Paris-based biotech Rivercell has raised a $25m seed round to build an AI model that understands and predicts the behaviour of human cells. The company says the model could significantly boost drug discovery efforts by helping researchers simulate cellular responses before running physical experiments.
The startup was founded by an alum of Owkin, the French AI-driven drug discovery company. The seed round will support development of what Rivercell describes as a "world model" for human cells, a type of AI system trained on large-scale biological data to learn general patterns of cell activity.
According to the Sifted report, Rivercell's approach is distinct from more traditional AI models in biotech, which often focus on narrow tasks. The company aims to build a broader foundation model that can be adapted across many use cases in drug development, potentially shortening timelines and reducing costs.
The funding round is an early signal of investor interest in foundation models for biology, an area that has attracted growing attention as AI tools move from text and images into the life sciences. Rivercell's seed raise suggests that investors see promise in applying world-model techniques to cellular data.