Aqemia shares its training experience with DeepTech Founders

Aqemia and Deeptech Founders

Deeptech Founders (DF) is a unique six-month program to help entrepreneurial scientists and engineers explore and validate opportunities to transform their research into a commercial product and to accelerate their startup projects.

Emmanuelle Martiano and Maximilien Levesque are the founders of the start-up Aqemia and were supported by the DIM ELICIT to participate in Deeptech Founders. Here is their testimonial on the DF training, and on the continuation of their project.

Could you present your startup project ?
E. Martiano & M. Levesque : Aqemia is a deeptech startup in de novo drug-discovery, spin-off from ENS-PSL. Our aim is to invent better therapeutic molecules faster. We do that by combining generative AI and quantum-inspired statistical mechanics algorithms to predict affinity between therapeutic target and drugs with experimental accuracy and 10’000 times faster than best softwares.

What has Deeptech Founders brought to you?
E. Martiano & M. Levesque : Deeptech Founders brought us inspiration via discussions with successful Deeptech entrepreneurs, and helped us better understand and navigate French Deeptech ecosystem.

A few months after the training program, how is your project going today? What are the next major steps ?
E. Martiano & M. Levesque : When we participated to DF#2 we were only 2 and company not yet created. Since then we raised EUR 1.6 M in Q3 2020 led by Elaia Partners and we’re now a team of 12. Our product will be ready by the end of the month of july 2020 and we’re now looking for collaborations with pharmas and biotechs and at the same time building our own project portfolio.

Alert : Job offer !
Aqemia is actively recruiting profiles in Machine Learning, in silico drug discovery and software engineering. Check their website (http://www.aqemia.com/) and do not hesitate to contact them at maximilien.levesque@aqemia.com

Aqemia’s story inspires you ? Applications are open to join the fifth cohort of Deeptech Founders, which will take place from October 2020 to February 2021.
**Curriculum is compatible with a scientist/engineer’s busy schedule**
**Application deadline: September 15th, 2020**

If you wish to apply to the Deeptech Founders program and if your project fits in the DIM ELICIT core technologies and/or end-user applications, we can propose you a funding : don’t hesitate to contact us at dim.elicit@pasteur.fr