BioInnovation Institute (BII), a non-profit foundation incubating and accelerating world-class life science research, today announces that twelve new companies have entered its Venture Lab acceleration program for early-stage companies. The cohort is strategically aligned with BII’s focus on supporting innovative early-stage start-ups that can improve human 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 EUR 500,000 (approximately 4M DKK) plus access to labs and offices at BII in Copenhagen. In becoming a part of the Venture Lab program, the early-stage companies also get an exclusive opportunity to apply for EUR 1.3M in follow-up funding through BII’s Venture House program.
Trine Bartholdy, Chief Business Officer at BioInnovation Institute, said: “Working across planetary health, human health and deep tech, these twelve start-ups are aligned perfectly with BII’s mission to enable entrepreneurs to commercialize innovative solutions and technologies that can address current and future societal challenges. At BII, we are looking forward to supporting the start-ups in bringing their ideas to life and research to market by providing our knowledge, network, funding, and infrastructure to build successful companies.”
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 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.
The new companies BII has accepted into the Venture Lab program are:
Planetary Health
Naturpladen is on a mission to replace unsustainable insulation and acoustic panels using fungal mycelium that can upcycle abundantly available biomass into valuable building material.
Mycoverse delivers next-generation biologicals to drive the transition from chemistry to biology in row crops, helping farmers to produce food without use of synthetic chemicals.
Nordic Blue develops an eco-friendly alternative to denim dying, which will eliminate hazardous chemicals used in the production of synthetic indigo and in the dyeing process at the denim mills.
Human Health
Sulis Therapeutics brings new treatments for systemic sclerosis and other diseases of inflammation and fibrosis. The company’s lead program is based around potent and selective inhibitors of STING ((STimulator of INterferon Genes).
GlioRay pioneers novel nanocarrier-based delivery of advanced Auger electron radioligand therapy to fight glioblastoma.
OvartiX develops a drug discovery platform that harnesses large scale multi-omics data, cell-engineered, and animal models to identify, validate and develop next generation therapeutics for female reproductive disorders.
Prenaital delivers high-quality care for all women by leveraging AI-models to improve ultrasound diagnostics in multiple ways.
Analona Therapeutics is committed to revolutionizing the treatment of pancreatic cancer with groundbreaking new antibody-based therapies.
Troya Therapeutics uses protein engineering to control the activity of medicine improving its safety and potency.
Phanofi is on a mission to bring high-speed data communication to everyone by making data centers faster, greener, and more scalable for future generations.
ArcanaBio is revolutionizing diagnostics through the development of a new bio-photonics platform for continuous biomarker detection, which empower people to monitor their everyday health.
DARERL is a provider of digital twin technology for computerized testing and design of medical devices this helps medical device manufacturers virtualize their product development.
Since its inception in 2018, BII has supported 112 start-ups and projects with EUR 105 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 EUR 626 million in external funding from both local and international investors. Recent company successes include Embark Laboratories, MATR Foods, EvodiaBio Adcendo, Twelve Bio, Octarine Bio, and Cirqle Biomedical.
Read more about BII’s Venture Lab program here