AfricInvest exits Tunisian AI company InstaDeep
AfricInvest, a private equity firm, has announced that it is exiting its investment in InstaDeep, a technology company based in Tunisia that specialises in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). Biotech SE, a company based in Germany, will be acquiring 100% of the shares of InstaDeep.
AfricInvest had been invested in InstaDeep since April 2019, leading the Series A funding round and later adding a follow-on investment.
The transaction includes a total consideration of approximately £362 million in cash and BioNTech shares, as well as potential performance-based future milestone payments of up to £200 million.
The acquisition is expected to add approximately 240 skilled professionals to BioNTech’s workforce, including teams in AI, ML, bioengineering, data science, and software development.
The primary motivation for the acquisition is to support BioNTech’s strategy of developing AI-driven drug discovery and next-generation immunotherapies to address diseases with high unmet medical need.