French biotech startup Phagos has raised €25 million in a Series A funding round co-led by CapAgro, Hoxton Ventures, CapHorn, and Demeter, with additional support from Acurio Ventures, Citizen Capital, Entrepreneur First, Founders Capital, and Station F.
The investment will help Phagos expand its veterinary treatments, strengthen its AI technology, and scale globally across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. The company will deploy the funds to advance its veterinary phage therapy solutions and enhance research and development for future AI-powered innovations.
Phagos has already begun collaborating with key industry partners, a critical step for driving the adoption of phage therapy across markets. It also plans to grow its predominantly scientific and technical team to support platform development and treatment launches.
The overarching goal is to address bacterial diseases, starting with animal health and ultimately expanding into human healthcare.
Combating antibiotic resistance with innovation
Phagos was founded in 2021 by CEO Alexandros Pantalis and CTO Dr. Adèle James. The company develops bacteriophage-based therapies, viruses that naturally target and kill bacteria, as a sustainable and precise alternative to antibiotics, which are increasingly losing effectiveness globally.
Bacterial infections remain a leading cause of death and are responsible for substantial losses in animal health and food production. The growing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) crisis is estimated to cause millions of deaths annually and could cost the global economy up to $100 trillion by 2050. Alarmingly, in livestock alone, one in three antibiotics no longer works, a threefold increase since 2000.
Phagos’ platform uniquely combines microbiology with artificial intelligence to design personalised phage treatments that adapt alongside evolving resistant bacteria. This dynamic approach differentiates Phagos from competitors like Eligo Bioscience and Locus Biosciences, who also focus on phage therapies but lack comparable regulatory milestones and integrated AI capabilities.
Focus on the animal health sector
The company’s initial focus is the animal health market, heavily impacted by antibiotic inefficiency, with a longer-term ambition to develop human health solutions.
Phagos became the first company authorised to market personalised phage-based veterinary drugs in the European Union, marking a notable regulatory breakthrough. Its patented AI technology analyses entire genomes of both phages and bacteria, predicting interactions to optimise and tailor therapies.
“We are convinced that phage therapy can transform the history of medicine just as antibiotics did in the last century. This funding gives us the means to accelerate our mission and make this alternative accessible, fast, and effective against the rise of bacterial resistance.
Thanks to our regulatory breakthroughs and our patented platform combining microbiology and artificial intelligence, we now have the opportunity to establish phage therapy as a global reference solution: for animal health today, and for human health tomorrow,” said Alexandros Pantalis and Adèle James, co-founders of Phagos.
