GenSensor, a French deeptech startup, which optimises the development and production of biomedicines, has snapped €2 million in funding. The round was led by GO Capital, Sodero Gestion, and Bpifrance, which has backed Mistral AI and MICROOLED.
With this fundraising, GenSensor will finalise the industrial development of its robot and will be able to deploy the first applications in the field of gene therapy, vaccines, and then antibody production.
“Our development methods are guided by strong environmental, human, and technological convictions: trusting our local talents, helping to train in new analytical methods in order to understand the challenges of genomics and data in an industrial context,” added Charles Hébert, CEO of the company.
“GenSensor was born out of a shared passion with my partner Charles for innovative DNA sequencing technologies in the service of health and strong expectations from bioproduction manufacturers. By bringing together a brilliant multidisciplinary team and an ecosystem of loyal partners, we want to support the biological medicine industry towards a 4.0 model,” commented Jean-Marie Charpin, President of GenSensor.
“GenSensor responds to territorial development issues with an environmental, social, and technological concern that echoes our convictions. Its first-rate management team now has a solid implementation capacity while being guided by a concrete vision of biotechnological innovation. By investing alongside this start-up, we are now actively contributing to the formation of a new generation industry in France,” explained Alexandre Boulay, an investor at GO Capital.
“The competitive solution offered by GenSensor meets the current and future challenges of drug bioproduction players. We were seduced by the clarity of the leaders’ vision and are delighted to support the GenSensor team in this decisive project for health, which would promote the use of innovative drugs, gene, and cell therapy”, concluded Valérie Allain-Dupré and Laura Bartkowiak, Sodero Gestion.
Robot for production of biomedicines
Founded in 2021 by Jean-Marie Charpin and Charles Hébert in Nantes, France, GenSensor aspires to become the essential partner for producers of innovative drugs and, more broadly, to meet the challenge of reindustrialising the production of these drugs in France, thus promoting their development, manufacture, and use.
It has been developing an innovative system for measuring biological parameters during the production of biological drugs: monoclonal antibodies, vaccines, and gene therapy vectors. Being the first automated online robot for real-time measurement of biological parameters, it integrates all test steps from sampling to bioinformatics analysis.
By combining state-of-the-art technologies in microfluidics, robotics, sequencing, and bioinformatics, GenSensor identifies biomarkers of bioreactor health. As a true genomic companion, the company participates in securing the production of biomolecules at all stages of their development.
The deployment of this robot, and the optimisation of the associated bioproduction performances, will make it possible to reduce the ecological impact of the latter and to take full advantage of the potential of these new innovative therapies by facilitating their access to patients.
