Venture Lab
Venture Lab
FUNDING
PURPOSE
ELIGIBILITY
KEY OUTCOME
DURATION
LOCATION
OPEN CALLS
FOLLOW-ON FUNDING
Accelerate your project
Are you looking for funding and professional guidance for your life science start-up? BioInnovation Institute’s Venture Lab program is designed to help early-stage start-ups within human health and planetary health.
The Venture Lab program combines business acceleration, scientific development, and team development and includes a EUR 500,000 risk-free convertible loan. During the program, you conduct key experiments to reach initial proof of concept and receive valuable help to make a business plan and set up a team that will allow you to progress rapidly toward the market.
Start-ups will each have a BII anchor who will closely follow the company’s development. The program comes with a EUR 500,000 risk-free convertible loan, a milestone plan to conduct key experiments, and access to a unique global network of experts and life science VCs.
As part of the Venture Lab program, you will also be considered eligible to apply for BII’s Venture House program.
Check out our most frequently asked questions and read the call guidelines here and reach out to Venture Lab Lead and Senior Associate, Maria Henriques de Jesus, if you are interested in hearing more about the Venture Lab program.
Focus areas
Our programs support life science start-ups operating within human health and planetary health. You can read more about BII’s focus areas here.
Introducing Venture Lab cohort 5
“We all reached a stage in our academic careers where we felt the desire to work on a project that could make a difference in people’s lives. In the Venture Lab program, we get a unique chance to get accustomed to a more commercial way of thinking.”
“My expectations for the VentureLab program is to get the support required for me to create the fundament on which I will build my start-up journey. The support will come from the talented BII business development team as well as BII’s qualified partners.”
“In the Venture Lab program, we receive valuable help and many business insights and become more certain about our value proposition. At the same time, we benefit from BII’s community and receive advice from other companies on a similar journey to ours – Morten Østergaard Andersen, CEO of Bioomix.”
Meet the Venture Lab team
Get in touch with us
Do you have questions regarding one of our programs? Don’t hesitate to reach out to our Grant Manager, Hannah Ochala.
Are you interested in feedback on your application? Then please get in touch with us and arrange a meeting with one of our business developers. Send us a short description of your project (5-10 lines) or a non-confidential pitch deck to meetbd@bii.dk, and we will get back to you with available timeslots.
Meet the Venture Lab start-ups
Our collaborations
When joining the BII programs, start-ups become part of an international community focused on bringing ideas to life and research to market.
In collaboration with our partners, we want to create value for the companies in BII’s programs and our ecosystem. Our program advisory group and financing (VC) partnerships are focused on improving the likelihood of successful exits for our start-ups. The program advisory group of internationally-oriented VC companies advises BII in the selection of start-ups for our programs.
Meet our partners on our collaborations page.
Yes, but as a rule of thumb, only non-dilutive funding is accepted. A small investment from friends and family is fine, but professional investments and certain types of loans may exclude your company from applying. Please be aware of the BII eligibility criteria for company ownership, which can be found in the Application Guidelines.
Yes, but professional investments and certain types of loans may exclude your company from applying for the Venture House program if you wish to do so after Venture Lab. We encourage companies to seek non-dilutive funding from, e.g., Danish governmental programs or EU programs.
It is mandatory for at least one empowered representative of the start-up (founder/management) to be present at the bootcamp, monthly crunches, and Demo Day. Furthermore, the Founders must be able to participate in monthly sessions with our Leadership Coach. It is highly recommended that the entire team is present for key events. In general, we recommend that you build and run your company at BII.
You are not required to have generated or filed IP but must have an idea of what could be created from your development plan. If your company will be based on already generated IP, ideally, the IPR is already owned by or licensed to your company. Alternatively, we ask that you have a draft Term Sheet from the IP owner (e.g., university tech transfer office) stating your willingness to enter into an exclusive license agreement on market terms.
Each company will get a dedicated BII anchor who will follow your progress and support you through the program. You will have monthly anchor meetings and continuous coaching with our program content providers.
There is no specific number of companies that are accepted in each call.
No, as long as you are willing to establish a Danish company if your application is approved. If the Danish company will be a subsidiary, your current company must fulfill the eligibility criteria for companies.
Yes! However, if you are not an EU citizen, you will need a work permit if you wish to relocate to Copenhagen. Please reach out to our friends at Copenhagen Capacity to clarify your options.
Not at all. You can apply without a company but you need to establish a Danish company if you are accepted into to program.
The off-site bootcamp is the official kickoff for the program. The goal is to prepare you for the time at BII and introduce you to the other teams and the program content providers.
The loan includes no personal guarantees of repayment from the founders. In case of liquidation (company closure), the unrepaid balance of the loan will be into a grant from BII.
12 months
The goal is to accelerate the scientific maturity of the innovation to attract further funding and develop a solid business plan and entrepreneurial skills for your team. When you finish the program, you will be ready to execute your business plan and have the opportunity to attain follow-up funding through BII’s Venture House program or other types of funding.
BII provides a founder-friendly convertible loan of DKK 4M. See the loan terms in the Applicant Guidelines.
Companies within the fields of therapeutics, bioindustrials, and health tech. The companies must have strong commercial aspirations and novel ideas that can benefit human health and/or planetary health.
Besides the other program participants, you will collaborate with world-class coaches, the BII staff, experienced entrepreneurs, and subject matter experts.
