Marie Rouquette is COO and Co-Founder at baCta, a Paris-based industrial biotech startup using AI-powered bioproduction to create sustainable industrial ingredients through precision fermentation.

Marie studied biology at Ecole Polytechnique, conducted research at the National University of Singapore, and earned a PhD in Pharmaceutics and Biopharmacy from Universite Paris-Saclay. She previously served as Senior Project Manager at Eligo Bioscience, where she led regulatory affairs and managed clinical and preclinical projects, supporting the company through Series B funding.

Marie co-founded baCta in early 2024 with Mathieu Nohet, driven by impact considerations in industrial biotechnology. At Eligo Bioscience, she successfully guided the company's first program from lab to clinical trials, demonstrating her ability to navigate complex regulatory landscapes.

baCta has raised a total of 10.3 million euros, including a recent 7 million euro seed round led by LocalGlobe and Daphni. The company is scaling up production of astaxanthin, a natural antioxidant, and developing baCtaForge, its AI-driven strain engineering platform that combines synthetic biology, robotics, and generative AI.

baCta aims to replace petrochemical supply chains with biological factories, targeting the 1 billion euro global astaxanthin market across supplements, cosmetics, and aquaculture. The company is partnering with a French industrial player to access production facilities and move toward commercialization in 2026.