Aviwell and the EIC Accelerator: Gut Bacteria to Grow Livestock

Aviwell, a Toulouse company legally named Centre de recherche et de développement des anatidés du Courtalet, develops direct-fed microbials: mixes of native gut bacteria given once, early in an animal's life, to steer growth and metabolism. It also built an AI discovery platform to find new bacterial combinations, and said it needed EIC money to finish both and reach "market-approval and entry", according to CORDIS.

The European Innovation Council granted €2,500,000 towards an €8.23 million project from December 2022 to November 2025. The final report says Aviwell filed four patents, formed research partnerships and is running product demonstration trials in Europe and the Americas, but also that it "is in the early stages of development". A CORDIS results article says the platform, Aneto, found a feed additive now sold as Nectar. In January 2026 Aviwell announced an €11 million Series A. Its revenue in 2025 was €101,000, according to Pappers.

Where Aviwell Stands Now

The Series A was led by Blue Revolution Fund, an aquaculture and nutrition investor, with Blast.Club and SWEN Capital Partners. Aviwell said the money would take its poultry and aquaculture bacterial mixes "from discovery through validation and scale-up" and expand Aneto as a service for other companies. At the end of 2025 it held €8.98 million in cash and €10.5 million in equity, up from €572,000 and €719,000 a year earlier. No EIC Fund investment has been announced.

The Technology: Engineering the Gut Early

According to the report, Aviwell sequences animals' gut microbiota to measure how a trait such as feed conversion ratio in broiler chickens varies, uses its algorithms to find bacterial combinations linked to the desired trait, then manufactures and feeds them to young animals. The report says the approach is "proven" in "multiple in-house studies" but publishes no trial data. The company describes the result as improved feed efficiency and immune support without antibiotics.

What the EIC Project Promised, and What CORDIS Shows

The project promised to complete and optimise the platform and its products and take them to market approval and entry. The platform was completed and one product is on sale. The report still describes the company as early-stage and says it needs "further research, demonstration, access to markets and finance". No regulatory approval for a specific product is named. CORDIS still lists the project as signed.

1. Discovery platformDeliveredAneto validated.
2. Intellectual propertyDeliveredFour patents filed.
3. Market entryStartedNectar; €101k in 2025.
4. Published efficacy dataNoneIn-house studies only.

The Money

Aviwell's revenue rose from €4,410 in 2024 to €101,000 in 2025, all of it from exports. It lost €1.34 million in 2024 and €948,000 in 2025, spending €686,000 on wages in 2025. Its earlier accounts were filed with a confidentiality declaration, according to the official gazette BODACC, so the losses over the whole EIC project are not public.

What Cannot Be Checked

Why Europe Should Care

The EIC backed a French alternative to antibiotics and growth promoters in livestock. Private investors have since put in €11 million, but the evidence that the bacteria work at commercial scale is still internal to the company.

The Verdict

Aviwell and the EIC have not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on public records and published statements, linked throughout.