The best place to start-up a life sciences venture

Vision

Our start-up vision is to be the best place in Europe to start up a life sciences venture. We want to support and nurture great science – using knowledge and expertise gained over decades of experience – to inform, elevate and empower new life science innovators and entrepreneurs. A collaborative force of knowledge, passion and drive combines to catapult the next generation of science discoveries into the view of today’s investors. A supportive and safe place for life science ventures to start-up and scale-up.

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Now in its fifth year, Accelerate@Babraham has supported 20 early-stage enterprises and been recognised as one of the top 25 biotech incubators in Europe (LaBiotech, March 2021). To date, Accelerate@Babraham companies have raised £46.1M, have a current portfolio value estimated at over £80M and a total of 80 employees. .1m £46 Accelerate@Babraham portfolio companies have raised to date
.5m £12 Accelerate@Babraham portfolio companies have raised to date

Accelerate@Babraham was launched in 2018 and has attracted three cohorts to date. 15 companies have been through the programme in that time, a total of over 130 sessions have been delivered and 330+ hours of seminars/roundtable discussions facilitated. In addition to which numerous investor and KOL introductions were made. Of the £12.5M investment raised by the portfolio companies to date, £9.7M of which was in equity funding and £2.8M grants.

Accelerate@Babraham Programme

Starting something new is hard – particularly within the fast-moving life science sector. Step forward Accelerate@Babraham, the Babraham Research Campus’ bio-incubator, founded out of a desire to support and nurture early-stage ventures; bringing to bear an unrivalled network of experts, mentors and investors to equip young enterprises with the skills, confidence and network connections to enable success. Since launching in 2018, we have supported 20 fledgling life-science companies. Each cohort brings with it a diverse set of skills, expertise and experience, but they all share a deep passion for their science or technology and a desire to make a difference to the lives of tomorrow’s patients. Applications for the 2023/24 cohort are now OPEN, click below to find out more and apply!

Visit AccelerateatBabraham.com

Start-up Stories

Want to know what life as a start-up at the Babraham Research Campus is really like? We sat down with our 2020 cohort of Accelerate@Babraham companies to understand what it is like to get their life sciences ventures off the ground and how the programme and team of partners and supporters play their role in delivering tangible successes.

Paediatric HealthTech: The mutual benefit of big pharma mentoring healthcare start-ups

Paediatric HealthTech: The mutual benefit of big pharma mentoring healthcare start-ups

Personalised guidance and support was a key factor in helping Tamsi...

Personalised guidance and support was a key factor in helping Tamsin challenge, and at times, re-think her direction. We explored what made the partnership between Tamsin, and her mentor Marco Cerato, who at the time of interview was Senior Vice President Business Development and Strategic Partnerships, at global healthcare company Mundipharma, such a success.

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ConcR: Solving the challenges which keep you up at night

ConcR: Solving the challenges which keep you up at night

Explore the benefits of a tailored mentoring programme with the CTO...

Explore the benefits of a tailored mentoring programme with the CTO of  Accelerate@Babraham start-up ConcR, Matthew Griffiths, and Nicholas Stern from Cambridge Partners.

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Stroma Biosciences: Spinouts, scientific synergies and old friends

Stroma Biosciences: Spinouts, scientific synergies and old friends

At the 2020/21 programme drew to a close, we caught up with Ingo, his co-founder Eugene Park, and their personal mentor Neil Torbett from Phoremost to discuss the tangible value of mentoring and their serendipitous partnership.

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Meet Some Start-ups

Qkine

Qkine manufactures high quality growth factors and cytokines. Spun-out from Dr Marko Hyvönen’s laboratory at the University of Cambridge in 2016, Qkine has a strong foundation of expertise, a growing catalogue and network of superb collaborators and is working towards its objective of bringing even more innovative proteins to the stem cell community. 

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Kalium

Kalium Health has combined world-class research with decades of industry experience to create its core electrolyte sensing platform.  It is now developing applications for this technology with a focus on enabling clinically actionable health insights for chronic diseases.

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Reflection Therapeutics

Reflection Therapeutics is creating a first in class treatment for motor neurone disease. It aims to protect motor neurons from an overactive immune system, prolonging their function and delaying disease progression.

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Discover who is based on Campus

Start-up Ecosystem

The Babraham Research Campus ecosystem is where discovery research and business come together with a shared scientific focus that accelerates innovation and strengthens links between academia and the commercial world.  The Campus provides critical bioincubator capability along with the wider support needed – people, infrastructure and investment networks required to connect discovery to prosperity and public good.

Flexible Spaces

At the Babraham Research Campus there are lots of options for new and early-stage life science ventures, depending on what stage you are at. For very new ventures, in the initial stages of translating an idea into a viable commercial enterprise, we offer the opportunity to just come in and share a bench within our communal lab spaces. You don’t have to worry about any of the day to day running of the lab – all aspects such as equipment, waste, cleaning and even lab coats are taken care of by our dedicated Campus team. So, all you need to worry about is your idea and your science. What’s more there is the added benefit of being amongst likeminded people on the same journey, to bounce ideas off and learn from each other’s experiences.

For those a little bit further on in the journey who require their own easy-access laboratory and office space, we have multi-occupancy buildings, specifically designed to support chemistry and molecular biology requirements in units from 600 sq ft. All offered on short-term flexible leases.

From communal labs to multi-occupancy buildings THRIVE Space to

Flexible Terms

We understand that the start-up journey is both challenging and unpredictable and tailor our terms to be flexible as possible – not tying new companies with no covenant into long term leases that act as a millstone around the founding teams’ necks and putting unnecessary pressure on the speed of development of the idea. At the Babraham Research Campus our lease terms are flexible so you don’t have to worry about being tied into a lengthy and expensive contract - you can get on with developing your science and making it a success.

TERMS Flexible Flexible lease terms

Start-Up Investment Success

Companies at the Babraham Research Campus have estimated (Campus Impact Report 2019) that being located on Campus had on average accelerated their fundraising by three months and increased the amount of funds raised by 10%. Here is a snapshot of some of those investment successes.

Kalium Health announces funding from National Institute for Health Research

Kalium Health announces funding from National Institute for Health Research

Kalium Health, which is working to help millions of people living w...

Kalium Health, which is working to help millions of people living with kidney disease and related conditions to manage their health at home, awarded £150,000 funding by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The funding, as part of the NIHR Invention for Innovation (i4i) Connect programme will support testing of key parts of Kalium Health’s system with volunteers in the UK.

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Welsh startup Antiverse raises $2m for antibody discovery toolkit

Welsh startup Antiverse raises $2m for antibody discovery toolkit

Antiverse raises seed funding of £1.4 million ($2 million) to devel...

Antiverse raises seed funding of £1.4 million ($2 million) to develop its artificial intelligence-based platform for discovering therapeutic antibodies. The organisation combines machine learning and phage display techniques to model antibody-antigen binding and says it can cut the time it takes to develop a drug candidate.

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Qkine secures £1.5M series A funding from leading life science investors

Qkine secures £1.5M series A funding from leading life science investors

Qkine, specialist developer and manufacturer of proteins for stem cell, organoid and regenerative medicine applications – announces the successful closure of a £1.5M series A investment round to accelerate the global scale-up of its commercial operations and make key hires to its leadership team. 

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ON TAP Knowledge & Expertise A passionate, collaborative community

Tap into Campus Knowledge

For start-ups, one of the most powerful ingredients in determining the speed and success of your journey is not just the idea itself but how you build the company around this idea – the people, infrastructure, processes, positioning, communications, legal frameworks, sales and much more. Often those with the ideas have an in-depth knowledge of the science but not all the components that go into making it a commercial success.

This is where the Campus Network really comes in. Entrepreneurs starting out on the journey are surrounded by people who have the knowledge and experience in building out ideas into funded and successful realities and are willing to invest time in sharing their learnings. But it is not just people who have been there and done it themselves in the network but also IP, comms, business development specialists and many more who can help ensure new ventures are in the right position to seek investment. And, when the time is right to make that investment pitch our network of relevant, experienced and interested investors is ready and waiting.

Successful investor One of UK’s Top women in Biopharma

Investor Profile

Maina Bhaman, Partner Capital Funds Sofinnova Partners

Maina joined Sofinnova Partners in January 2018 and has a long track record as a successful healthcare investor. Prior to joining, she was Director of Healthcare Investment at Touchstone Innovations (formerly Imperialheal Innovations) in London (UK) since 2006. She has led or co-led numerous investments and sat on the Board of a number of UK biotech companies, such as Autifony, Cellmedica, Psioxus Therapeutics, Pulmocide, Topivert Pharma, Puridify (sold to GE), Thiakis (sold to Wyeth) and Respivert (sold to J&J). Previously, she worked in the R&D teams of several UK and US biotech companies, including Celltech, Oxford Glyco Sciences, Chimeric Therapies and GeneMedicine.

As a long-standing member of the biotech ecosystem, Maina has received strong professional and institutional recognition; and was named one of UK’s Top women in Biopharma several years in a row.

Investor Profile

Dr Vishal Gulati, Venture Partner, Draper Esprit

Dr. Vishal Gulati is a venture partner at Draper Esprit a leading European venture capital firm. His investment interests include healthtech, omics and synthetic biology. Vishal has led Draper Esprit’s investments into some of Europe’s leading companies in these sectors including Clue, PushDr, Lifesum, Ieso Digital Health, Fluidic Analytics, Horizon Discovery and Evonetix. He is also an investor in Kheiron Medical, Repositive, Mimi Hearing Technologies, Quit Genius, MyRecovery and Project Sapien.

In addition to Vishal’s role at Draper Esprit, he is chairman of Digital Health Forum and serves on Innovate UK’s Major Award Committee. Vishal also mentors first time founders who are leaving academic careers to start technology businesses.

Venture Partner & Investor Mentor to first time founders

Shared Services for Start-ups

We provide a wide range of scientific and operational services, including equipment and facilities hire, technology help and scientific expertise on a pay as you go basis, to help facilitate growth and further the development of science concepts in the most efficient and cost-effective way. In addition, the Babraham Institute maintains nine cutting-edge science facilities that are accessible to Campus companies. Access to these facilities includes expert advice, support with experimental design, data analysis and trouble shooting.

Biological Chemistry

Key services include chemical synthesis and analytical chemistry. The Babraham Institute use their extensive chemical knowledge and use of chemical tools to address biological research questions.

Flow Cytometry

Flow Cytometry through the Babraham Institute offers high quality, world class instrumentation to help meet your research goals. Within the facility there are self-use analysers and cell sorters that are run as a service.

Imaging

The Babraham Institute imaging team provide a range of services including advice on experiment design, advanced image processing and analysis, training and support for a range of imaging modalities.

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