Alkion BioInnovations culture chamber
Alkion BioInnovations raises €4.4 million to industrialize the sustainable production of QS-21 vaccine adjuvants and derivatives
Paris, november 21, 2025
Alkion BioInnovations, a biotechnology company, is developing an innovative plant-based bioproduction platform dedicated to active ingredients and saponin-based adjuvants for next-generation vaccines. By combining technological innovation, sustainability, and industrial sovereignty, Alkion provides a strategic response to major global health challenges.
The company announces a €4.4 million financing round led by GO Capital and Critical Path Ventures.
This funding will support the GMP scale-up of Alkion’s biotechnological production platform, based on plant biomass culture in large temporary immersion bioreactors (TIBs), and the optimization of innovative extraction and purification processes for QS-21 and related saponins.
The company is also engaged in collaborative public–private and NGO-driven research programs focused on novel saponin-based adjuvant formulations designed to enhance immune response while improving the performance and tolerability of both prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines, including mRNA vaccines.
QS-21: a strategic adjuvant for global vaccination
QS-21, extracted from the bark of the Quillaja saponaria tree native to Chile, has transformed modern vaccinology thanks to its ability to strongly boost immune response while reducing antigen doses and side effects. Used notably in the first malaria vaccine — a disease responsible for over 600,000 deaths per year, mostly among children under five — it has become an essential component of next-generation vaccines.
Until now, its limited supply has depended on unsustainable and monopolistic extraction. Alkion BioInnovations, a European pioneer, offers an alternative through an innovative plant-based process ensuring competitive, large-scale production to support global efforts in fighting infectious disease, in biodefense, and pandemic preparedness.
A sovereign, efficient, and responsible biotechnology
Alkion’s proprietary plant biomass culture and purification platform achieves high productivity and resource efficiency, eliminating the need for bark harvesting or intensive cultivation.
This circular and traceable industrial bioproduction approach aligns with the ecological transition of the pharmaceutical industry and with European initiatives promoting health sovereignty by strengthening adjuvant manufacturing capabilities.
Through a scalable and cost-efficient model, Alkion also aims to lower the cost of innovative vaccines for the Global South, improving access and advancing global vaccine equity.
“We are honored to welcome the support of GO Capital and Critical Path Ventures, whose commitment to disruptive, high-impact technologies fully aligns with our vision.
This funding marks a key milestone for Alkion, enabling GMP-scale production of strategic adjuvants and establishing in Europe a pioneering, scalable, and sustainable technology that serves the urgent needs of global health,” said Sarah-Meryll Buet, CEO of Alkion BioInnovations.
“Alkion’s technology platform aims to enable competitive, large-scale access to a key compound in the development of both prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines, particularly for the Global South. This innovative and responsible solution, which promotes vaccine equity while reinforcing European health sovereignty, is fully in line with the strategy of our GOCA3 fund. We are delighted to support this talented team and their ambitious project,” said Alexandre Boulay, Investment Director at GO Capital.
According to the management of Critical Path Ventures, “In this era of med-tech and AI, it is quite wonderful to think that a native forest, lost in the high plains of Chile, produces the most effective vaccine adjuvant known to date. Critical Path is proud to support the company Alkion, which aims to duplicate and multiply this natural process to produce this amazing molecule in large volumes and at low cost.”
About Alkion BioInnovations
Alkion BioInnovations, a spin-off from Imperial College London based in Versailles, France, specializes in the sustainable bioproduction of high-value active ingredients and adjuvants for pharmaceutical applications. Supported by the EIC Accelerator and France Relance, the company has developed and validated its technology up to the industrial pilot phase. Its multidisciplinary proprietary platform — from large temporary immersion bioreactors (TIBs) assisted by AI-driven robotics to innovative purification processes — enables standardized, high-performance manufacturing of complex molecules such as QS-21. Alkion also develops next-generation saponin-based adjuvants in collaboration with European academic, industrial, and NGO partners working on human and veterinary vaccines.
More information: www.alkinnov.com
About GO CAPITAL
GO CAPITAL, a management company authorized by the AMF, is a leading impact investment player.
With nearly €400 million under management through various investment funds (SFDR articles 8 & 9), the firm primarily finances technology leaders in the blue economy, digital, health, and environmental transition sectors. Its team of investors combines complementary sector expertise and focuses on two key verticals: territorial and sectoral impact. GO CAPITAL supports innovative and responsible projects that create sustainable value at the heart of key territories and industries.
More information: www.gocapital.fr/en
About Critical Path Ventures
Since 2022, Critical Path Ventures has been investing in innovative scientific research projects, providing financial support to startups created by researcher-entrepreneurs from the seed stage onwards. Critical Path Ventures selects an average of six projects per year, often on a co investment basis and mainly in the fields of physics, medicine, biotechnology, and robotics, promoting industrial development and job retention in France.
More information: www.critical-path.fr/en