Generare has secured €20 million to decode 97% of microbial chemistry.

      The Paris-based techbio firm Generare analyzes microbial genomes to uncover molecules that have been refined by evolution over three billion years, asserting that it has identified more novel small molecules in 2025 than all other competitors combined. The Series A funding round was co-led by Alven and Daphni.

      Generare, which specializes in evaluating microbial genomes for previously inaccessible drug development molecules, has secured €20 million in a Series A financing round co-led by Alven and Daphni. All existing investors, including Galion.exe, Teampact Ventures, and VIVES Partners, also participated in this new round.

      The company was established by CEO Guillaume Vandenesch and CSO Dr. Vincent Libis, who has a decade's worth of experience in synthetic biology research, as well as previous co-founding experience at Abolis Biotechnologies, and has received ERC grant funding. This funding round follows a €5 million seed round in 2024.

      While the scientific concept is clear, the technical hurdles are significant. Microorganisms, including bacteria and fungi, encode molecular chemistry in their genetic material, which represents biological blueprints for small molecules shaped by an extensive evolutionary history.

      These compounds were historically crucial for drug discovery, with penicillin being the most notable microbial-derived medicine. However, traditional chemistry-based methods have only been able to access a small fraction of this chemistry.

      Generare estimates that around 97% of the molecular chemistry found in microbial genomes remains uncharacterized. The company's platform employs high-throughput cloning and sequencing technology, which has been validated through ERC-funded academic research and peer-reviewed articles, to screen tens of thousands of microbial genomes. It identifies gene sequences likely to yield bioactive molecules, expresses these genes, and characterizes the resulting compounds in terms of their structure, biological activity, and drug potential.

      According to the company, it has identified over 200 previously unknown small molecules and claims its success rate aligns with the most fruitful drug discovery programs in history. Furthermore, it states that in 2025, it characterized five times more novel molecules than all other competitors combined.

      These figures come from company reports rather than independent audits, but the scientific methodology has been validated: TechCrunch’s 2024 coverage of the seed round confirmed the cloning and biosynthetic techniques used, as well as Dr. Libis’s credentials from Rockefeller University and his role as an INSERM team leader.

      Collaborators include unnamed pharmaceutical and agrochemical firms, described as "some of the world's most recognizable pharmaceutical companies."

      The €20 million raised in the Series A will support a ten-fold expansion of the molecule library by 2027, increasing from approximately 200 to over 2,000 compounds, with a long-term goal of reaching 10,000.

      The team of 25, which consists of computational biologists, chemists, synthetic biologists, technicians, and engineers from France, the UK, the US, Germany, and Australia, will nearly double in size.

      Advisors include Dr. Frank Petersen, former Executive Director of Novartis's Natural Products Chemistry Department, and Professor Nadine Ziemert, recognized as one of Europe’s leading experts on microbial biosynthetic gene clusters.

      The strategic rationale hinges on data: AI drug discovery models trained on existing, recycled chemistry are likely to yield similar outcomes repeatedly. However, providing them with genuinely novel structures that show biological activity significantly enhances the potential for innovative results.