Just 3 months after its founding, RainPath closes its first pre-seed funding round of 2.5 million euros. Tempact Ventures, an investment fund that draws inspiration from high-performance sports practices to build ultra-efficient teams, is leading this round.
The round is also backed by Xplore by Épopée Gestion, an iconic fund in Breton tech, The Quest, Advance Lab, Sharpstone, and about fifteen business angels, with the support of BPI France. “Thanks to our disruptive technology, our exceptional team is pushing towards clinical integration to concretely transform the daily lives of laboratories,” assures Mel Landelle, co-founder and 25-year-old CEO.
The medtech company is developing an artificial intelligence solution capable of entirely replacing chemical staining used in biopsy analysis. “We offer Virtual Staining: our AI virtually generates the same diagnostic information as traditional chemistry, but 100 times faster and without any toxic reagents,” explains Antoine Delplace, co-founder and CTO, a CentraleSupélec alumnus specializing in Computer Vision.
RainPath directly addresses the bottlenecks in anatomical pathology laboratories: interminable waiting times, skyrocketing reagent costs, recurring manual errors. The company aims to become the Cardiologs of anatomical pathology.
“RainPath’s Virtual Staining combines:
● a genuine industry revolution with the prospect of entering the era of tele-anatomopathology, which will greatly improve the efficiency and availability of analyses;
● the elimination of toxic waste for laboratories;
which aligns perfectly with our Climate & Health strategy. We are delighted to join this ambitious team on its way to global leadership in AI solutions for biopsies,” says Teampact Ventures, lead investor of this first funding round.
From 8 to 16 employees in 6 months: RainPath's ambition
"We are making a historic transition from chemical analysis to AI-augmented optical analysis. This approach will be more precise, faster, more scalable, and will become tomorrow's standard. RainPath is one of the only European players to master this critical technology," states Mel Landelle, a graduate of École Normale Supérieure.
RainPath markets its solution to public and private anatomical pathology laboratories. The company directly addresses the challenges of diagnostic precision in biopsies. "Our AI will provide unparalleled diagnostic precision, revolutionary analysis speed, and complete accessibility. We are raising the standard of care for all patients," says Antoine Delplace.
With this pre-seed funding round, RainPath aims to double the size of its team, growing from 8 to 16 employees in a few months. The startup will recruit in R&D, AI engineers, data scientists, and developers. The company is also looking for a CPO. "This funding round is for product development and clinical validation," explains Mel Landelle.
A colossal market of 500 million annual analyses in its sights
The next target: Series A funding within 18 months to accelerate international expansion. "Demand is exploding: an aging population, rising cancer rates, but not enough pathologists. We need to gain efficiency; half a billion anatomical pathology analyses are performed worldwide each year, it's a public health issue. And it is crucial that Europe and France mobilize massively to develop these critical technologies and preserve our diagnostic sovereignty," warns the founder.
The long-term vision? To create "Rainbow Coloration" – a revolutionary tissue presentation where each color corresponds to specific diagnostic information. "We want to become THE new global standard for human tissue presentation. Clearer, more visually appealing, more efficient for pathologists," envisions Mel Landelle.
With spectacular initial results and sovereign technology, RainPath aims to quickly capture significant market share. "We are convinced that RainPath will significantly improve processes in anatomical pathology laboratories, thereby providing its clients with an immediate return on investment and improving the patient care pathway," highlights the investment fund Xplore by Épopée Gestion, an investor in the company.
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