The Warsaw-based biotech startup Deepflare has raised a €1.5 million pre-seed round to accelerate mRNA vaccine development using AI and Machine Learning models. Sunfish Partners led the equity part of the funding round, Tech.eu reports.
- Founded in 2020 by Piotr Grzegorczyk, Grzegorz Preibisch, and Stanisław Giziński, Deepflare was first launched to develop testing for COVID-19. Now the company uses AI technology and ML models to develop mRNA vaccines and drugs against other viral diseases.
- Deepflare’s platform analyses millions of viruses, predicts future mutations, and quickly finds mRNA sequences to contain in a drug and vaccine. That helps pharmaceutical companies to develop better, more effective vaccines and tests.
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw an unprecedented pace of vaccine and drug development worldwide and massive adoption of mRNA vaccines. We’ve developed AI technology and ML models that help both accelerate the drug development process and increase vaccine efficacy against other variants of the viruses,”
Deepflare CEO and co-founder, Piotr Grzegorczyk, talks about the startup.
- The €1.5 million pre-seed funding consisted of equity funding and R&D grants. Sunfish Partners, an early-stage VC investing in deep tech startups, led the equity funding. The firm previously invested in the Polish legaltech startup Pergamin and led the round for the document automation platform Alphamoon.
- Estonian VC Lemonade Stand and angel investors Przemek Kowalczyk and Szymon Sypniewicz, co-founders of Ramp, also joined in the round. Polish National Centre for Research and Development, as well as Polish Development Fund, provided the R&D grants.
- Deepflare will use the fresh funding to accelerate the development of its technology, as well as expand its operations internationally.
