Biotech start-ups get Silicon Valley profit boost

Global Business

Biotech start-ups get Silicon Valley profit boost

In the world of investing, Biotech and venture capital can have a rocky relationship. But the Indie.Bio accelerator in San Francisco is working to change those perceptions with some unique startups.

CCTV America’s Mark Niu has the details.

Mycelium is the underground root of mushrooms. Months later before investors at Indie.Bio accelerator demo day, MycoWorks unveils the fruits of its labor.

A replacement for leather that instead of taking three years to raise and kill an animal, can be grown in two weeks.

“These are not theoretical businesses that we build in business school. These are real companies. We teach founders how to hire for strength and also for weakness,” Ryan Bethencourt, program director at Indie.Bio said.

Science and venture capital don’t always have chemistry. Just ask the founder of blood testing startup Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes, who health regulators banned from running a lab for at least two years after discovering testing deficiencies.

mFluiDx is working on a diagnostic test the size of a stick of gum, that could be deployed to test for infectious diseases like Zika and Dengue Fever and have the results in 30 minutes.

Trust with customers will also be vital for BioNascent, which is working on extracting proteins from human breast milk and putting it into infant formula.

“There’s still a higher rate of obesity and immortality in infants particularly in premature infants if they’re not given breast milk, so what we’re doing is instead of trying to keep on trying to change cow milk, look to the magic which is breast milk,” Terri Anderson, Chief Communications Officer at BioNascent said.

The Indie.Bio accelerator said its previous 26 companies have raised 23 million dollars in the past year alone, a good start in its quest to close the loop between science and profit.


Replacement leather created by MycoWorks, composed of mushroom


mFluidX’s diagnostic test kit to diagnose infectious diseases