Living Models
Paris, FR · 8 known investors
Living Models builds foundation models for biology, working at the intersection of AI and life sciences. Its team consists of PhDs and engineers with backgrounds from research and technology organizations.
Also known as Living Models
Investors · 8
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Also in the syndicate · 6
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Living Models builds foundation models for biological sequences — DNA, RNA and multi-omic data — rather than natural language, with the stated aim of creating AI infrastructure to understand living systems. The company applies transformer architectures to genomic, transcriptomic and other biological datasets to identify patterns within living organisms, beginning with the plant kingdom.
Its first product family is BOTANIC (Biological Omics Transformer for Agricultural and Nutritional trait Inference in Crops), a set of plant genomic language models. The initial release, BOTANIC-0, spans variants from 100M to 1B parameters and was trained on curated plant genomes drawn from phylogenetically diverse species; the models predict gene function, regulatory elements and trait associations, and are intended to help identify genetic markers linked to traits such as climate resilience and disease resistance. Weights are published openly on Hugging Face and accompanied by a research paper, positioning the models for external benchmarking on genomic prediction tasks.
The company frames its market problem as the length of crop development cycles — commonly cited at eight or more years per trait — and the reliance of the crop protection market on pre-genomics discovery pipelines. By running in-silico screening of genetic variants before field validation, Living Models aims to shorten the early stages of breeding programs. It states an intention to extend its foundation model work from plants to other biological systems.
Founding story
The company was founded by Cyril Véran (CEO), a serial entrepreneur working at the intersection of AI and plant biology with a UC Berkeley background; Léonard Strouk (CTO), a biochemist turned AI engineer trained at the École Normale Supérieure and UC Berkeley, with research at UC Berkeley and NYU and a prior generative AI company; and Bertrand Gakière (CSO), an associate professor in plant biology at Université Paris-Saclay with more than 75 publications and multiple trait patents. Living Models started with plant biology because of the availability of large genomic datasets, faster validation cycles than other life-science fields, and demand for climate-resilient agriculture.
Business model
B2B. Living Models targets seed, breeding and agricultural companies, offering foundation models and genomic prediction capability to accelerate their research and trait discovery pipelines, while publishing open-weight base models for the research community.
Traction
As of March 2026 the company had released three BOTANIC-0 model variants publicly on Hugging Face (1.0B, 0.3B and 0.1B parameters, updated 10 March), published a preprint on bioRxiv, secured a 120 NVIDIA B200 GPU cluster and raised $7M in seed capital. The team is described as between 2 and 10 people and is hiring, including for an AI Scientist role in foundation models for plant biology.
Latest developments
In March 2026 Living Models exited stealth with a $7M seed round co-led by Asterion Ventures and The Galion Project, published the open-weight BOTANIC-0 models and its first research paper, secured 120 NVIDIA B200 GPUs, and stated plans to train larger BOTANIC models and extend beyond plants to other biological systems.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history
Market position
Living Models positions BOTANIC as foundation models dedicated to plant biology, entering a plant genomics market reported at $13.1B in 2024 and projected to reach $20.8B by 2030 at an 8% CAGR, and addressing a crop protection market described as $60B. Other companies raising capital in AI-driven crop improvement include Biographica ($9.5M, January 2026), Heritable Agriculture (a $5M Gates Foundation grant) and Inari ($144M in early 2025).
The company differentiates through open-weight foundation models trained on more than 1,600 plant genomes and a multi-omics approach operating at the genomic sequence level, rather than computer-vision or phenotype-based analysis, together with published research supporting reproducibility.
Technology
Large-scale transformer models trained on nucleotide sequences and multi-omics data (genomic, transcriptomic). BOTANIC-0 comprises 0.1B, 0.3B and 1.0B parameter variants trained on more than 1,600 curated plant genomes covering 43 phylogenetically diverse species, and outputs predictions of gene function, regulatory elements and trait associations. Training for subsequent generations is planned on a cluster of 120 NVIDIA B200 GPUs.
Go-to-market
The company combines open publication — open model weights on Hugging Face and a preprint research paper — with direct outreach to seed and breeding companies. It also participates in startup ecosystem programs including STATION F's Future 40 2024 batch, Microsoft for Startups and UC Berkeley SkyDeck, and collaborates with plant scientists at institutions including the University of Florida, INRAE, Université Paris-Saclay and UC Berkeley.
Seed and breeding companies, agricultural research organisations and plant scientists; the site invites seed and breeding companies to book commercial conversations.
Geography
Dual bases in Paris, France and Berkeley, California.
History
StartupHub lists the company as founded in 2024, the year it joined the STATION F Future 40 batch. Living Models operated in stealth before announcing its emergence on 11 March 2026 alongside a $7 million seed round, the release of the BOTANIC-0 model family on Hugging Face and its first research paper, plus secured access to a 120-GPU NVIDIA B200 cluster.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 4
launches, deals, and filingsLiving Models announced a $7 million seed round co-led by Asterion Ventures and The Galion Project, with participation from Kima Ventures, STATION F, the University of California, Berkeley, Artesian (Alternative Investments), Juniper Square and Pascual Innoventures, as it emerged from stealth. Proceeds are directed at computing resources and development of larger BOTANIC models.
$7M source ↗
The company secured access to a computing cluster of 120 NVIDIA B200 GPUs to train its next generation of biological foundation models.
Living Models released BOTANIC-0, a family of transformer models for plant biology ranging from 100M to 1B parameters, published as open weights on Hugging Face alongside a first research paper. The models predict gene function, regulatory elements and trait associations.
Living Models was a member of the STATION F Future 40 2024 batch and of the Microsoft for Startups program.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- Living Modelslivingmodels.ai · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Living Models do?
- Paris- and Berkeley-based developer of open-weight DNA foundation models for plant genomics and crop trait discovery.
- Who are Living Models's investors?
- Living Models's investors include Artesian, Juniper.
- Where is Living Models headquartered?
- Living Models is headquartered in Paris, FR.