Rivercell, a Paris-based biotechnology and AI startup, has raised $25 million in a seed round led by HV, with participation from HCVC, Alven and Bpifrance Digital Venture. The financing was announced on October 7, 2026.
Co-founded by Yann Fleureau and Eric Durand, Rivercell is developing biological data infrastructure and AI models designed to model how human cells respond to drugs and genetic changes. The company is building a proprietary platform that generates interventional, time-resolved and multimodal single-cell data for training its AI Virtual Cell models.
Rivercell’s approach combines data generation with an automated wet lab in Paris. Its planned world model of the cell is intended to simulate cellular responses in silico, with applications across drug discovery and biological research. The company is developing the system across multiple disease areas rather than for a single indication.
The seed funding will be used to scale Rivercell’s proprietary data-generation platform, expand its Paris wet lab and launch its AI Virtual Cell program.
