BioInnovation Institute (BII), an international non-profit institute incubating and accelerating world-class life science research, today announces that five companies are to receive additional financial support through its Venture House program, created to further support former Venture Lab companies through their next phase of growth.
The 18-month Venture House program provides exclusive follow-on funding in the form of a founder-friendly convertible loan, of EUR 1.3M, to selected companies that have already benefitted from BII’s 12-month Venture Lab program designed to support business acceleration, scientific and team development. As part of the Venture House program, companies will also take advantage of BII’s extensive network to help establish a strong board, chairman and key scientific advisors. This is the fifth cohort of companies to be accepted into the Venture House program since its launch in August 2022.
To support product innovation and ecosystem growth, the program consists of four executive sprints, each focused on a key development area to help mature the project and ultimately attract further funding. The first sprint focuses on helping companies develop an operational plan, while the following sprints provide training and support in fundraising, partnership, and leadership.
Trine Bartholdy, Chief Business Officer at BioInnovation Institute, said: “The selected companies align with BII’s mission, to enable and support researchers and innovators to develop new solutions to benefit human and planetary health. That is why we are proud to further support these companies through the Venture House program and bring them companies closer to receiving external investment and commercializing their products and technologies.”
All five companies have partaken in BII’s Venture Lab program that supports business acceleration, scientific development and team development in which each company received a risk-free convertible loan of EUR 500,000 plus access to labs and offices at the BII’s entrepreneurial ecosystem in the center of Copenhagen. Thus, after entering the Venture House program they have received in total EUR 1.8M. The new companies BII has accepted into the Venture House program are:
Visibuilt, a company that is developing a patent-pending fungal binder to replace bitumen, the fossil binder currently used in asphalt production. Bitumen causes asphalt production to be highly energy-intensive and reliant on oil. This is a global challenge, as asphalt is produced similarly worldwide, presenting a significant opportunity for Visibuilt’s binder, visiBIT.
Loma Therapeutics, the company is on a mission to develop the best possible treatment for HPV-induced cancer. With a unique design incorporating an unprecedented amount of HPV material, Loma has the potential to revolutionize HPV cancer treatment. Because of increasing incidence rates driven by HPV infection and a high unmet need caused by harsh current treatment options, throat cancer is the first target for Loma, followed by expansion into cervical and other anogenital regions.
Cymab, a company founded by experienced biotech entrepreneurs with an ambition to reshape the future for patients with non-immunogenic tumors. Cymab’s lead candidate is targeting PSMA and treating metastatic hormone resistant prostate cancer. The pipeline is being developed for additional tumor targets to effectively treat more patients with solid cold tumors.
BioHalo, a company that aims to develop bio-based materials using microbial cell factories as safe and sustainable alternatives to PFAS for industrial applications, ensuring high performance while fostering positive impacts on both the environment and human health.
Aida Oncology, a company that has developed a technology that can radically improve the effectiveness of prescribed cancer drugs. Only one in four cancer treatments is currently effective. Aida address this challenge by providing guidance to the doctor on which drugs have the highest likelihood of response, by using algorithms to mine the unique gene expression patterns of each patient’s tumour and predict the tumour’s response to individual drugs.
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 over EUR 626 million in external funding from both local and international investors. Recent company successes include Embark Laboratories, Adcendo, Matr Foods, Twelve Bio, Octarine Bio, EvodiaBio, and Cirqle Biomedical.
Read more about the Venture House program here.