BioInnovation Institute (BII), an international non-profit foundation incubating and accelerating life science research, has added 10 new companies to its Venture Lab acceleration program for early-stage companies.
The cohort is aligned with BioInnovation Institute’s focus on supporting innovative early-stage start-ups within human and planetary health.
The 12-month program is designed to support start-up companies with business acceleration, scientific, and team development, and provides a convertible loan of €500,000 ($531,000) plus access to labs and offices at the BII in Copenhagen. In becoming a part of the Venture Lab program, the early-stage companies also get an exclusive opportunity to apply for €1.4 million ($1.5 million) in follow-up funding through BioInnovation Institute’s Venture House program.
Bobby Soni, BioInnovation Institute’s chief business officer, said: “We are pleased to welcome this new cohort of early-stage companies working across the bioindustrials, therapeutics, women’s health and health tech industries to the Venture Lab program. BII’s mission is to create products for the welfare of people and society, and we believe that BII’s support of the innovative science in this Venture Lab cohort will deliver on that promise.”
Each start-up will be supported in undertaking the necessary steps to reach initial proof-of-concept, to make a business plan and to set up a team. Assisted by a dedicated scientific advisor, a leadership coach and a BioInnovation Institute 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.
The new companies are: Agoprene, which develops furniture foam from biomass to help the furniture industry reduce the need for petrochemicals; AIDE Oncology, which selects the best cancer drug for each patient, using the RNA expression pattern of their tumor and machine learning; microbiome company Alba Health; Dawn Bio, a drug discovery platform based on human embryo models for drug development for women’s reproductive health; Droplet IV automatically flushes every IV set at the precise time of medicine termination, ensuring patients’ optimal treatment quality; FÆRM, which provides an enzymatic solution for plant-based cheese; gene therapy company Fuse Vectors; METSYSTEM, which has developed technology to predict cancer metastasis and determine the optimal chemotherapy; NorFalk, which produces sustainable surfactants; and Amplify Therapeutics, which is developing disease-modifying therapies for Gaucher disease and genetic subgroups of Parkinson’s disease.
Since its inception in 2018, BioInnovation Institute has supported 80 start-ups and projects with €65 million ($69 million) alongside the venture capital, industry and business expertise it provides to help them accelerate to the next level. In total, BioInnovation Institute’s start-ups have raised more than €333 million ($353.7 million) in external funding from both local and international investors.
Recent company successes include Adcendo, Stipe Therapeutics, Twelve Bio, Octarine Bio, and Cirqle Biomedical.