Generare, a biotech uncovering the next generation of medicines and high-value molecules hiding in soil bacteria, has raised €5M in Seed funding from Teampact.ventures, Galion.Exe and EU-backed VIVES Partners, to bring its “discovery factory” to life. Synbioven, Saras Capital and Better Angle also participated among a host of renowned business angels.

Generare’s data-driven discovery platform is built on a decade of award-winning research into synthetic biology, DNA sequencing, and computational biology. It takes bacteria found in soil and breaks down their genetic code to uncover untapped bioactive molecules, called Natural Products (NPs), at unprecedented speed.

NPs were once the gold-standard for drug-discovery; penicillin being a prime example. They have led to 500+ anticancer, antibiotics and immunosuppressive drugs, yet their discovery in recent years has plateaued even though molecules from microbes are 100x more likely to gain approval than those from plants or chemistry. Remarkably, 97% of the chemical diversity of microbes remains untapped, and pharmaceutical giants, notably Novartis, are making a bet on using “nature’s medicine chest” to empower the future of drug discovery.

Generare is reopening this critical avenue of discovery and doing so at scale. Using its patent-pending techniques it has already identified 100+ previously unknown molecules.

Instead of targeting specific gene clusters or synthesising compounds one at a time – a common, yet slow, expensive and constrained method – Generare is using shotgun cloning to break thousands of genomes into millions of random fragments. These fragments can each be cloned and analysed, in parallel, to see if they encode molecules with bioactive properties, such as antibiotic or anticancer effects.

This technique allows Generare to express hundreds of gene clusters at once, thereby increasing the chances of identifying bioactive molecules exponentially. It also creates a virtuous circle of discovery because when Generare gathers more data, it has a better understanding of which clusters are most likely to yield valuable molecules. In this way, the team can focus on the most productive samples and expand Generare’s growing molecular “library”. This increases the chances of the novel molecules having higher potential to be “first-in-class” entities.

The firm recently signed a partnership with French biotech, Aurobac Therapeutics, to accelerate the discovery and development of novel drugs.

Founder Vincent was recently awarded the prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant, a highly competitive award given to projects of excellence and groundbreaking potential. Earlier this year, Generare was also named a 2024 recipient of the i-Lab Prize for the most promising deeptech projects in France.

The Seed funding will be used to further refine the Generare technology, add to its library of biosynthetic genetic clusters and fund the platform’s pilot to prepare the blueprints for its discovery factory which will industrialise Generare’s approach and technology. The business is also hiring for its engineering and lab team internationally.

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”