Novozymes and BioInnovation Institute (BII) expand their strategic collaboration to accelerate further innovation and the development of biological solutions to benefit people and society.
As part of the extended collaboration, a newly established venture from Novozymes will participate in BII’s 12-month Venture Lab program, where it will be exposed to a vibrant start-up community and benefit from crucial program elements such as ‘halos’ and ‘crunches’ designed to develop the science, business, and team. Novozymes will appoint a Commercial and Technical Venture Lead to drive the venture as ‘founders’ while collaborating closely with in-house corporate functions. The Leads will spend a significant portion of their time at BII’s premises in the center of Copenhagen to maximize program potential and explore the synergies arising from being part of a start-up community.
“BII has a proven innovation platform built by specialists with a solid track record in maturing early-stage startups. Thus, Novozymes sees the participation of one of our ventures in the Venture Lab program as an exciting opportunity to challenge and potentially strengthen our innovation model and learn from being part of an external innovation environment,” says Thomas Batchelor, Vice President of New Business Development and Long-Term Growth at Novozymes.
He emphasizes that the collaboration aligns well with Novozymes’ strategy of working with intrapreneurship to improve its innovative approaches further and accelerate learning loops in emerging new fields. Currently, BII and Novozymes collaborate primarily on enhancing scouting capabilities for both parties by providing advice and mentoring. This includes sharing knowledge and facilitating contact between BII’s startup portfolio and Novozymes.
Validation of BII’s innovation platform
The BioInnovation Institute is pleased about the collaboration with Novozymes and looks forward to working with the venture from Novozymes to bring it closer to market.
“Our goal is to harness the potential of early-stage startups and bring them closer to the market. We have proven through our programs that we can help life science innovation on the path towards the ultimate goal of commercializing,” says Bobby Soni, Chief Business Officer at BioInnovation Institute.
According to him, Novozymes’ decision validates the success of BII’s innovation platform, and he sees great potential in engaging closely with prominent industrial players to explore the prospect of strengthening open and external innovation.
“Both BII and Novozymes focus on supporting innovative ideas that exploit the potential of harnessing biology to bring products to the market that benefit both people and the planet. We look forward to collaborating even more closely on entrepreneurship to create greater impact,” says Soni.