Groundbreaking achievement : Phagos raises €25m to end bacterial disease

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 Phagos raises €25m to end bacterial disease 

The company holds the first authorization to market personalized veterinary phage-based treatments on EU soil 

● Founded in 2021, Phagos is ushering in a new era in the fight against bacterial disease with bacteriophages, a powerful alternative to antibiotics. Thanks to an unprecedented regulatory breakthrough and a discovery platform combining microbiology and AI, Phagos offers the first phage-based drugs for veterinary use, a market worth tens of billions of dollars. The company plans to expand further as phage therapy becomes accepted in human health. 

                           

● The funding round was co-led by CapAgro, Hoxton Ventures, CapHorn, and Demeter alongside Acurio Ventures, Citizen Capital, Entrepreneur First, Founders Capital, and Station F. 

● Objectives: deploy veterinary treatments in the field, develop the next generation of patented AI technology for phage discovery, and accelerate international expansion. 


Paris, October 8, 2025 – Four years after its creation, Phagos announces a 25 million euros Series A funding round. The round was co-led by CapAgro, Hoxton Ventures, CapHorn and Demeter, with participation from Acurio Ventures, Citizen Capital, Entrepreneurs First, Founders Capital, and Station F. 

This financing aims to accelerate the deployment of veterinary phage therapy in the field, develop the next generation of its patented AI technology for phage discovery, and drive the company’s growth globally (Europe, Asia, and the Americas). 

A sustainable answer to the global challenge of bacterial resistance 

Founded in 2021 by Alexandros Pantalis and Dr. Adèle James, Phagos has developed a groundbreaking phage therapy process — a natural alternative to antibiotics — to fight bacterial diseases. Bacterial diseases already rank as the world’s second leading cause of human mortality, one of the main causes of animal deaths, and generate massive losses in food waste. Antimicrobial resistance causes millions of deaths every year and could cost the global economy up to $100 trillion by 2050. In livestock, one in three antibiotics is no longer effective, three times more than in the year 2000. 

To meet this challenge, Phagos combines microbiology and artificial intelligence within a unique platform capable of designing ultra-precise, personalized treatments to put an end to bacterial diseases. Its first application focuses on animal health, a sector heavily impacted by bacterial infections (Salmonella, E. coli…) and the growing limitations of antibiotics, with the ultimate ambition of extending phage therapy to human health. 

Phagos has become the world’s first company authorized to market personalized phage-based veterinary drugs — a groundbreaking regulatory milestone marking a major turning point in how bacterial infections are fought. The company has also filed a patent for its AI technology, capable of analyzing the full genomes of both phages and bacteria to predict their interactions and make phage therapy a scalable, targeted, and effective solution. 

Scaling globally while driving scientific innovation 

With this €25m Series A, Phagos aims to take a major step forward: scaling up the deployment of its veterinary phage therapy solutions, strengthening its R&D capabilities to develop the next generation of its patented AI technology. 

The company will continue to consolidate its international presence, already underway across three continents. Field deployment has already begun with leading industry players, marking an important milestone toward the adoption of phage therapy. 

The company also plans to expand its team — currently made up of 90% scientific and technical profiles — to support its platform’s growth and to boost the launch of its treatments on the market. Ultimately, the ambition is clear: to put an end to bacterial diseases, first in animal health then in human health. 

“We are convinced that phage therapy can transform the history of medicine just as antibiotics did in the last century. This funding gives us the means to accelerate our mission and make this alternative accessible, fast, and effective against the rise of bacterial resistance. Thanks to our regulatory breakthroughs and our patented platform combining microbiology and artificial intelligence, we now have the opportunity to establish phage therapy as a global reference solution: for animal health today, and for human health tomorrow,” said Alexandros Pantalis and Adèle James, co-founders of Phagos. 

"Antimicrobial resistance is a defining challenge for global food systems. With the unprecedented regulatory approval of its discovery platform, Phagos is leading the way in deploying phage therapies as a real, already actionable alternative to antibiotics. Our investment in Phagos underscores our strong commitment to deep tech innovations that drive a healthier, more sustainable, and resilient food supply." said Anne-Valérie Bach, Managing Director of Capagro. 

“Phagos’ pioneering platform provides a high efficiency alternative to antibiotics, offering a promising solution to a major global health crisis. This investment will help the company become a category-defining leader, reshaping how bacterial infections are treated with a transformative impact on both animal and human health in a massive global market.” said Rob Kniaz, Founder and Emeritus Partner of Hoxton Ventures. 

About Phagos 

Phagos was founded in 2021 by Alexandros Pantalis and Adèle James. The company’s mission is to put an end to bacterial diseases through the cultivation of phages boosted with AI, the natural predators of bacteria. Its first application focuses on animal health, a sector heavily impacted by bacterial diseases, particularly due to antibiotic resistance. To address this challenge, the company designs tailor-made treatments capable of adapting to the evolution of resistant bacteria. Today, Phagos has 50 employees, 90% of whom have scientific and technical backgrounds (microbiology, computer science, R&D, data, AI). The company recently raised €25m in a Series A round to accelerate the development and market launch of its veterinary solutions, with the ambition to eventually extend its approach to human health.


About CapAgro 

Capagro is Europe’s first independent venture capital fund dedicated to AgTech and FoodTech innovation. With over €240 million under management and backing from leading agrobusinesses and institutional LPs, Capagro supports startups across the entire agri-food value chain, accelerating the adoption of impactful technologies, from smart agriculture to sustainable food solutions. 

About Hoxton Ventures 

Hoxton Ventures is a London-based venture capital firm investing in early-stage technology companies that can scale globally. The firm typically invests at the seed and Series A stages across sectors, with a focus on companies that have the potential to define new markets. Hoxton's portfolio includes unicorns and market leaders such as Deliveroo, Darktrace, and Preply, as well as the next generation of standouts, including Avantia Law, Cusp AI, Deblock, Formance, Nomagic, Ochre Bio, Peptone, Phagos, Spacelift and many others. For more information, visit www.hoxtonventures.com. 

About Demeter 

Demeter Investment Managers is a major European player in venture capital and private equity for the energy and ecological transition. Its funds invest from €1m to €30m to support companies in the sector at all stages of their development: innovative startups, small and mid-cap companies, as well as infrastructure projects. The Demeter team counts 38 people based in Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux, Madrid and Dusseldorf, manages €1,3bn and has backed more than 250 companies since its inception in 2005. For more information, visit www.demeter-im.com.

Taken from : https://www.phagos.com/fr/resources/series-a-fundraising

Press Contacts – Raoul Agency 

Celia Jacquemond - celia@agenceraoul.com – +33 6 89 53 25 18 

Alyssa Zayani - alyssa@agenceraoul.com – +33 6 59 09 00 56


Viewpoint from France (Le Figaro): 

French startup Phagos, specializing in phage-based veterinary treatments, announced Wednesday that it has raised €25 million to combat bacterial diseases in livestock using artificial intelligence. This funding, obtained from investment funds and startup accelerators such as Station F, should enable the company "to deploy its veterinary phage therapy solutions on a large scale," "develop the next generation of its patented artificial intelligence models," and accelerate its growth worldwide, according to a press release.

The company, founded in 2021, is "the first to have obtained authorization on European soil to be able to market" treatments against bacterial genera common in livestock, such as Escheria coli, salmonella, and vibriosis, a disease that affects aquatic animals, Adèle James, its co-founder, told AFP. "Phages are entities that are 10 to 100 times smaller than bacteria. They specialize in eliminating bacteria. In fact, they have a parasitic lifestyle that means they can only reproduce by infecting a bacterium," explains the molecular microbiologist.

Phagos has developed its own artificial intelligence model to "decipher the genomes of pathogenic bacteria responsible for infections and those of bacteriophages" in order to "predict" which phages will be able to kill the targeted bacteria. In livestock farming, a significant proportion of antibiotics are losing their effectiveness, and the deployment of phage-based therapies represents, according to the company, "a concrete alternative to antibiotics" in the face of increasing bacterial resistance.

In the field, "more than 300,000 animals have been treated" by Phagos with a concentrated liquid solution of bacteriophages to be diluted in the animals' drinking water, Adèle James emphasized. The company, which has 50 employees, almost all of them scientists, aims to "put an end to bacterial diseases, first in animal health and then in human health."

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