Amatera
Category: AI in Agriculture
French biotech startup using plant cell culture, robotics, and AI to accelerate the breeding of climate-resilient perennial crops, starting with coffee and wine grapes. Amatera was founded in 2022. The company is led by Omar Dekkiche. Based in Paris, France. Team size: 11-50. Total funding raised: $8.6M. Latest round: Seed. Key investors include Demea Sustainable Investment, Oyster Bay Venture Capital, PINC (Paulig's venture arm), Exceptional Ventures, Mudcake, Joyance Partners, AgFunder.
- Founded
- 2022
- Headquarters
- Paris, France
- Team size
- 11-50
- Total funding
- $8.6M
Value proposition
Non-GMO platform that accelerates perennial crop breeding by 2x faster and 10x more cost-effective than industry standards, by moving the screening bottleneck from greenhouse to cell culture using AI and robotics.
Products and solutions
CellTera platform (combines plant cell culture, high-throughput robotics automation, and AI/ML to screen plant cell lines at the cellular level), Robustica (climate-resilient coffee variety with Robusta resilience and Arabica taste), Naturally caffeine-free Arabica coffee, Mildew-resistant Merlot wine grape
Unique value
Combines plant cell biology, robotics automation, and machine learning to screen at the cellular level — identifying desirable genetic traits without growing full plants, dramatically reducing time and cost for developing climate-resilient, non-GMO perennial crop varieties.
Target customer
Seed companies, agrifood companies, coffee trading houses, research institutes, and large food companies seeking climate-resilient crop varieties or licensing partnerships.
Industries served
Agriculture (perennial crops: coffee, wine grapes, expanding to annual row crops and vegetable crops), Food & Beverage
Technology advantage
Proprietary CellTera platform combining plant cell culture, high-throughput robotics, and AI/ML for cellular-level screening; Non-GMO approach (accelerated natural evolution via physical/chemical induction of spontaneous genetic variation, no gene editing); 2x faster and 10x more cost-effective than industry standards; No regulatory approval needed for non-GMO varieties
How they differentiate
Unlike competitors focused on gene editing (CRISPR) or seed-based approaches, Amatera uses non-GMO accelerated natural evolution at the cellular level combined with AI-driven high-throughput screening — avoiding regulatory hurdles while dramatically compressing breeding timelines for perennial crops from 20+ years to a fraction of that.
Main competitors
OlsAro (Sweden) — AI-enabled trait discovery for climate-adapted crops, Pluri (Israel) — plant cell culture technology, California Cultured (USA) — plant cell culture for coffee, Coffeesai (Singapore) — cell-based coffee
Key partnerships
Paulig (via PINC investment and strategic partnership for coffee), Wine grape partnership (undisclosed partner for mildew-resistant Merlot), Partnerships with seed companies for annual row crops and vegetable crops (in development), CIRAD (French agricultural research organization, tropical agriculture research), Bpifrance / ADEME (France2030 government innovation funding support)
Major milestones
Founded May 2022 via Entrepreneur First at Station F, Paris, Oct 2023: €1.5M pre-seed round led by PINC, Mar 2026: €6M seed round co-led by Demea Sustainable Investment and Oyster Bay Venture Capital, First production expected 2027, Expanding from coffee/wine grapes to annual crops
Market positioning
Early-stage French biotech/agtech startup positioned at the intersection of AI, robotics, and plant biology, targeting the urgent need for climate-resilient perennial crop varieties. Currently focused on coffee and wine grapes with plans to expand to annual crops via platform licensing.
Geographic focus
Europe (France-based), with global ambitions for coffee (Latin America, Africa, Asia) and wine grapes (Europe, Americas)
About Omar Dekkiche
Ex-BNP Paribas Corporate and Institutional Banking (M&A banker); Co-Founder at GeminiQuant; Biotech Startup Founder via Entrepreneur First; Engineer graduate from Ecole nationale supérieure des Mines de Saint-Etienne
Latest news about Amatera
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Official website: https://www.amatera.bio