Microbiology testing startup Spore.Bio has raised $23 million Series A, bringing its total funding to date to $31.3 million.
Recent years have seen a sharp rise in product recalls and contamination incidents across the FMCG industry.
These events not only pose serious public health risks but also cost companies billions in damages, regulatory fines, and lost consumer trust - with an average cost of recall reaching $10 million. Manufacturers are under growing pressure to enhance their quality control processes and adopt more efficient, proactive solutions.
While current microbiological tests typically take between five and 20 days and require samples to be sent off-site to external labs at great time and financial expense, Spore.Bio offers an immediate and on-site solution.
Its device leverages advanced machine learning models to measure bacterial concentrations in food, beverages, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetic products, alerting quality managers to potential risks. Using Spore.Bio’s technology, coupled with its internally developed dashboard, manufacturers gain near real-time insights with unprecedented traceability and transparency.
Founded in 2023, Spore.Bio is led by:
- Amine Raji, CEO, food and beverage manufacturing engineer who has spent 6 years in Nestlé factories, witnessing the problem firsthand.
- Maxime Mistretta, CTO, PhD graduate and postdoc in microbiology from the Pasteur Institute.
- Mohamed Tazi, COO, second-time founder who previously successfully sold his company Gymlib to EGYM.
In 2024, the company successfully developed and validated its first prototypes in its lab, ensuring the devices met performance standards before deploying them globally in partner factories. It is now supporting its first customers, ensuring smooth prototype installations and providing hands-on assistance during the validation process and a waitlist for future deployments.
On top of commercial partners, Spore.Bio has an academic partnership with Pasteur Institute, boosting its capabilities with the Pasteur Institute biobank and renowned know-how.
Spore.Bio also acquired competitors, Greentropism, to capitalise on their technical expertise and IP.
Looking ahead to 2025, Spore.Bio plans to double its workforce from 25 to 50 world-class scientists and engineers, focused on the next crucial steps: scaling up the industrialisation process, continuing to iterate with existing customers and preparing for commercialisation before the end of the year.
Amine Raji, CEO and co-founder of Spore.Bio said:
"AI is nice for chatbots and LLMs, but some amazing, niche applications are paving the way of deep changes in certain industries, especially science-related industries.
We are proud of being an example of it, while having developed in only one year our proprietary AI-based technology that manages to do what existing technologies couldn’t for two centuries.
We will keep on fighting to pursue our one and only goal: make every consumer product safe all around the world using our technology."
The oversubscribed round saw participation from Point 72 Ventures, 1st Kind Ventures (Peugeot Family Office), Station F and Lord David Prior (ex Chair NHS); alongside continued support by existing investors including LocalGlobe, No Label Ventures, Famille C (Clarins Family Office).
According to Raffi Kamber, General Partner at Singular:
"Originally developed for the Food & Beverage sector, Spore.bio is now also reshaping microbiological detection in pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.
We are confident it will be a driving force in the future of integrated testing across industries and are excited to support and witness this transformation."
Lead image: Spore.Bio. Photo: uncredited.
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