NETRI INAUGURATES FRANCE’S FIRST ORGANS-ON-CHIP PLANT AND ANNOUNCES FUND RAISING OF €5 m

  • February 5, 2025
  • Laura Ejarque
  • 7 min read

Press Release

February 4, 2025

NETRI INAUGURATES FRANCE’S FIRST ORGANS-ON-CHIP PLANT AND ANNOUNCES FUND RAISING OF €5 m

Based on a decade of academic research, NETRI continues its ascent with the inauguration of its organs-on-chip production plant in Lyon, a first in France. Accompanied by €5m fund-raising, this new site marks a change of scale for the industrial start-up, which in just six years has become a key player throughout France and internationally, in the field of medical research and healthcare technologies.

Lyon, France, February 4, 2025– Building on the attractiveness of its technologies to major industrial groups, NETRI inaugurates France’s first organs-on-chip factory by choosing to set up in the Gerland biodistrict in the brand-new Bioserra 3 building, with over 1,100 m² of production laboratories.

Specially designed by property developer Vaillance and specialist equipment manufacturer Dominique Dutscher to meet NETRI’s needs for cleanroom microfabrication and P2 cell culture laboratories, these production units enable the industrial start-up, which until now had been housed in the Lyon Biopôle Innovation Center, to increase its capacity tenfold. Eventually, the production capacities of these laboratories will enable the company to produce and operate up to 500,000 organs-on-chip devices per year.

« This plant represents a crucial step forward for medical research in France and abroad. It will enable us to mass-produce organs-on-chip, making this technology accessible to a larger number of manufacturers, while strengthening French competitiveness in this strategic field.», says Thibault Honegger, CEO & Co-founder.

To support this industrial effort, NETRI is announcing the raising of €5 million from its historical investors, new private investors and banking partners. This industrial effort is also supported by the continuation of the “Axone” project, to the tune of €4.8m, within the framework of the “First Factory” scheme of France 2030 and operated by BPI France.

For this round of financing, NETRI was supported by Edmond de Rothschild’s bank, the law firm Bignon Lebray and SADEC-AKELYS’ auditors.

This change of scale also reflects NETRI’s clear ambitions and a long-term strategic vision shared with its investors.: « Thanks to our technological know-how, our unique positioning in the organs-on-chip market and pressing demand from regulatory bodies, we aim to achieve profitability within the next 12 months, with over 150% growth within 2 years, and become a key player on a national, European and international scale. I would particularly like to thank our historic investors for their support since our creation, and we welcome our new investors, who, in addition to their financial backing, bring us a strategic vision of the sector.», continues Thibault Honegger.

NETRI, the only player capable of digitizing human biology with its organs-on-chip combined with AI

Human neurons carry information from the organs to the central nervous system, relayed by the peripheral nervous system. Acting as sensors, they integrate biological information and transform it into digital signals.

Since 2018, NETRI has been taking advantage of this natural process to digitalize biology. NETRI’s organs-on-a-chip use human stem cells to innervate organs of interest, record neuronal data (known as digital signatures) and decode them using AI algorithms. By applying compounds or fluids, NETRI predicts efficacy, toxicity and diagnostics by comparing the signatures of drug candidates with the signatures present in its digital libraries. The results obtained offer multiple advantages, such as:

  • Significantly de-risking clinical phases
  • Accelerate preclinical phases
  • Limiting the use of animal models
  • Reposition drug candidates
  • Better targeting of patient cohorts during clinical phases
  • Diagnose complex diseases

In addition to its unique technologies, NETRI stands out for its value creation. « We market the ability to anticipate the clinical effect of a compound using standardized data from our devices. Today, we are the only French industrial player to use devices enabling the innervation of any organ, focusing on four markets: dermato-cosmetics, the effects of pain, neurological disorders and nutritional health. », adds Florian Larramendy, CTO and Co-founder.

NETRI, a symbol of French excellence, supported by numerous players:

NETRI is supported in its ambitions by a number of economic and regional players:

« We are proud to take part in the inauguration of NETRI’s first French organ-on-chip factory. By supporting this innovative company through a number of initiatives such as the Première Usine call for projects, operated within the framework of France 2030, and the Accélérateur Néo Startups Industrielles, we are helping to strengthen the competitiveness and excellence of medical research in France. This collaboration bears witness to our commitment to supporting tomorrow’s pioneers and fostering the emergence of cutting-edge technologies in the service of healthcare. », comments Matthieu Heslouin, Executive Director in charge of Support at Bpifrance.

« NETRI’s AXONE – Première Usine project is a perfect illustration of France 2030’s ambition to accelerate the industrialization of disruptive innovations. Thanks to this initiative, France now has an automated production capacity for organs-on-a-chip, an essential lever for the development of tomorrow’s biotherapies. », according to Bruno Bonnell, General Secretary for Investment in charge of France 2030.

ABOUT NETRI

NETRI, an industrial start-up, offers healthcare industries the ability to generate mini human organs on chip which, coupled with AI treatments, can predict the clinical effect of a drug candidate. NETRI offers its customers support throughout the development of their drug or product candidate, providing predictive answers on toxicity, efficacy and modes of action in the discovery, preclinical and clinical phases. Organ-on-a-chip devices enable the creation of healthy or pathological physiological models. Using its high-throughput microfluidic technologies, NETRI’s models recreate human physiology in vitro by co-culturing cells, either primary or derived from human stem cells, compartmentalized and coupled with functional activity measurements. NETRI today markets its NeuroFludidics™ organ-on-a-chip models in pain, dermo-cosmetics, neurological disorders and nutritional health applications. www.netri.com | www.linkedin.com/company/netri

ABOUT BPIFRANCE

Bpifrance’s equity investments are managed by Bpifrance Investissement. Bpifrance finances companies – at every stage of their development – with credit, guarantees and equity. Bpifrance supports them in their innovation and international projects. Bpifrance now also supports their export activities through a wide range of products. Consulting, university, networking and acceleration programs for startups, SMEs and ETIs are also part of the range of services offered to entrepreneurs. Thanks to Bpifrance and its 50 regional offices, entrepreneurs benefit from a close, single and efficient contact to help them face their challenges.

For more information: www.Bpifrance.fr. Follow Bpifrance on Twitter: @Bpifrance – @BpifrancePresse

ABOUT FRANCE 2030

The France 2030 investment plan:

  • Our ambition is twofold: to transform key sectors of our economy (healthcare, energy, automotive, aeronautics and space) through technological innovation, and to position France not just as an outsider, but as a leader in the world of tomorrow. From fundamental research, to the emergence of an idea, to the production of a new product or service, France 2030 supports the entire life cycle of innovation, right through to industrialization.
  • Is unprecedented in its scale: €54 billion will be invested to help our companies, universities and research organizations make the transition in these strategic sectors a success. The aim is to enable them to respond competitively to the ecological and attractiveness challenges of the world to come, and to nurture the future leaders of our sectors of excellence. France 2030 is defined by two cross-functional objectives: to devote 50% of its spending to decarbonizing the economy, and 50% to emerging, innovative players, without spending money that is detrimental to the environment (in line with the Do No Significant Harm principle).
  • Will be implemented collectively: designed and deployed in consultation with economic, academic, local and European players to determine its strategic orientations and flagship actions. Project leaders are invited to submit their applications via open, demanding and selective procedures, in order to benefit from government support.  Est is managed by the Secrétariat Général pour l’Investissement on behalf of the Prime Minister, and implemented by the Agence de la Transition Ecologique (ADEME), the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR), Bpifrance and the Banque des Territoires.

For more information: https://www.gouvernement.fr/france-2030 | @SGPI_avenir

PRESSE CONTACT

Florian BERGER: f.berger@eds-groupe.com | +33 6 6 10 78 64 26

Apolline THOMASSET:  a.thomasset@eds-groupe.com | +33 6 19 42 57 83

NETRI CONTACT

Laura EJARQUE, Marketing & Communication : laura.ejarque@netri.com | +33 6 69 45 46 21

Thibault HONEGGER, CEO & Co-founder : thibault.honegger@netri.com | +33 6 52 97 09 38