Paris Startup Rivercell Raises $25M to Build AI Virtual Cell

Jan de Vries · 2026-10-07

What if we could predict how your cells will react to a drug before you ever swallow a pill? That's the big bet behind Rivercell, a Paris-based biotech and AI company that just stepped out of stealth with $25 million in seed funding. The round was led by HV, with HCVC, Alven, and Bpifrance Digital Venture chipping in. The plan? Scale up their data-generation platform, expand their wet lab in Paris, and launch an AI Virtual Cell program. ### Why a World Model of the Cell Matters "A world model of the cell is the opportunity of the century in medicine," says Yann Fleureau, co-founder and CEO. "The missing piece is data: how cells change over time and under treatment, seen through multiple lenses and at multiple layers, captured at scale." In plain English: we need to watch cells closely, over time, to teach AI how they behave. Rivercell's platform produces interventional, time-resolved, multimodal single-cell data at scale. That data trains their AI world model, which they call AIVC (AI virtual cell). The goal is to simulate how human cells respond to drugs or genetic changes, reducing the need for physical lab experiments. ### The European AI Drug Discovery Wave Rivercell isn't alone. European startups are racing to combine AI, proprietary biological data, and automated experimentation. This year alone, EU-Startups has tracked roughly $109 million across related financings. That includes: - Adaptyv Bio in Lausanne: $37 million Series A for an automated AI-native wet lab - Helical in London: $9 million seed for a virtual AI lab - Sightera Biosciences in Antwerp: $3.3 million pre-seed for an AI drug-discovery platform - Generare in Paris: $22 million to scale molecular-data and drug-discovery - WhiteLab Genomics: $25 million to expand AI-driven genomic medicine The pattern is clear: investors are betting big on the combo of biological data generation, computational models, and experimental validation. ### The Team Behind the Vision Rivercell was founded in 2026 by Yann Fleureau and Eric Durand. Fleureau previously co-founded Cardiologs, an AI diagnostics company that Philips acquired in a nine-figure deal in 2021. Durand was director of oncology data science at Novartis and chief data science officer at Owkin before co-founding Bioptimus, a bio foundation model company that raised $76 million. "Yann and Eric bring exactly this combination of expertise," says Maxi Pethö-Schramm, Principal at HV. "With its footing in both Paris's AI ecosystem and Basel's pharma cluster, Rivercell is uniquely positioned to lead." ### The Bigger Picture Drug discovery is slow and expensive. The industry reportedly spends nearly $300 billion on R&D each year. A single drug can take years to develop. Rivercell's long-term goal is to fundamentally change that by accelerating and redesigning the process. If their AI virtual cell works, it could mean faster, cheaper treatments for everyone. And that's something worth watching.