On Thursday, June 22, BioInnovation Institute (BII) held its largest Demo Day yet at Langelinie Pavillonen in Copenhagen. The event attracted 300 guests, spanning investors, start-ups, industry, and the broader Danish life science ecosystem, who gathered to celebrate the remarkable efforts of Venture Lab cohorts #2 & #3 in a traditional pitch competition where a winner was announced from each Venture Lab cohort.
Among the high-growth start-ups of Venture Lab cohort #2, planetary health start-up Nordic Virtual Pastures won the award for best pitch. Spearheaded by CEO Jan Dideriksen, Nordic Virtual Pastures aims to accelerate the cultured meat revolution with their innovative “virtual media” for meat cell propagation. Their goal is to enable consumers to enjoy meat without the ethical and environmental concerns associated with traditional meat production methods.
“Demo Day is the culmination of 12 months of intense business and scientific development. This year was special for Nordic Virtual Pastures as we showcased our journey and results, thrilled to see both venture lab cohorts and Bio Studio projects on the stage. Winning the best pitch was the icing on the cake of an extraordinary year! Thanks to the BII staff and the entire community for their support!” says Jan Dideriksen, CEO of Nordic Virtual Pastures.
Learn more about Nordic Virtual Pastures in this interview.
The Venture Lab cohorts have an almost equal distribution of start-ups addressing human health and planetary health challenges—ten focusing on the former and seven on the latter. For Venture Lab cohort #3, food tech start-up Upstream Foods took home the award for best pitch.
Upstream Foods, founded in Wageningen, the Netherlands, aims to uplevel seafood alternatives using advanced cell-culture techniques to create the tastiest fats that provide all the complex flavors, oily mouthfeel, and health benefits of traditional seafood.
“We are very honored! Demoday was a great finale to our journey through VentureLab. We have learned a lot, but more importantly, we have become more resilient founders. That is something that will stay with you no matter what. We look forward to the next chapter in our story!” says Kianti Figler, CEO of Upstream Foods.
Learn more about Upstream Foods in this interview.
For the Venture Lab participants, Demo Day is the culmination of a year’s tireless work to mature their scientific innovations, build exceptional teams, and develop solid business plans.
Although Demo Day marked a significant milestone, it does not signify the end of the journey for Nordic Virtual Pastures, Mello, Aiomic, Tetrakit Technologies, and Ousia Pharma, These companies have been chosen to participate in our Venture House program, a follow-up program for Venture Lab participants, enabling them to continue their development at BII. Over the next 18 months, they will work towards producing a prototype or lead candidate and securing substantial funding through a Series A capital or a similar financing method. This endeavor will be supported by an additional convertible loan of DKK 10M.
The day also included pitches from two early-stage projects in BII’s Bio Studio program, Space M and Pegmata, for whom the day signified the end of a three-year journey – from initial research conceptualization to the establishment of fully fledged companies.
To explore all the start-ups that took part in Demo Day, click here.