Paris-based BioTech company WhiteLab Genomics, which uses AI to design the building blocks of genomic medicines, has closed a €23.2 million ($26 million) Series B funding round.
The Round
The round was led by AVP, an independent global investment platform managing over €2.5 billion in assets. New investors Yaday Health and Blast Club joined, alongside existing backers Omnes Capital and Debiopharm Innovation Fund.
François Robinet, managing partner of AVP, said: “WhiteLab is building AI that designs genomic medicines that actually work in vivo, not just on paper. AI is about to have a real, tangible impact on genomic medicine and to contribute meaningfully to the development of new therapies. The combination of computational design, experimental validation and the ability to translate those designs into differentiated bio-assets is what attracted us to the company. We are very excited to join the journey and support David and the team as they enter this next phase.”
Alongside the funding, AVP’s Robinet and Dr. Daniel Teper, managing partner of Yaday Health and founder/CEO of NAYA Therapeutics, will join WhiteLab’s Board of Directors.
The Technology
Founded in 2019 by David Del Bourgo, Lucia Cinque, and Julien Cottineau, the Y Combinator-backed company works at the intersection of AI and biology. Its proprietary platform, ALFRED (AI-Led Framework for Rational Exploration in Drug Design), targets one of genomic medicine’s most stubborn problems: getting a therapy safely and effectively to the right cells in the body.
Using ALFRED, WhiteLab designs and optimises both viral and non-viral delivery vehicles, such as adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) and lipid nanoparticles, as well as programmable genetic payloads. It then validates and tests them experimentally in vivo.
Early Results
Working with the Paris Brain Institute, WhiteLab used ALFRED to engineer novel AAVs that, in in vivo studies, crossed the blood-brain barrier with a strong brain-to-liver targeting ratio and no detectable liver signal. That is a significant result, as the brain is one of the hardest organs to reach with medicines.
At the upcoming European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ESGCT) Annual Congress, WhiteLab will present further in vivo data from collaborations with Sanofi, Cytiva (Danaher), the Paris Brain Institute, and Institut Imagine.
Del Bourgo, co-founder and CEO, said: “AI can help us design better genomic medicines, but what ultimately matters is whether those designs work in living systems. We have already presented compelling results.”
What’s Next
The new capital will fund the expansion of in vivo validation beyond AAVs to non-viral delivery technologies and programmable synthetic promoters. WhiteLab will also strengthen its Boston hub for North American biopharma partnerships, grow its West Coast presence, and explore opportunities in Japan and South Korea.
Operating from Paris, Boston, and Montreal, the company aims to build a portfolio of experimentally validated bio-assets to advance independently and with pharma and biotech partners. It sees precise delivery unlocking potential treatments for conditions ranging from Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease to ALS, lysosomal storage diseases, and glioblastoma.
Del Bourgo added: “This financing allows us to scale that work across multiple delivery technologies and payloads, build a portfolio of validated bio-assets and bring them to biopharma partners around the world.”
