BioInnovation Institute’s Post

VBI Incubator Success Story: Prozymi Biolabs 🌟 (Applications Open) Prozymi Biolabs, an innovative Edinburgh-based start-up, is revolutionising gluten-free products with cutting-edge enzyme technology that retains the taste and texture of traditional baked goods. 🍞✨ 🏆 Joining the Venture Builder Incubator (VBI) at The University of Edinburgh, Prozymi received crucial support: - Financial planning and regulatory guidance - Access to a network of investors and industry experts - Mentorship and exposure through national media 🔬 The Challenge: Traditional gluten-free bread often falls short in taste and texture, relying on alternative flours that lack nutrition and appeal. 💡 The Solution: Prozymi developed enzymes that deactivate gliadin, the harmful part of gluten, allowing the use of traditional grains while making them safe for those with gluten intolerance. 🚀 Next Steps: Prozymi aims to launch a minimum viable product, scale their operations, and prepare for an investment round later this year. 📢 Are you ready to turn your research into a thriving business? Apply now to join the next cohort of the Venture Builder Incubator and receive the support you need to succeed. 🔗 Apply here: https://lnkd.in/eN_p8pp6 🗓️ Early Bird Deadline: 10 June 2024 | 🗓️ Final Deadline: 15 July 2024 Andrew Parfery Mary Hardie Data-Driven Innovation Initiative Edinburgh Innovations Techscaler Scottish Enterprise Cancer Research Horizons #startup #incubator #innovation #biotechnology #entrepreneurship

The BioInnovation Institute Institute has now supported over 100 start-ups that collectively have raised over 500M EUR in external financing. I’m proud that BII has been the founding supporter of companies like Adcendo , Teitur Trophics, Synklino, Twelve Bio (aquired by Ensoma ), Breye Therapeutics ApS, Octarine Bio, EvodiaBio , Commit Biologics, Notify Therapeutics, Embark Laboratories (aquired by Novo Nordisk ), Kesmalea Therapeutics , Asgard Therapeutics, Bioomix , and Chromologics These funded and aquired companies show that academic founders are fully able to spin out their science into successful start-ups! What’s next? We are only halfway done with our 1st grant so we aim to support another 100 start-ups from research to market. We will also seek to find ways to deploy our BII platform in new areas and geographies where great science needs to be spun out. DM me if you would like to collaborate to make that happen. Our CEO , Jens Nielsen , was interviewed by Børsen om the occasion and I share his thoughts below. 👇

Being a part of the BioInnovation Institute's Venture Lab program is about learnings, yes most definitely: customer and competitor landscapes, technology and IP-challenges, scaling up and making plans and budgets are all topics that have been covered during our sessions at BII so far. But what I appreciate is that from day 1, the program has revolved around us as founders and groups of people that #sharethedream. Strong and ambitious companies such as EvodiaBio Agrobiomics Upstream Foods Nordic Virtual Pastures and Algiecel. 💪 Valuable learnings from the BII Venture Lab Program include how to take actionable insights, e.g., when it comes to building the strongest possible foundation of any startup: our team, and the role and the responsibility we as founders have in being role models etc. 🙌   #sharethedream #taketheleap #protecttheplanet #sharethedream #planetaryhealth

Sharing information for this year's Coller Startup Competition. Our start-up, Change Bio, was lucky enough to win the £100k prize last year which was absolutely crucial as it was our first money raised. Since then, Lesley Farrah Dorwling-Carter, Coco Hollamby and the whole team at CPT Capital have been incredibly helpful with introductions to other VCs and people in the industry. Can't recommend highly enough! ***** The Coller Startup Competition 2024 edition organised by CPT Capital, in partnership with Accenture, Good Food Institute (GFI) Europe and Alternative Proteins Association (APA), is now officially open for applications.   The competition is open to any students, PhDs, postdocs and academics from a UK university with a new idea or an existing early-stage venture aiming to remove animals from the global supply chain (food, medicine, research, materials etc). The winning startup will receive a £100k investment from CPT Capital.   For more information and to enter the competition, please see the flyer attached and visit the competition website here.   Key Dates: Application deadline: 31st May 2024 Shortlist announced: 10th June 2024 Final and Networking Event: 25th June 2024 - Accenture HQ, Central London

Introducing The Investor Panel For Our Food as Medicine Pitch Event 📣 Vevolution is excited to announce our Food as Medicine Pitch Event on April 25th. In this post we would like to introduce the second investor panelist: Gil Horsky from FLORA Ventures. FLORA Ventures is partnering with purpose-driven entrepreneurs who are redefining the $8T AgriFood & Sustainability industries to make food that is good for people and kind to the planet. The fund is focused on investing in early-stage ventures (Pre-Seed to Series A) from two of the leading AgriFood ecosystems, Israel and Europe, and providing those ventures with all the needed support to successfully scale globally. FLORA’s Investment Criteria: People First and foremost, we back best-in-class purpose-driven founders with big dreams, global ambitions, and the grit to execute and succeed Potential Opportunities with a global scale, high growth potential, and that have the right market dynamics and regulatory path to deliver outlier returns; ventures that solve an unmet need Purpose Ventures that are building a healthier, sustainable, and more resilient AgriFood system, and that are aligned to FLORA’s ESG and impact guidelines At the core the company should have a defensible moat in the form of a differentiated tech, IP, business model, distribution etc. FLORA Ventures Founding Partner Gil Horsky is part of the investor panel for our April Food as Medicine Pitch Event: ———————— 👉 Apply to pitch to FLORA Ventures and many other investors Startups across the following verticals from Stealth to Series A have until April 10th to apply to pitch to 50+ global investors. We will select 4 finalists to pitch in the upcoming two weeks! 🎯 Personalized Nutrition 🌾 Functional Ingredients 🏥 Digital Health Solutions 🧂 Salt Alternatives 🍬 Sugar Alternatives 💪 Sweet Proteins 🦴 Healthy Aging 🧬 Microbiome & Gut Health ⚕️ Metabolic Health 👉 Startups have until Wednesday April 10th to apply: https://lnkd.in/dB-UmcJU 👉 Investors can request their accreditation and access to the event now: https://lnkd.in/dZN9fGYs #pitchevent #foodtech #startups #foodasmedicine #investors #impactinvestors

🇦🇹 EU-Startups spotlights 10 innovative Austrian startups that are not just transforming the local landscape but are also poised to make a significant impact globally. Included in the list, is one of our portfolio startups, Fermify. 🧀 🌱 Founded in 2021 by Eva Sommer and Christoph Herwig, Fermify is disrupting the dairy market through a blend of bioprocess engineering, molecular biology and food science. Fermify’s platform provides a solution for the in-house production of casein proteins, which is the missing piece to producing vegan cheese that tastes great and has the right melt-ability and structure. ⚗️🧪 — a winning combo for vegans, flexitarians or those with a dairy sensitivity looking for an alternative that also lessens their environmental impact.🫕 Read more here ➡ https://lnkd.in/dBcaA65c #startups #impactinvesting #vegan #vegancheese #foodscience #sustainability

📢 Pitching opportunity for #startups in the field of #bioeconomy 📢 The ‘Pitch Perfect and Boost the European Bioeconomy’ event is a 2 day event (the 2nd and 3rd of December) of intense cross-border and cross-sectoral #pitching, #matchmaking and #networking, with the aim to link industry to innovative (#biobased) #technologies, innovators to investors and to create new partnerships for the future and the further development of innovative, cross-border and cross-sectoral industrial value chains in the biobased economy. Startups can apply for a 7 min. #pitch to present their innovative solution or service on the 3rd of December in front of an exclusive audience of potential partners and investors (aim is at 40 investors). The pitches will be granted on a first-come-first-served basis. Deadline for pitch applications is the 15th of October.   👉 For more information and registration: https://lnkd.in/ehpQkEcH Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant biotope by VIB Katlijn Mertens Wim Pappaert Janne Kindt Olivier Van Orshoven Stephanie Verhue

Investor Panel Introductions: Apply to Vevolution’s April 2024 Pitch Event! 📣 Vevolution is excited to announce our Food as Medicine Pitch Event on April 25th. In this post we would like to introduce the fourth and final investor panelist: Subra Balakrishnan from Nourish Ventures Nourish Ventures is on a mission to partner with and scale the industry trailblazers leading the food system of the future. 🎯 Areas of Focus Nourish Ventures is working to advance and accelerate food innovations in the following areas: Alternative Protein  Novel ingredients, processing technologies, and platforms that help scale credible alternatives to animal protein — without compromising human and planetary and planetary health Food Loss Commercialization  Circular economy and upcycling technologies, products, and business models that reduce and repurpose food waste streams. Next-Gen Food Systems  AgTech solutions that enable supply chain transparency and traceability, production side food system innovations, and tech-enabled product development. Health & Wellness  Ingredient technologies and platforms that promote and advance functional, targeted, and personalized health. 🌎 Faster, more efficient pathways to global impact. Knowledge and experience are invaluable in a fast-paced industry. That’s why Nourish mentors, collaborates, guides, and truly partners with new innovators, connecting them to the resources and global communities that will produce the greatest impact. Nourish Ventures Director of Global Business Development, Subra Balakrishnan, is part of the investor panel for our April Food as Medicine Pitch Event: ———————— 👉 Apply to pitch to Nourish Ventures and many other investors Startups across the following verticals from Stealth to Series A have until April 10th to apply to pitch to 50+ global investors. We will select 4 finalists to pitch in the upcoming two weeks! 🎯 Personalized Nutrition  🌾 Functional Ingredients  🏥 Digital Health Solutions  🧂 Salt Alternatives  🍬 Sugar Alternatives  💪 Sweet Proteins  🦴 Healthy Aging  🧬 Microbiome & Gut Health  ⚕️ Metabolic Health 👉 Startups have until Wednesday April 10th to apply: https://lnkd.in/dB-UmcJU 👉 Investors can request their accreditation and access to the event now: https://lnkd.in/dZN9fGYs #pitchevent #foodtech #startups #foodasmedicine #investors #impactinvestors

#fundingalert 💼Company: Cultivated Biosciences 💰Funding: €4.6 Million ⚡Round: Seed 👥Investors: Navus Ventures B.V., Founderful (formerly known as Wingman Ventures). Cultivated Biosciences was founded by Dimitri Zogg, Tomas Turner. Cultivated Biosciences, a pioneering Swiss biotech food startupAlthough they are becoming more popular, plant-based #substitutes are not as popular with consumers because they lack the creaminess that comes from having fat as a #primary ingredient. With the help of the food sector, they will #develop their yeast cream more quickly, and this #financial boost will also help them get ready to sell their product on the market in 2025. Lucie Rein Read more -https://lnkd.in/g4_etXt8 To share your startup story write us on - contact@startuprise.co.uk #cultivatedbiosciences #foodtech #foodsector #biotech #funding #eustartup #enterpreneurship #leadership

At the crux of every startup story lies a compelling challenge: how not to join the unfortunate 20% of new businesses that fold in their first year. Hypercell Technologies, an agrifoodtech company, provides an intriguing case study of flipping this narrative. Starting their quest with a vision to reduce foodborne illnesses, Hypercell Technologies identified an important growth strategy early on; collaboration. Forming relationships with universities like the University of Georgia and the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, they leveraged these alliances for more than just a boost to their reputation. University partnerships helped them secure crucial early-stage funding and connect with top-of-the-line scientists and lab resources. However, Hypercell's tactical move did not end in forging academic partnerships. Recognizing the need for diversity in their collaborative activations, they transitioned from a university incubation ecosystem to EnterpriseWorks, a business incubator at the University of Illinois. This provided an opportunity to mingle with other startups, learn from shared experiences, and cultivate a culture of innovation and camaraderie. The takeaway here is straightforward: pragmatic collaborations can propel new businesses to success. Skirting the dire pitfalls that claim so many others, collaboration allows startups to find their footing, grow, and ultimately thrive in their respective industries. Uncover the untapped potential of smart collaborations in my Forbes article below. #Strategic #Startup #Collaboration