Swiss BioTech FluoSphera Secures €1.23 Million for AI-Driven Drug Discovery

Geneva-based biotech startup FluoSphera has secured €1.23 million in funding to advance its animal-free drug discovery platform. Led by Soulmates Ventures and a Swiss business angel, with participation from IndieBio New York, the investment will accelerate the commercialization of the company’s multi-tissue technology. This spin-off from the University of Geneva aims to replace ineffective animal models with high-throughput, human-relevant testing.

The new capital is specifically allocated toward scaling commercial collaborations with pharmaceutical firms and growing the internal business development team. FluoSphera plans to expand its presence across the United States and Europe, while taking initial steps to enter the Asian market. By integrating its platform into drug development pipelines, the company hopes to significantly reduce the high failure rates seen in clinical trials.

A core component of the expansion involves advancing AI and automation capabilities for large-scale imaging analysis. The platform utilizes AI to manage High-Content Screening, enabling researchers to process complex visual data from multi-tissue interactions. These algorithms help untangle how up to seven different tissue types communicate in a single well, identifying systemic toxicities that traditional methods often miss.

By predicting drug effects in a human-like way, the patented platform helps developers identify promising molecules earlier in the R&D process. This shift is expected to save drug developers hundreds of millions of dollars per molecule while aligning with new regulatory frameworks like the FDA Modernization Act 3.0. CEO Dr. Clélia Bourgoint noted that the goal is to bring safer treatments to patients faster by improving human relevance in preclinical tools.