Sanofi Expands Corporate Venture Fund With $625 Million Commitment
Sanofi has allocated an additional $625 million to Sanofi Ventures, bringing the corporate venture arm’s total assets under management to over $1.4 billion. The evergreen fund, active since 2012, will continue to focus on early-stage innovation in immunology, rare diseases, neurology, and vaccines, as well as digital health and AI-enabled healthcare technologies.
Sanofi Ventures has invested more than $800 million across over 70 biotech and digital health companies, participating in financings from seed rounds through IPOs. According to Jason P. Hafler, PhD, Managing Director at Sanofi Ventures, the fund reported three exits in 2024 with a combined acquisition value of $3.25 billion.
The capital injection is intended to support startups through critical development stages, while also aligning potential breakthroughs with Sanofi’s long-term R&D priorities. In August 2025, Recursion Pharmaceuticals reported a $7 million milestone payment from Sanofi linked to a partnered immunology program. Sanofi has advanced four Recursion programs to milestone stage within 18 months, applying Recursion OS 2.0’s phenomics capabilities across immunology research.
Sanofi’s AI R&D
Sanofi structures its AI strategy around three pillars.
- Expert AI applies high-performance computing, machine learning, and specialized algorithms to accelerate discovery, development, and manufacturing processes.
- “Snackable” AI refers to accessible tools embedded into daily workflows across the organization, designed to democratize data use and improve decision-making efficiency.
- Generative AI is applied to streamline routine tasks, reduce administrative workload, and support productivity gains across research, supply, and commercial functions.
In R&D, Target Discovery engines combine advanced AI and machine learning with experimental methods for target validation, reportedly resulting in seven new drug targets identified within a year. Tools such as CodonBERT, a large language model trained on 10 million mRNA sequences, have reportedly reduced mRNA design timelines by 50%, supporting faster development of vaccines and therapies.
In manufacturing, the company has deployed AI-powered analytics like SimplY, which learns from batch performance data to improve yields, and probabilistic planning tools that can predict up to 80% of supply disruptions. Digitized facilities in Singapore and France, Sanofi Modulus, are designed to support flexible production of vaccines and biologics, including mRNA platforms.
Commercial AI models include plai, an AI-driven planning tool that reportedly predicts up to 80% of stock disruptions and links 65% of risks to root causes, as well as Concierge, an internally hosted generative AI assistant that automates routine tasks, answers queries, and guides employees through digital tools. Turing is another corporate machine learning system that supports commercial teams by recommending personalized actions for engaging healthcare providers.
Sanofi’s research and development pipeline currently spans 82 clinical-stage projects, with 30 in phase 3 or under regulatory review. The portfolio combines new molecular entities and expanded uses for existing medicines, covering difficult-to-treat diseases and vaccine development.
In October 2024, Insilico Medicine and Sanofi reported achieving a drug discovery milestone in oncology, identifying a first-in-class lead molecule against a traditionally “undruggable” transcription factor using Insilico’s AI platforms PandaOmics and Chemistry42.
Recent updates include three regulatory approvals—Dupixent for bullous pemphigoid in the US, Sarclisa for newly diagnosed multiple myeloma in the EU, and MenQuadfi for meningitis in the US—alongside three phase 3 readouts, such as mixed outcomes for a drug candidate in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and a positive rabies prevention trial. The pipeline also secured seven regulatory designations in rare diseases, neurology, and oncology.
We track updates like this weekly in Where Tech Meets Bio—our newsletter on startups, platforms, and deals at the intersection of biotech and digital.
Topic: Industry Movers
