FAST Fall 2024 Cohort Announced
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A dozen life sciences startups have been selected to receive 12 weeks of business mentoring from expert advisors through California Life Sciences’ advisory program, FAST California. Now in its eleventh year, FAST supports founders of early-stage disruptive and innovative life science startups. Join us on December 10 at our Innovation Showcase, where these founders will present to an audience of investors and collaboration partners.
As part of the Innovation Showcase, CLS will host a partnering forum for founders of cutting-edge life science technology startups to connect with investors to advance their products to commercial success. Startups are selected through a competitive application process. Apply by October 15 to be considered for in-person partnering meetings.
FAST California provides founders of disruptive innovative life science technology companies with a customized advisory program to perfect their business models, assess strategic focus, maximize IP, and help develop a milestone and scale-up plan to exit. A group of curated advisors, each with deep domain expertise, will work with them over twelve weeks to build a compelling commercialization strategy and prepare them for California Life Sciences biannual Innovation Showcase, where they will present to a curated audience of potential investors and collaboration partners. Over 150 startups have graduated from this program over the past decade, and they have collectively raised more than 2 billion dollars in funding. FAST California is offered at no cost and no equity is taken. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.
FAST Alumni in the news:
- In Sept 2024, Inflammatix (2017 FAST cohort) secured $57 Million to advance novel diagnostic for patients with suspected infections or sepsis.
- In March 2024, Siolta Therapeutics (2017 FAST cohort) raised $12M for developing live microbiome-based therapeutics.
- In Dec 2023, Fauna Bio (2019 FAST cohort) announced a strategic collaboration with Lilly to discover novel obesity targets using ConvergenceTM AI platform.
- In Dec 2023, Encellin (2017 FAST cohort), closed $9.9M financing led by Khosla Ventures to advance cell encapsulation platforms for endocrine disorders.
- In Oct 2023, Shasqi (2016 FAST cohort), founded in 2015 on research work that was awarded the Nobel prize in 2022, entered a strategic partnership with Johnson & Johnson in 2023 to advance targeted cancer treatment.
To learn more about the startups, please visit 2024 Fall FAST Cohort.
Contact
Shikha Sharma, PhD
Senior Director of Innovation & Entrepreneurship
California Life Sciences
[email protected]