BioNTech to acquire British AI start-up InstaDeep for about £562m

German vaccine maker BioNTech has agreed to acquire the British artificial intelligence (AI) start-up InstaDeep for up to £562m to speed up its biotech research beyond Covid-19 shots.

In its largest takeover deal to date, BioNTech is to pay £362m upfront, in a mix of cash and an unspecified number of BioNTech shares, and up to £200m contingent on InstaDeep’s future performance, it said on Tuesday.

The transaction adds to a slew of deals as the industry meets in San Francisco for the annual JPMorgan healthcare conference this week.

With estimated Covid-19 vaccine revenues of up to €17bn in 2022 alone, BioNTech is well funded to advance its work on new cancer immunotherapies and on other vaccines, and AI will play a growing role.

BioNTech was part of a group of investors who participated in a $100m financing round at InstaDeep a year ago. It declined to say precisely how much it had invested then or what share of InstaDeep it held.

“Our aim is to make BioNTech a technology company where AI is seamlessly integrated into all aspects of our work,” said co-founder and CEO Ugur Sahin.

BioNTech said it was already involved in dozens of joint projects with InstaDeep, including efforts unveiled last year to quickly determine whether a new coronavirus variant is a cause for concern.

InstaDeep, with about 240 staff, will continue to provide its AI and machine learning services to other companies, including Google and Nvidia, the statement added.

Reuters