Sofinnova Partners, a leading European life sciences venture capital firm, has announced a strategic collaboration with NVIDIA to provide its portfolio companies with access to high-performance AI infrastructure through NVIDIA DGX Cloud Lepton. The partnership delivers significant Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) credits to select portfolio companies, effectively providing access to the same computational firepower used by major technology companies in Silicon Valley.
Strategic Partnership Details
The collaboration addresses the increasing demand for computational resources driven by artificial intelligence applications in life sciences. Through NVIDIA DGX Cloud Lepton, an AI platform and marketplace connecting developers to global AI infrastructure, Sofinnova's portfolio companies will gain access to NVIDIA Blackwell and other NVIDIA architecture GPUs.
BioCorteX, Bioptimus, Cure51, and Latent Labs represent the first cohort of European digital medicine startups to benefit from this partnership. These companies will be able to process biological datasets and run computational models that previously required months of processing time, completing them in days.
Demonstrated Performance Improvements
Cure51, a pioneer in decoding the biology of exceptional cancer survivors, has already tested NVIDIA Parabricks, a GPU-accelerated genomics toolkit, with remarkable results. The company achieved up to 17x faster processing with NVIDIA H100 GPUs and more than 2x cost savings with NVIDIA L4 GPUs compared to their CPU baseline. This dramatic acceleration enhances their ability to analyze complex genomic data and scale their survivor-based insights.
Industry Impact and Vision
Antoine Papiernik, Chairman and Managing Partner at Sofinnova Partners, emphasized the strategic importance of the collaboration: "This collaboration supercharges computation for life sciences innovation. The convergence of biology, AI, computation, and data isn't just our investment thesis—it's the defining battleground of the next decade."
Papiernik highlighted Sofinnova's comprehensive approach to AI integration, from their Digital Medicine strategy to their proprietary AI platform Sofinnova.ai. He noted that by securing access to NVIDIA's infrastructure, the firm is "not just funding companies; we're empowering them with the computational backbone needed to outperform incumbents and redefine what's possible in drug discovery, precision medicine, and scalable solutions that address both human health and sustainability."
Market Context
The partnership positions European life sciences startups to compete more effectively in the $100B+ life sciences market by providing access to advanced computational resources. This initiative aims to help position Europe at the forefront of the AI-driven drug discovery revolution, addressing a critical infrastructure gap that has historically favored Silicon Valley-based companies.
Sofinnova Partners, founded in 1972 and based in Paris, London, and Milan, manages over €4 billion in assets and has backed over 500 companies throughout its 50-year history. The firm specializes in healthcare and sustainability investments across the entire value chain of life sciences, from seed to later-stage funding.
