Find the path to biotech startup success at Benchling’s Build Your Bench, Europe

The last year has seen biotech records smashed, with venture capital investment in healthtech and biotech startups surging past previous years, heralding a record number of new unicorn companies with ground breaking technologies. We are in the midst of a “bio revolution”, with double-digit annual growth in fundraising from VCs and triple-digit growth in IPOs in the life sciences industry. This biotech revolution will continue to forge our future with critical advancements in technologies, from medicines, to foods, to materials.

With all of this success, there is a global spotlight on the industry, and there is no better time to be a biotech startup. However success is not guaranteed. As global management consultant McKinsey warns, this is a space in which “scientific promise does not necessarily translate into business performance... a stronger focus on execution could help biotechs create more value from their assets and technologies.”

That’s why at this year’s Build Your Bench, Europe, we are bringing together rising biotech stars to provide young startups with invaluable insights, best practices, and proven strategies to successfully start — and scale — their business in today’s thriving, but competitive global economy. 

On May 10, we invite you to join us at Build Your Bench, Europe: How to Start & Scale a Biotech Company where you’ll hear directly from peer companies who have not only devised ingenious scientific solutions to pressing problems, they’ve also cracked the code on how to grow a successful business.

Sessions at a glance

Strategies for success

Learn first-hand how successful biotech founders approached team building, financing, and R&D pipeline and platform decision making.

Featured speakers include

Theodor Pramer, Founder , Biomedrex

Biomedrex has created an adaptable, reusable method for improving the efficacy and safety of antiviral drugs against pathogenic viruses that currently have no cure, including SARS-CoV-2 and HIV-1.

Charlie Cotton PhD, Co-Founder & Chief Scientific Officer, Cambrium

Cambrium's mission is to trigger the next wave of material innovation - by programming proteins at scale, for scale. They anticipate a Cambrian explosion of biomaterials to address the world’s most pressing problems.

The venture capital perspective

Hear from leading investors as they discuss the current biotech funding environment, emerging trends, and what they believe are the most critical factors for success in new biotech ventures.

Featured speakers include

Robert Schier, Ph.D., Senior Investment Director at Swisscanto Private Equity at Zürcher Kantonal Bank

Swisscanto is a leading provider of asset management services, offering fund products for a wide range of asset classes including Biotech & Pharma, Energy & Cleantech, Medtech, Micro and Nanotech.

Thilo Schroeder, Ph.D., Managing Partner at Nextech Invest

Nextech is a global, private equity and venture capital firm that focuses almost exclusively on precision therapies in oncology and helping to drive value creation for its portfolio companies.

Making your first year count

Early-stage biotechs must make a range of initial decisions that impact their R&D strategy, corporate development, and team culture for years to come. Hear from experts who have navigated these decisions and can share practical steps for your first year of development. 

Featured speakers include

Frank Kensy, Ph.D., Co-founder & Managing Director, b.fab

b.fab specialises in the efficient conversion of CO and renewable energy into biotechnological value chains for the production of feed proteins, biopolymers and chemicals.

Sheena Smith, Ph.D., Director & Head of Program Management, Vector BioPharma

A technology-driven start-up company providing precision gene delivery solutions based on academic research in protein engineering to provide a revolutionary solution to the “delivery problem”.

Setting the right digital foundations

Hear from experts about the importance of digitisation to build a scalable, effective R&D organisation poised for high growth and investment.

Featured speakers include

Eliot Randle, Ph.D., Managing Partner & Co-founder at Digital Lab Consulting

Digital Lab Consulting provides independent strategic consulting to enable organisations to transform their business through better use of data & technology.

Paul Denny-Gouldson, Ph.D., Principal Consultant at Zifo RnD Solutions

Zifo RnD Solutions offers end-to-end clinical data management and biostatistics services in flexible engagement models across Scientific Informatics, Lab Informatics, Clinical Biometrics and Regulatory Compliance, including Computer System Validation and Genome Informatics, across 20+ countries.

Eszter Toth, Ph.D., Group Leader, Genomics at Etcembly

Etcembly is creating the world’s biggest and most powerful machine learning database and unmatched immunology expertise to achieve the safest and most effective TCR immunotherapies through rapid computer-assisted engineering.

You’ll also have the opportunity to join a live demo of the Benchling R&D Cloud to see, firsthand, how we are enabling the next century of biology and biotech growth.