BioInnovation Institute welcomes 11 new startups to its Venture Lab acceleration program

BioInnovation Institute (BII), a non-profit foundation incubating and accelerating world-class innovation, announced that eleven new companies entered its Venture Lab acceleration program. The cohort is strategically aligned with BII’s focus on supporting early-stage start-ups within human health, planetary health and quantum.

The 12-month Venture Lab program is designed to support start-up companies with business acceleration, scientific, and team development, and provides a founder-friendly convertible loan of EUR 500,000 (approximately 4M DKK) plus access to labs and offices at BII in Copenhagen. In becoming a part of the Venture Lab program, the early-stage companies also get an exclusive opportunity to apply for EUR 1.3M in follow-up funding through BII’s Venture House program.

The new companies BII has accepted into the Venture Lab program are:

• ‍2D is accelerating the green transition through sustainable technologies—powered by scalable, affordable graphene. The company is a spinout from Technical University of Denmark.‍
• Vasuqi is eliminating the toughest industrial pollutants with light - unlocking true water circularity. The company is collaborating closely with DTU and is the first company in BII's portfolio within clean tech/water tech. ‍
• Cerentry is enabling systemic drug delivery to the brain (co-financed as part of our partnership with the Lundbeck Foundation). The company is based on science from Mette Rosenkilde’s group at the University of Copenhagen, which scientific work laid the foundation for companies such as Synklino, Antag Therapeutics and Bainan Biotech.‍
• Étiquette believes that the future of wine is fermentation, not industrial stripping. So, the company redesigned fermentation to create alcohol free wine with full flavour and structure, seamlessly inside existing wineries.‍
• Combotope Therapeutics develops tumor-selective antibodies against cancer-exclusive glyco-epitopes, combining sweet tumor selectivity with sharp target-specificity. By redefining targeting at the epitope level, we expand therapeutic index and enable safer tumor therapies.‍
• Anorit Medical is on a mission to increase survival from cardiac arrest, with an automatic ventilation device for bystanders. The company is a spinout from Aarhus University.‍
• Equilibrium Diagnostics provides a non-invasive assessment of the kidney's tubular function based on urinary ammonium and pH in chronic kidney disease. The company is a spinout from Aarhus University. ‍
• Ibnova Therapeutics is building the next frontier of heart repair with their vascularized engineered heart tissue patches. The goal is to transform the trajectory of heart disease for patients who continue to decline despite today’s best drugs and devices. Ibnova Therapeutics is a spinout from the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Medicine (reNEW) at the University of Copenhagen. The company is based on world-class research from Professor Enzo Porello from reNEW's Melbourne node and Professor James Hudson from the University of Queensland.‍
• Heureka Therapeutics are transforming fatty liver disease with a dual-acting molecule that safely restores liver function, offering hope to millions living with the silent killer. Heureka is a spinout company from the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research at the University of Copenhagen and based on the same scientific foundation as the company Ousia Pharma that raised a three-digit investment from Omega Funds last year.‍
• 1st Biome develop next-generation probiotics with enhanced health benefits to prevent serious health conditions. The company is a spinout from Technical University of Denmark.‍
• QFactory is building bespoke quantum systems for next-generation quantum sensing. The company is a spinout from Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen.

“These eleven startups reflect the breadth and ambition of innovation emerging across human health, planetary health, and quantum technologies. By supporting visionary entrepreneurs in translating cutting-edge science into real-world solutions, BII continues its mission to help build companies that can tackle some of the most pressing challenges facing society today and in the future.” - Chief Business Officer at BII, Trine Bartholdy, commented.

‍

photo credit: BioInnovation Institute/Esben Zøllner Olesen