German bio-tech firm BioNTech acquires Tunisian-born AI startup, Instadeep, for £562 million

Instadeep, a Tunisian-born Artificial Intelligence (AI) startup is to be acquired by Biopharmaceutical New Technologies (BioNTech) a next generation immunotherapy company for £562 million.

The transaction includes a total upfront consideration of approximately £362 million in cash and BioNTech shares to acquire 100% of the remaining InstaDeep shares, excluding the shares already owned by BioNTech. In addition, InstaDeep shareholders will be eligible to receive additional performance-based future milestone payments up to approximately £200 million.

This transaction comes about a year after BioNTech participated in Instadeep’s $100 million series fund raise.

According to a statement form the two companies, the acquisition supports BioNTech’s strategy to build world-leading capabilities in AI-driven drug discovery and development of next-generation immunotherapies and vaccines to address diseases with high unmet medical need.

“Since the inception of BioNTech, we have focused on leveraging computational solutions to create personalized immunotherapies that can reach a wide patient population,” said Prof. Ugur Sahin, M.D., CEO and Co-founder of BioNTech. “The acquisition of InstaDeep allows us to incorporate the rapidly evolving AI capabilities of the digital world into our technologies, research, drug discovery, manufacturing, and deployment processes. Our aim is to make BioNTech a technology company where AI is seamlessly integrated into all aspects of our work.”

The transaction will combine two organizations with a common culture and is expected to add approximately 240 highly skilled professionals to BioNTech’s workforce, including teams in AI, ML, bioengineering, data science, and software development. Through the acquisition, BioNTech will grow its network of global research collaborators in the field and expand its footprint in key talent hubs across the United States, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. 

Instadeep was launched in 2014 with two founders, Karim Beguir and Zohra Slim. Having offices in United Kingdom, France, Tunisia, UAE, South Africa, Germany and USA, InstaDeep uses advanced machine learning techniques to bring artificial intelligence (AI) to enterprise applications.

With expertise in both machine intelligence research and concrete business deployments, InstaDeep gives its partners a competitive advantage in an AI-first world. Leveraging its extensive know-how in GPU-accelerated computing, deep learning and reinforcement learning, InstaDeep products, such as its DeepChain^TM protein design platform, tackle the most complex challenges across a range of industries.

Upon closing of the transaction in the first half of 2023, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals, InstaDeep will operate as a UK-based global subsidiary of BioNTech.

“AI is progressing exponentially and our mission at InstaDeep has always been to make sure it benefits everyone. We are very excited to join forces and become one team with BioNTech, with whom we share the same culture of deep tech innovation and focus on positive human impact,” said Karim Beguir, CEO and Co-Founder of InstaDeep. “Together, we envision building a world leader that combines biopharmaceutical research and AI with the aim to design next-generation immunotherapies that enhance medical care – thus, helping fight cancer and other diseases.”

InstaDeep is expected to become the centerpiece of a growing portfolio of initiatives around AI and ML at BioNTech. In addition to BioNTech-focused projects, InstaDeep will continue to provide its services to clients around the world in diverse industries, including in the Technology, Transport & Logistics, Industrial, and Financial Services sectors.