During EAIS24, we had the pleasure of presenting the panel on biotech investment trends, powered by Bionanopolys. Presented speakers were: Märt-Erik Martens, Founder of Gelatex; Stef Denayer, Stakeholder Relations Manager at Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant; Nicolas Rouhana, EBAN Board Member and CEO of IM Funding Capital and acting as panel moderator, Viktorija Trimbel – Managing Director of Coinvest. This panel’s discussion focused on the challenges faced by start-ups in this field and provided key insights into possible solutions and trends that might shape the industry.
One core theme that stood out was: the “valley of death” in biotech, where funding generally falls short in the transitional period between scaling a pilot project up to full industrial production. This gap results in many promising biotech startups being unable to find the necessary capital for large-scale growth. Shared pilot facilities and risk-sharing mechanisms were put forward as ways to meet that challenge. Stef Denayer highlighted how there are a huge number of very well-resourced facilities of this sort in Europe already and instead of building more we need to encourage startups and innovators to use the resources available.
The expert panel also discussed new finance models, like blended finance, which mix grants and venture capital with angel investments to spread risk and encourage investments. Despite the financial and logistical challenges, biotech is resilient and forward-looking. The panellists noted that health and life sciences innovations joined by growing interest in bio-based technologies, are a very attractive investment option with substantial long-term returns. To investors for whom impactful, long-term ventures are the focus, considerable value will be found in this sector since it can solve global health and sustainability needs.
The panel also discussed the impact of geographical disparities within Europe. While Western Europe is able to maintain steady growth thanks to its developed biotech infrastructure, Eastern Europe, despite having plenty of biomass, remains under-resourced. This limits regional scaling opportunities in biotech and underlines the need for more collaboration across borders to help support startup development across the region.
In conclusion, the session underlined that both public support and private investment is needed in scaling up biotech companies. In addition, incentives are needed to avoid developing similar resources for every region independently, but instead to make use of those already available across Europe. For Europe’s biotech industry to fully utilize the strengths it has at this moment in time and create a pathway to impactful growth, it has to overcome the challenges faced in investment, infrastructure, and regulation.