Recalls in the food and beverage industry due to contamination can have devastating consequences. Companies not only face fines and damages, but their brand reputation can suffer long-term harm.
Spore.Bio, a Paris-based deeptech startup, aims to revolutionize microbiology testing to prevent such crises. After raising an €8 million pre-seed round ($8.3 million) over a year ago, the company has now secured a $23 million Series A round.
The round is led by Singular, with participation from Point 72 Ventures, 1st Kind Ventures (the Peugeot family office), Station F, and Lord David Prior. Existing investors LocalGlobe, No Label Ventures, and Famille C also contributed additional funds.
Spore.Bio’s rapid fundraising success is driven by genuine customer interest. The startup has signed several commercial contracts covering up to 200 factories and had to create a waitlist to manage demand.
What sets Spore.Bio’s technology apart? Traditional microbiological tests in the food and beverage industry take several days, requiring samples to be sent to specialized labs.
“Imagine, in 2022, everything is hyper-optimized. Lean manufacturing is everywhere, with every step counted in minutes. Then, suddenly, you have a 5-day test in the agri-food sector and a 14-day test in the pharmaceutical and cosmetics sectors because you have to wait for bacteria to grow,” co-founder and CEO Amine Raji told TechCrunch.
Testing must occur offsite to avoid contaminating other factory areas, and bacteria incubation takes time.
Spore.Bio uses a different approach. The company sends light at specific wavelengths through a sample and records the spectral signature. A pre-trained deep learning algorithm then detects any bacteria or pathogens in the sample.
This model is Spore.Bio’s key asset. The startup has partnered with the Pasteur Institute to access its biobank of bacteria samples.
In the coming months, Spore.Bio plans to manufacture testing machines for use directly in factories, reducing the testing process from days to minutes.
Before founding Spore.Bio, Raji was a food and beverage manufacturing engineer working for Nestlé. He naturally focused on the industry he already knew. But it turns out that microbiology testing is much larger than anticipated.
Companies manufacturing cosmetic products have also expressed interest in Spore.Bio’s technology. “Manufacturers need to get rid of preservatives due to customer demands, environmental concerns and other reasons. Except that preservatives are bacteria-killing preservatives,” Raji said.
Similarly, the pharma industry found a use case for its most advanced treatments. “There is a growing need, especially for innovative therapies, such as gene and cell therapy,” Raji said. He added that these products tend to have a short shelf life, which can be as low as seven days. So these therapies can’t go through the usual testing processes in such a short timeframe.
With today’s funding round, the startup expects to significantly grow its team. There are currently 30 people working for the company, and they will be 50 by the end of 2025.
