Venture Kick supports in Bionomous and its technology that allows for automatically sorting Zebrafish eggs. The funds will enable the startup to develop a minimum viable product.
Over the past ten years, Zebrafish eggs are a common and growing model for studies in genetics, development and behavioural biology and toxicology. However, the processing and preparing the eggs for research is complex, labour-intensive, and time-consuming. To date, there are no convenient methods to perform these tasks automatically.
Founded in 2019 by Ana Hernando Ariza (CMO) and Frank Bonnet (CEO), Bionomous is closing this gap by combining innovative micro-engineering design and machine learning methods. It is developing a robotic device and AI solutions that allow researchers to automatically count, screen, sort, and dispense small biological entities, such as the eggs of zebrafish. The solution offers researchers significant gains in time, precision, and standardisation.
The startup team is collaborating with several laboratories to test the beta version and assess the market-readiness level. The company targets the customers who are active in toxicology, genetics, and non-clinical testing, a first market estimated at approximately CHF 200 million. It also plans to extend the technology to other fields of research, such as the eggs of the Xenopus (genus of African frogs) or the seeds of the Arabidopsis Thaliana (thale cress).
Having won the third stage of the Venture Kick, the startup obtained fresh capital to finance the pilot device used by early adopters and for marketing campaigns in preparation for its product and commercialisation launch in 2021.
(Press release/RAN)
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