Bioptimus Bags $41M to Create AI for Biology

A young French AI startup, Bioptimus, has snagged $41 million to build a special AI model for biology. Think of it like a super-smart tool for understanding and predicting biological stuff, from tiny molecules to whole organisms. The challenge? Biological data is sensitive and not easy to get. But Bioptimus wants to use this AI to help scientists predict diseases and find better treatments. France is becoming a hotspot for AI startups, with companies like Mistral AI and Hugging Face raising big bucks. Bioptimus, founded just last year, has already raised $76 million. Their team includes experts like Rodolphe Jenatton, who worked at Amazon and Google. Bioptimus started with a $35 million seed round and has since launched H-Optimus-0, an open-source model for pathology. With the new $41 million, Bioptimus plans to add more data to their AI platform and partner with pharmaceutical companies. They're also working on a new model that will cover the entire biological spectrum. This could revolutionize not just medicine but also cosmetics and other industries.