Increasing the Chances of Early Stage Biotechs to Get Successfully Funded

There is an unmet need in the current market environment for biotech startups to move to market more quickly while being strappy. The greatest challenges at this early stage are attracting investments based on viable drug development pathways, medical device maturity and development risk. Reducing the hurdles for successful funding along with partnering and mentorship with an accelerator enables a faster path to getting funded.

Venture backed funding, via the VC route, makes investment decisions based on the therapeutic area trends, the startup team, and the biotechnology. While the VC route is highly selective, the expectations are similar to big pharma deals: a detailed 1-2 year roadmap, competitive advantage, business model, mentors/advisors, IP protection, regulatory strategy, development milestones to progress to clinic with human translatability success, budgets to scale up manufacturing, funding strategy and future exits. VCs tend to be risk averse and require a clear path to meaningful milestones and ROI.

Biotech startups are increasingly turning to private accelerators to get them investor ready. Startup accelerators supporting early-stage biotechs with a team of experienced advisors have become an attractive and viable pathway. Biotech startups that successfully receive early-stage funding come from accelerators with competitive programs providing cross matrix team mentorship, focused training for investor pitch readiness along with a peer group of startup founders/advisors and exposure to investors. Startups who graduate from top tier accelerator programs have a 60%-70% probability for funding.

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