Paris-based Spore.Bio, a DeepTech startup that developed a proprietary AI technology in microbiology testing, announced today it has secured a €22 million Series A funding round to transform quality control in manufacturing
The oversubscribed funding round was led by VC firm Singular, with participation from Point 72 Ventures, 1st Kind Ventures (Peugeot Family Office), Station F and Lord David Prior (ex Chair NHS); alongside continued support by existing investors including LocalGlobe, No Label Ventures, and Famille C (Clarins Family Office).
The new funding follows a €7.9 million pre-Seed round led by LocalGlobe in December 2023, bringing the total funding to date to €29.9 million.
Amine Raji, CEO and Co-founder of Spore.Bio said: “AI is nice for chatbots and LLMs, but some amazing, niche applications are paving the way of deep changes in certain industries, especially science-related industries. We are proud of being an example of it, while having developed in only one year our proprietary AI-based technology that manages to do what existing technologies couldn’t for two centuries. We will keep on fighting to pursue our one and only goal: make every consumer product safe all around the world using our technology.”
Founded in 2023, Spore.Bio has developed a proprietary AI technology in microbiology testing. It was founded by Amine Raji, CEO, a food and beverage manufacturing engineer who has spent 6 years in Nestlé factories; Maxime Mistretta, CTO, a PhD graduate and postdoc in microbiology from the Pasteur Institute; and Mohamed Tazi, COO, a second-time Founder who previously sold his company Gymlib to EGYM.
According to Spore.bio recent years have seen a sharp rise in product recalls and contamination incidents across the FMCG industry – +20% of recalls in 2024. These events potentially pose serious public health risks and cost companies “billions in damages, regulatory fines, and lost consumer trust” – with an average cost of recall reaching €9.5 million.
While current microbiological tests typically take between five and 20 days and require samples to be sent off-site to external labs, Spore.Bio reportedly offers an immediate and on-site solution. Its device leverages advanced machine learning models to measure bacterial concentrations in food, beverages, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetic products, alerting quality managers to potential risks.
Using Spore.Bio’s technology, coupled with its internally developed dashboard, manufacturers gain near real-time insights with unprecedented traceability and transparency.
With more than 200 factories currently in scope, Spore.Bio has opened a waitlist for future deployments.
On top of commercial partners, Spore.Bio secured an academic partnership with Pasteur Institute, a leading Microbiology institute. This partnership will allow to open up the capabilities of Spore.Bio’s technology, boosted with Pasteur Institute biobank.
Spore.Bio also completed the acquisition of one of its competitors, Greentropism, to capitalise on their technical expertise and IP. Greentropism had previously raised €3 million.
Looking ahead to 2025, Spore.Bio plans to double its workforce from 25 to 50 world-class scientists and engineers, focused on the next crucial steps: scaling up the industrialisation process, continuing to iterate with existing customers and preparing for commercialisation before the end of the year.
Raffi Kamber, General Partner at Singular said: “Originally developed for the Food & Beverage sector, Spore.bio is now also reshaping microbiological detection in pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. With a founding team that blends research and industrial expertise, it is redefining speed, precision, and scalability setting new standards. We are confident it will be a driving force in the future of integrated testing across industries and are excited to support and witness this transformation.”