Biotech manufacturing · Cell-free protein synthesis
Invitris
A Munich spinout making protein-based drugs, bacteriophages against drug-resistant bacteria first, without living cells. It grew from a 2018 student competition through Y Combinator and a European Innovation Council grant, and now pitches itself as manufacturing infrastructure for AI-designed medicine.
A Lego set that builds itself
In a 2023 interview with the German trade magazine Laborjournal, Kilian Vogele described the core idea in one line: “Im Prinzip ist der Bauplan komplett vorhanden, es funktioniert alles über Selbstassemblierung. Das ist ein bisschen so wie Lego, das sich selbst zusammenbaut.” The plan is entirely there, everything works through self-assembly, a bit like Lego that assembles itself.
He was talking about a cell extract, not a living cell. Invitris strips E. coli of its membrane, DNA and metabolites, keeping only the machinery that reads DNA and builds proteins. Add phage DNA, salts and amino acids, and the extract makes complete, infectious virus particles in a test tube, no bacterium required.
The idea started as a competition entry. Vogele, a physicist finishing his doctorate at TUM's Chair of Physics of Synthetic Biological Systems, hosted a 2018 iGEM team called Phactory. Sixteen students spent about a year trying to synthesize bacteriophages cell-free, presented at the iGEM finals in Boston, and placed second among more than 350 international teams.
The problem it is aimed at
The World Health Organization ranks multidrug-resistant infections among the largest threats to health. TUM's press office cited 33,000 EU deaths a year from bacterial infections antibiotics can no longer treat. Bacteriophages, viruses that infect only specific bacteria and leave humans and the wider microbiome alone, are one of the oldest alternatives on record, used clinically in Eastern Europe for decades.
The catch has always been production. Growing phages the standard way means growing the target bacteria first, rebuilding the process for every new phage, and risking contamination with the bacterial toxins the product is meant to fight. A cell-free extract sidesteps that: no bacterial host, no toxin carryover, and the same base extract can in principle be pointed at different phages by swapping the DNA fed into it.
Whether that advantage survives regulators and the clinic is still open. The company's own Y Combinator page claims Phactory makes drug development “10,000x more efficient” at “100x lower” cost, figures not verified by an outside body.
Two founders
After 2018 the Phactory team scattered back to their own projects. Patrick Grossmann, a bioinformatician and entrepreneur with a PhD and an MBA, contacted Vogele in 2019 about an unrelated matter. “Im Laufe des Gesprächs kamen wir aber auf das iGEM-Projekt zu sprechen und zu dem Schluss, dass es ein interessanter Therapie-Approach wäre, den wir gut kommerzialisieren können,” Vogele told Laborjournal in 2023, in the course of the conversation they landed on the iGEM project and concluded it was a therapy worth commercializing.
The pair applied for an EXIST-Forschungstransfer grant, a German federal program that funds founders while they are still university employees, letting Vogele and two other former Phactory students draw a salary while building the company. Patrick Grossmann became CEO, Kilian Vogele CTO. Franziska Winzig and Sophie von Schoenberg, also former Phactory students, joined the team.
A joint TUM and EurekAlert release from July 2022 credited the underlying science to a Cell Chemical Biology paper describing cell-free production of a personalized phage against a real patient's antibiotic-resistant skin infection. Y Combinator's company page describes that same doctoral research as having been “honored in the famous magazine Science,” a claim the company repeats elsewhere. The paper both TUM and EurekAlert cite, however, ran in Cell Chemical Biology, a Cell Press journal, not in Science.
From lab bench to registered company
Invitris GmbH entered the Munich commercial register, HRB 279960, in 2022, with Vogele and Grossmann as managing directors. INCATE, the Incubator for Antibacterial Therapies in Europe backed by Boehringer Ingelheim, Roche, Shionogi and MSD Germany, picked the team for Stage I in January 2022 and, in May 2023, made Invitris the first venture to win Stage II funding, 250,000 euros to complete the technology transfer out of TUM. By June 2023 the company had six full-time staff at the Innovations- und Gründerzentrum Biotechnologie (IZB) in Planegg.
Y Combinator admitted Invitris to its Winter 2023 batch. In February 2025, the European Innovation Council selected the company for its Accelerator program, choosing 71 companies from over 1,200 applicants for a package that can include up to 2.5 million euros in grants plus, for most winners, an equity investment. BioM, which had already given Invitris its m4 Award in 2021 (a Bavarian pre-seed prize split among five teams every two years, 2.5 million euros total), headlined the EIC news another success for the m4 Award winner.
The most recent public change on record is a management one. A commercial-register aggregator, databyte, logs Vogele's exit as managing director in 2026, leaving Grossmann as the sole registered Geschäftsführer. Neither party has published an explanation, and Vogele's LinkedIn profile still lists him as co-founder and scientific lead.
What is proven, and what is still claimed
| Evidence | What the record shows | Source type |
|---|---|---|
| Founding science | Cell-free production of personalized therapeutic phages, Cell Chemical Biology, Jul 11, 2022, TUM and Bundeswehr Hospital Berlin co-authors, including Vogele. | Public record |
| Claim: featured in Science magazine | Company and YC copy say the doctoral research was “honored in the famous magazine Science.” TUM and EurekAlert cite that work to Cell Chemical Biology, not Science. | Differs from record |
| iGEM 2018 result | TUM/LMU team Phactory placed second of over 350 teams at the iGEM finals, per Vogele's account to Laborjournal. | Independent |
| Commercial registration | Invitris GmbH, HRB 279960, Munich, registered 2022. Address changed to Am Klopferspitz 19, Planegg in 2024. Vogele recorded as exiting as managing director in 2026, leaving one sole managing director on file. | Public record |
| INCATE funding | Stage I, Jan 2022, up to €10,000. Stage II, May 2023, €250,000, first venture chosen. | Independent |
| m4 Award | Won the 2021 round of BioM's m4 Award, a Bavarian pre-seed prize shared by five teams every two years, €2.5 million total across that round's winners. | Independent |
| EIC Accelerator | Selected Feb 2025, one of 71 chosen from over 1,200 applicants, program offers up to €2.5 million in grants, most winners also get equity. | Independent |
| SPRIND Orbital Bioworks | Company site states Invitris was selected for SPRIND's microgravity challenge (up to €1.65M per team), Jul 2026. No independent confirmation found. | Company-stated |
| Clinical trials, FDA records | None found. Invitris is pre-clinical, no FDA 510(k), PMA or registered trial on record. | Not found |
| Headcount | Six full-time, Jun 2023, per Laborjournal. No later figure found. | Independent, dated |
Read plainly: the underlying cell-free phage science was peer reviewed, and the company has collected a run of European non-dilutive funding, from INCATE through the m4 Award to the EIC Accelerator, that a purely commercial biotech usually does not see. Not yet on the public record: any clinical or regulatory milestone, a named pharma partner with disclosed terms, or a current headcount. The company's marketing language runs ahead of what the cited sources actually say.
What to watch
- Whether Invitris files a US Form D or discloses a priced round; the only SEC filing found is a small investment vehicle.
- What follows Vogele's 2026 exit from the managing director role on the Munich register.
- Terms of the EIC award and any named pharma partner tied to the shift toward "AI-guided" manufacturing.
- A first disclosed clinical or GMP milestone for a phage product.
In their words
“Im Prinzip ist der Bauplan komplett vorhanden, es funktioniert alles über Selbstassemblierung. Das ist ein bisschen so wie Lego, das sich selbst zusammenbaut.”
Kilian Vogele, co-founder and CTO, Laborjournal interview, June 2023 · Interview
“Wir haben eine Methode entwickelt, Bakteriophagen außerhalb ihrer bakteriellen Wirte herzustellen. Damit können wir Antibiotika-resistente Keime behandeln.”
Kilian Vogele, Laborjournal, August 2021 · Interview
“Im Laufe des Gesprächs kamen wir aber auf das iGEM-Projekt zu sprechen und zu dem Schluss, dass es ein interessanter Therapie-Approach wäre, den wir gut kommerzialisieren können.”
Kilian Vogele, on meeting Patrick Grossmann in 2019, Laborjournal, June 2023 · Interview
“INCATE stage I was integral to validating our technology and business model. We would not have been so well prepared to transfer out of an academic setting without INCATE. To be selected as the first team to win stage II is a confirmation of our potential to build a successful company.”
Patrick Grossmann, CEO, IZB news release, May 2023 · Company-stated
“Bacteriophages offer an enormous potential for the highly effective, personalized therapy of infectious bacterial diseases.”
Gil Westmeyer, TUM Professor of Neurobiological Engineering, TUM press release, July 2022 · Independent
“This production method is not only fast and efficient, but it's also very clean”
Gil Westmeyer, TUM press release, July 2022 · Independent
“Invitris is leading the way on advancing the pace of AI-guided design for the production of therapeutic products. Their autonomous GMP manufacturing capabilities set them apart.”
Dr. Michael Jewett, Stanford University, scientific advisor, quoted on the Invitris website · Company-stated
Related companies
Sources
- Public recordCell-free production of personalized therapeutic phages targeting multidrug-resistant bacteria, Cell Chemical Biology
- Public recordInvitris GmbH, Handelsregister HRB 279960, Munich district court
- Public recordForm D, Invitris I, a series of Capitalize Investments LLC
- IndependentBakterienfresser aus dem Bioreaktor
- InterviewInvitris offeriert zellfreie Proteinproduktion, interview with Kilian Vogele
- IndependentViruses help combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria
- IndependentViruses help combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria
- IndependentInvitris receives 250,000 EUR to complete spin-out from TUM
- IndependentINCATE catalyzes critical growth stage at m4 Award winner Invitris
- IndependentInvitris wins EIC Accelerator Funding, another success for the m4 Award winner
- IndependentSPRIND “Orbital Bioworks” Challenge program description
- IndependentCollaboration with phage pioneer Invitris
- CompanyInvitris: Creating new protein-based drugs at scale, company profile and launch post
- CompanyINVITRIS launches, Simplifying drug development & manufacturing
- CompanyInvitris homepage, Building the manufacturing layer for AI medicine
- CompanyInvitris about-us page and platform description
Profile researched and written by Healthcare Discovery. Last updated September 29, 2026.
