Software / AI

Algocell

© Algocell

Algocell Secures $2.8M in Pre-Seed Funding to Optimize Bioprocessing with AI

Algocell, an Israeli startup focused on AI-driven bioprocess optimization, has raised $2.8 million in pre-seed funding to advance its platform for accelerating the scale-up and efficiency of cell-based manufacturing. The funding round was led by Good Company VC (GCVC) and includes a non-dilutive grant from the Israel Innovation Authority, with participation from several angel investors with sector-specific expertise. AI-powered bioprocess optimization The startup, founded in 2023, specializes in developing an AI-powered Digital Twin platform designed to optimize bioprocess development in industries such as cultivated meat, precision fermentation, biofuels, and cosmetics. This platform leverages machine learning models to improve experimentation speed, process control, and product consistency, even with small datasets. Omri Schanin, CEO and co-founder of Algocell, noted the need for more efficient approaches in cell-based …

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SMEY Neobank of Yeasts

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SMEY Launches AI-Driven ‘Neobank of Yeasts’ to Speed Up Creation of Cultivated Oils

SMEY, a biotech company based in France and Germany, has launched NOY (Neobank of Yeasts), a digital databank of yeast fatty acid profiles designed to streamline the development of sustainable cultivated oils. The platform enables manufacturers to quickly identify yeast strains that naturally produce specific oils, drastically reducing the research and development time for creating tailored oils for use in food, cosmetics, and industrial applications. Traditionally, producing a new oil through genetic engineering could take up to two years. With NOY, SMEY has reduced this process to a mere 30 days. Instead of altering yeast to produce a desired oil, the system searches a proprietary database of over 1,000 curated yeast strains to find those that already generate the required oil, expediting the development cycle. …

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Planet stock

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Bezos Earth Fund Awards 24 Grants Totaling $1.2M for AI-Driven Climate Solutions

The Bezos Earth Fund has awarded 24 Phase I grants under its AI Grand Challenge for Climate and Nature, an initiative that aims to use artificial intelligence to accelerate solutions to the world’s biggest environmental challenges. Each chosen project will receive $50,000, taking the total amount of funding granted to $1.2 million. Later this year, up to 15 of the most promising will be selected for Phase II, receiving implementation grants of $2 million each to further develop and scale their solutions over a two-year period. The AI Grand Challenge has been launched with a commitment of up to $100 million, and will explore the potential of AI to address issues such as climate change and biodiversity loss. It focuses on sustainable proteins, power grid …

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AltProtein.Jobs platform

© Tälist

AI-Powered Hiring Service AltProtein.Jobs Now Available to Employers for Free

Tälist, the creator of AI-powered hiring platform AltProtein.Jobs, has announced that the service is now free to use for employers in the alternative protein industry thanks to support from mission-aligned donors. With AltProtein.Jobs, Tälist aims to address challenges such as limited budgets, small founding teams, and competition for a small pool of highly skilled candidates. The hiring process on the platform is as follows: “Right now are not easy times for many businesses in the space – but some things should be easy,” said Pia Voltz, founder and CEO of Tälist. “Hiring the right people, especially in purpose-driven fields, shouldn’t be a burden. That’s why we’ve made it simpler, faster, and now also completely free.” Mission-aligned tools The platform is optimized for companies in the …

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Accelerating Sustainability Summit

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Icos Capital & Bühler Hold Accelerating Sustainability Summit, Connecting Dozens of Biotech Companies

On March 28, climate venture tech capital fund Icos Capital held the Accelerating Sustainability Summit at Bühler’s CUBIC Innovation Campus in Uzwil, Switzerland. The event brought together investors, industry leaders, and startups from the biotech sector with the aim of accelerating sustainable solutions and harnessing the power of artificial intelligence. By establishing an ecosystem of collaboration and innovation, Icos and Bühler hope to help startups scale up their efforts to tackle urgent and complex challenges in the food industry. The startups that attended the event included BioRaptor, a bioprocessing data analytics platform, and Triplebar, which creates generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) models to design strains for protein production. “At Icos Capital, we aim to uncover and invest in cutting-edge innovations to drive sustainability forward,” said Nityen …

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Differential Bio

© Differential Bio

Munich Startup Differential Bio Raises €2 Million to Transform Biomanufacturing With AI

Munich-based AI biotech startup Differential Bio has emerged from stealth to redefine biomanufacturing with its Virtual Scale-up Platform. The platform integrates advanced microbiology, lab automation, and artificial intelligence to eliminate bottlenecks in biomanufacturing. It aims to overcome one of the most significant hurdles in the industry — the slowness and expense of scaling bioprocesses from lab to industrial levels. Differential Bio has already raised €2 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Ananda Impact Ventures and ReGen Ventures. Other participants included Carbon13, Climate Capital, Better Ventures, CDTM Ventures, and a prominent group of angel investors. The Virtual Scale-up Platform brings together three core innovations — advanced microbiology to miniaturize fermentation processes, robotics to automate lab workflows and generate high-quality data, and AI algorithms to …

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Webtalk Recording: AI Food System – Driving Change Through Intelligent Systems

In our latest webtalk, industry leaders delved into the transformative potential of AI in the food sector, highlighting its game-changing role in new product development and waste reduction. Panelists shared their “AI moments,” revealing how advancements in artificial intelligence are accelerating development timelines—from 9 months to as little as 90 days and less—and enabling companies to stay competitive by optimizing processes and improving efficiency. The conversation also explored how ingredient and food companies can leverage AI to harness data for better decision-making, while acknowledging the limitations of these technologies. With powerful examples from the agricultural sector, the panel discussed how the industry is more open to sharing data and the importance of peer-to-peer learning and collaboration in unlocking the full potential of AI. Despite the …

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