baCta joins The HIVE Innovation Center to scale its AI-powered industrial bioproduction platform
Villejuif, 23/06/2026 – Kadans Science Partner is pleased to welcome baCta to The HIVE Innovation Center, its state-of-the-art laboratory and office building dedicated to life sciences, located on the Campus Grand Parc in Villejuif.
Reimagining how industrial ingredients are made
The global demand for industrial ingredients is growing rapidly, yet conventional production methods, whether petrochemical synthesis or extraction from scarce natural sources, remain expensive, environmentally taxing, and increasingly exposed to supply chain disruptions. baCta was founded in Paris in 2024 by Mathieu Nohet and Marie Rouquette to tackle this challenge head-on, harnessing the power of engineered microorganisms as programmable molecular factories capable of synthesising high-value compounds at commercial scale. To date, the company has raised a total of €10.3 million, including a €7 million seed round closed in March 2026 and led by LocalGlobe and Daphni, with participation from OVNI Capital and business angels including founders of Phagos, Genomines, and Mistral AI.
Where synthetic biology meets generative AI
baCta’s proprietary strain engineering platform, baCtaForge, sits at the intersection of synthetic biology, robotics, and generative AI. Built around a Genome-to-Factory AI model and a high-throughput precision biofoundry, the platform explores genomic regions, long-range interactions, and regulatory pathways that conventional engineering methods typically overlook, enabling the design of optimised microbial strains at unprecedented speed and reduced cost through bio-based reinforcement learning.
The company’s first commercial target is astaxanthin, a high-performance antioxidant with broad applications across human health, cosmetics, nutrition, and animal feed. By producing astaxanthin using precision fermentation, baCta aims to deliver the quality of a natural product at a price point previously achievable only with synthetic, petrochemical-derived alternatives.
Flexible infrastructure built for early-stage ambition
The HIVE Innovation Center provides start-ups and young biotechnology companies with fully fitted and equipped laboratory and office spaces under a flexible service agreement, removing the operational burden that can slow scientific progress at the earliest stages of growth. This model is specifically designed to allow emerging companies to focus on what matters most: building their science and scaling their team and allow them to access bigger private spaces in the same place as they grow-up.
World-class infrastructure for a demanding science
For a company whose work sits at the interface of synthetic biology, robotics, and AI, access to high-quality, fully equipped and immediately available laboratory infrastructure is not a nice-to-have, it is a prerequisite for progress. The HIVE Innovation Center’s purpose-built facilities, designed to meet the most demanding requirements of early-stage biotechnology companies, were a decisive factor in baCta’s choice of location. By removing the time and capital burden of setting up laboratory infrastructure, The HIVE allows baCta’s team to focus entirely on what matters: building the baCtaforge platform and engineering the next generation of industrial microorganisms.
“After closing our seed round, we needed a place that could support baCta’s growth over the long term. We found it at The HIVE: a modern, purpose-built building with best-in-class scientific infrastructure, easy access from Paris, and a team capable of translating our technical requirements into operational reality. The HIVE gives us the environment and infrastructure we need to stay focused on what matters: engineering better microorganisms, accelerating baCtaForge, and advancing toward sustainable abundance.” explains baCta.
“baCta’s arrival at The HIVE perfectly illustrates our role as a springboard: helping biotech companies through their early stages so they can scale and move on to larger facilities.” declares Elsa Ferrard Country Lead France at Kadans Science Partner.
More info about the Innovation Center
