genomes into millions of random fragments rather than focussing on particular gene clusters or synthesising molecules one at a time, which is a common, but slow, expensive, and limited method. To find out if any of these fragments encode compounds with bioactive qualities, including antibiotic or anticancer actions, they can all be cloned and examined simultaneously.

Generare can now express hundreds of gene clusters simultaneously thanks to this method, which exponentially increases the likelihood of finding bioactive compounds. Additionally, it starts a positive feedback loop of discovery since Generare learns more about which clusters are most likely to produce profitable chemicals as it collects more information.

The group will be able to concentrate on the most fruitful samples and increase Generare's expanding molecular "library" in this way. As a result, there is a greater likelihood that the unique molecules will be "first-in-class" entities.

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The company and Aurobac Therapeutics, a French biotech, have partnered to speed up the search and development of new medications. The esteemed European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant, which is granted to projects with exceptional potential and a high degree of competition, was recently bestowed upon founder Vincent. Generare was also chosen a 2024 recipient of the i-Lab Prize, which is given to the most promising deeptech ventures in France, earlier this year.

The Seed money will be used to fund the platform's pilot project in order to develop the blueprints for Generare's discovery factory, which will industrialise the company's methodology and technology, as well as to further enhance Generare's technology and add to its library of biosynthetic genetic clusters. Additionally, the company is hiring abroad for its lab and engineering teams.

Guillaume Vandenesch, CEO, Generare.bio said: "At Generare, we are unlocking nature’s untapped potential, translating the complexity of microbial DNA into a scalable platform that can transform drug discovery. By leveraging cutting-edge biotechnology and data, we are accelerating the identification of new bioactive molecules, for medicine and beyond. This funding will allow us to accelerate our progress and achieve a transformation in the rate at which new viable drugs based on Natural Products can be discovered.”

Romain Vidal at Teampact.ventures said: “Generare's cohesive, mission-driven team embodies our philosophy that teamwork wins championships. Its blend of scientific excellence, innovative thinking, and collaborative leadership positions the team to revolutionise natural product discovery. We are confident that the Generare team will bring about a positive shift in how new medicines are developed harnessing nature's ingenuity.”

Willy Braun at Galion.Exe said: “Generare is unlocking a vast reservoir of diverse, high-value bacterial molecules offering tremendous breakthrough potential in medicine, cosmetics, and agriculture. By harnessing shotgun cloning to capture complete DNA from multiple genomes at once, their platform eliminates the high costs of DNA synthesis and prevents the redundant rediscovery of already-known compounds, making it a true game changer in the industry”

About Generare

Generare has developed a revolutionary platform that identifies and expresses a wide range of naturally occurring secondary metabolites, selected by millions of years of bacterial evolution. This platform allows them to reintroduce these lead molecules into clinical pipelines, reopening a validated avenue for therapeutic innovation.