Glowee

Glowee was a French biotechnology startup that engineered a bioluminescent lighting system built from naturally light producing marine bacteria, encapsulated in a transparent shell and requiring no electricity, wiring, or external infrastructure to glow. Founded in 2014 at the Genopole biotech incubator near Paris by Sandra Rey together with co-founders Geoffroy de Berail and Samuel Juillot, the company grew to roughly 15 to 18 employees at its peak, won more than 20 innovation awards including MIT Innovators Under 35 and the City of Paris Grand Prix de l'Innovation, and installed Rambiolum, the first piece of bioluminescent public urban furniture, in Rambouillet, France. It also developed event lighting, retail window displays, and an immersive exhibition called Biolumia. Reported lifetime funding ranges from about $678,000 per Tracxn, which appears to count only a subset of disclosed rounds, to roughly 5.65 million euros ($5.95 million) across five rounds per French company registry data and CB Insights; no single primary press release confirming one cumulative total was found. The company entered a conciliation and then receivership procedure in early 2023 after a promised European Commission grant failed to arrive, was placed into compulsory liquidation by the Evry commercial court on July 10, 2023, and the liquidation was formally closed for insufficient assets on July 15, 2025. Since early 2024 the Glowee brand name has been used separately by BioDotDotDot Pty Ltd, an Australian company led by CEO Germain Briand, for a licensed line of bioluminescent event and urban lighting services in the Asia Pacific region. That entity is a different legal company, not a continuation of the original French startup, and has not been independently added or verified here.

Company Facts

Headquarters: Paris, France
Founded: 2014
Type: startup
Website: https://www.glowee.eu
Industries: Biotechnology, Sustainable Lighting, Synthetic Biology, Cleantech, Urban Design