The BioInnovation Institute welcomes eight new companies to its Venture Lab program
BII is an international is an international non-profit foundation incubating and accelerating world-class life science research which offers help to early-stage start-ups within human health and planetary health.
The 12-month Venture Lab program is designed to support start-up companies with business acceleration, scientific, and team development, and provides a founder-friendly convertible loan of €500,000 ($544,000) with access to labs and offices at the BII in Copenhagen.
As part of the Venture Lab program, the companies will also get the opportunity to apply for €1.3 million ($1.4 million) in follow-up funding through BII’s Venture House program.
Supporting start-ups
Bobby Soni, chief business officer at BioInnovation Institute, said: “These eight early-stage companies are a fantastic addition to BII’s Venture Lab. The start-ups have been selected as they demonstrate great potential to drive the innovation of solutions to current challenges in human and planetary health. We once again look forward to supporting these start-ups by providing our knowledge, network, funding, and infrastructure to build successful companies.”
Each start-up will be supported in committing to the necessary steps to reach initial proof-of-concept, to make a business plan and to set up a team.
They will be helped by a dedicated scientific advisor, a leadership coach and a BII business development expert. The new ventures will be guided in developing a detailed milestone plan and will be assisted in overcoming the challenges of growing a business allowing them to progress rapidly towards the market.
HPV infection, dysplasia, and cancer
The new companies BII has accepted into the Venture Lab acceleration program include Lorna Therapeutics that is developing targeted immunotherapy for efficient and safe treatment of patients with HPV infection, dysplasia, and cancer. Leopard Biosciences says it is intending to bring the power of molecular testing to where it’s needed most – in the hands of doctors and patients at the point of care while metaLead is developing therapies to treat metal-related diseases, currently focused on Wilson disease, lead poisoning, and neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation. Novozymes’ Venture (corporate sponsored project) is looking at how to play a key role in developing and producing at scale cell culture media ingredients for the cultivated meat industry.
Others include Amalus Therapeutics says it wants to reshape the lives of people affected by cancer and fibrotic diseases, BioHalo is working on the halogenated chemicals industry by starting with the production of more sustainable and bio-based fluorinated polymers and high-performance materials. Visibuilt is a company developing an innovative solution for road construction that replaces fossil ingredients in asphalt and reduces energy consumption during production and finally Rapidemic is developing a molecular point-of-care test for fast and accurate diagnosis of sexually transmitted diseases.
Since its inception in 2018, BII has supported 87 start-ups and projects with €77 million ($84 million) alongside the venture capital, industry and business expertise it provides to help them accelerate to the next level. In total, BII’s start-ups have raised over €424 million ($464 million) in external funding from both local and international investors. Recent company successes include Embark Laboratories, Adcendo, Stipe Therapeutics, Twelve Bio, Octarine Bio, and Cirqle Biomedical.
