Organization

ALTAR

French biotech SME offering industrial microbial strain development through adaptive laboratory evolution and directed evolution as a service.

Technology SMEenvironmentFRSMENo active H2020 projects

H2020 projects

As coordinator

Total EC funding

€2.9M

Unique partners

What they do

Their core work

ALTAR is a French biotech SME based in Evry that specializes in directed evolution and adaptive laboratory evolution of industrial microorganisms. They develop microbial hosts for industrial biotechnology applications, including converting renewable electricity into hydrocarbon fuels and engineering bacteria for chemical production. Their core capability is accelerating microbial strain development through in vivo evolution techniques, which they offer as a service to industry.

Core expertise

What they specialise in

In vivo directed evolution of microorganismsprimary

3 projects

Central to BREEDER (adaptive lab evolution at industrial scale), IDEAS (directed evolution as a service), and supported by SinFonia (engineering Pseudomonas putida).

Industrial biotechnology & white biotechnologyprimary

2 projects

IDEAS explicitly targets industrial microbial hosts and sustainable goods; BREEDER focused on industrial-scale adaptive evolution.

Synthetic metabolism & electrochemical fuel productionsecondary

1 project

eForFuel project: metabolic conversion of electrochemically produced formate into hydrocarbon fuels via engineered microbes.

Synthetic biology & metabolic engineeringsecondary

2 projects

SinFonia focused on synthetic biology-guided engineering of Pseudomonas putida; eForFuel involved synthetic metabolism design.

Digitalization of bioprocess developmentemerging

1 project

IDEAS project keywords include digitalization alongside directed evolution, suggesting integration of digital tools into strain development.

Evolution & trajectory

How they've shifted over time

Early focus

Synthetic metabolism and biofuels

Recent focus

Directed evolution as a service

ALTAR's early work (2018-2019) focused on participating in research-driven projects: engineering microbes for electrochemical fuel production (eForFuel) and synthetic biology for fluorination (SinFonia). By 2019-2021, they shifted decisively toward productizing their core capability — adaptive laboratory evolution — first validating the concept with an SME Phase 1 grant (BREEDER), then scaling it into a full service offering with the well-funded IDEAS project. The trajectory is clear: from research contributor to commercial service provider in industrial microbial evolution.

ALTAR is transitioning from a research partner into a platform company offering microbial evolution services to industry, backed by significant EU funding for commercialization.

Collaboration profile

How they like to work

Role: active_partnerReach: European15 countries collaborated

ALTAR operates in a balanced mode — coordinating their own commercialization projects (BREEDER, IDEAS) while contributing specialist microbial engineering expertise to larger research consortia (eForFuel, SinFonia). With 22 unique partners across 15 countries, they are well-networked for an SME of their size. Their coordination of IDEAS (EUR 2M+) shows they can lead substantial projects, not just participate.

ALTAR has collaborated with 22 distinct partners across 15 countries, an impressively wide network for a small biotech company with only 4 projects. This breadth suggests strong visibility in the European industrial biotechnology community.

Why partner with them

What sets them apart

ALTAR occupies a rare niche: they combine deep expertise in adaptive laboratory evolution with the ambition to offer it as a commercial service (the IDEAS project). Most directed evolution work sits in academic labs; ALTAR is industrializing it. For consortium builders, they bring a practical, SME-driven perspective on turning microbial evolution from a research technique into a scalable industrial tool — particularly valuable for projects needing strain development capabilities without building them in-house.

Notable projects

Highlights from their portfolio

IDEAS
Their largest project (EUR 2M+) and a coordinator role — represents the commercialization of their core directed evolution technology as a service platform.
eForFuel
Ambitious cross-disciplinary project combining electrochemistry with synthetic metabolism to produce hydrocarbon fuels from renewable electricity.
BREEDER
SME Phase 1 feasibility study that seeded their transition from research contributor to commercial service provider in adaptive evolution.

Cross-sector capabilities

Energy — microbial production of biofuels and renewable chemicalsManufacturing — industrial bioprocesses and sustainable productionFood — microbial strain optimization for food-grade biotechnologyHealth — potential application of directed evolution to pharmaceutical microorganisms

Analysis note: With only 4 projects, the profile is directionally clear but based on limited data. The evolution narrative from research participant to service provider is well-supported by the project sequence (BREEDER Phase 1 → IDEAS Phase 2), but broader claims about their capabilities should be verified. No website was available in the data for additional validation.