Spore.Bio, a French deeptech company, has raised $23 million in Series A funding to revolutionize microbiology testing in the food, beverage, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical industries. This technology aims to prevent costly product recalls and reputational damage caused by contamination incidents.
Spore.Bio’s technology utilizes machine learning and spectral analysis to detect bacteria and pathogens in samples within minutes, significantly reducing the traditional testing time of several days or even weeks. This technology is a major breakthrough, as current methods require sending samples to external labs for time-consuming petri-dish testing.
Amine Raji, Spore.Bio’s CEO, emphasized the urgent need for faster microbiology testing due to the high-stakes nature of food and beverage manufacturing. The company’s partnership with the Pasteur Institute has provided access to a vast database of bacteria samples, enabling the training of its deep learning algorithm for accurate pathogen detection.
Beyond the food and beverage sector, Spore.Bio’s technology has attracted interest from manufacturers of cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. Raji noted the growing demand for preservative-free products in cosmetics and the need for efficient testing in pharmaceuticals, especially for therapies with short shelf lives.
With the funding, Spore.Bio plans to expand its team from 30 to 50 by the end of 2025 and develop portable testing machines that customers can use in their facilities. This advancement will further reduce testing time and improve the efficiency of quality control processes across various industries.
Original source: Read the full article on TechCrunch
