A51’s Post

❗Winning 🏅 i-Lab 2025: LinkedIn <> Reality ❗ Earlier this year, we decided to test our tech - and our endurance - against the highest possible standard: the innovation award i-Lab. At the time we were traveling across the US, living out of a suitcase, working during the day, and writing the application at night. The right photo: filming the pitch at 5 a.m. in St. Louis, Missouri, minutes before the deadline, with a phone balanced in a toaster on top of a trashcan. Glamorous? No. Worth it? Absolutely. Because... ... it worked!  🔥 A51 just won i-Lab 2025 - the national innovation award in the very same year it launched!  i-Lab is one of the toughest deeptech challenges, designed to select only the most promising, high-impact deeptech startups. Winning it means rigorous validation of business, science, and ambition behind our company - from a jury of top researchers, investors, and entrepreneurs. We’re building ⚡ADA⚡, an RNA programming engine 💻🧬 - a technology stack that programs RNA molecules to control cell behavior. This will unlock a new layer of biology, one where RNA is not just a messenger, but a programmable interface. We’re not the ones to go for the lowest hanging fruit. 🏋 Delivering something this ambitious requires an incredible level of intellectual and personal alignment, plus the willingness to grind it out no matter what. I’ve had several careers before but none *this fun* - thank you Viktor for sharing this (ad)venture with me! #iLab2025 #iLab #innovation #DeepTech #startuplife #bpifrance