Annick Verween, head of the Biotope incubator in Flanders, sets out her predictions for the biotechnology sector in 2025

Annick Verween, head of the Biotope incubator in Flanders, sets out her predictions for the biotechnology sector in 2025

Biotech start-ups will see more venture capital (VC) investment this year, according to Annick Verween, who leads Biotope, an incubator set up by the Flemish Institute of Biotechnology. “Part of this is a prediction, and part of this is a very strong hope,” she told Science|Business.

Verween also expects company founders to experience more risk aversion from VC investors. Having to tick more boxes to reassure them will lengthen fundraising cycles, even for the most promising innovations. 

With average fundraising cycles already topping 9-12 months, this could be detrimental to start-ups for whom even a short delay in accessing financing can be deadly. 

The problem is that a lot of investors have been burnt in recent years by entrepreneurs with ideas that sound great, but then fail to deliver. Developing foolproof solutions that investors cannot fault is the most important lesson Verween’s team teaches at Biotope. 

The technology itself is key. Everything else -- its potential, the story, the business model – must be built on that foundation, and communicated around it. Many innovators forget this.

“They are so used of up-selling [their inventions], because they think that's what an investor would like to see,” Verween said. But the days of the pitch conquering all are over. “An investor now will work together with experts who unpeel everything to really know what you have.”

This is not all bad, however. Verween thinks that risk aversion raises the bar for start-ups and so helps select the best ideas and most promising technologies. 

Advice for scientists

Verween often works with scientists who struggle to navigate the investment environment and start thinking about taking their technology to the market too late. To counter this tendency, researchers should be more market-oriented from the outset. “Stop loving your technology but start loving a problem that somebody is willing to pay for,” she said. 

Biotope runs a free three-week base camp programme during which biotech innovators and entrepreneurs identify their baselines in terms of technology and business readiness. 

At the end of the process, the teams present their pitches to an investment committee. The best are awarded convertible loans by Biotope Ventures, and teams that do not yet have a legal entity are supported in the process of setting one up. 

But incubators like Biotope cannot fill the entire gap in financing and support that exists between research and the market. There is a need for regulatory support, which Verween hopes will come in the form of the EU’s Biotech Act, which is due to be published at the end of 2026.

Her first hope is for a simplified regulatory framework. The second is for improved support to help with the transition from basic research to applicable high-tech innovation.

While there is already support for research projects and scale-ups, early-stage start-ups are often forgotten. Verween talks of a vicious circle: investors want grant providers to finance these early-stage innovations, but grant providers do not want to invest if a start-up does not attract external VC funding as proof of uptake in the market. 

Whether or not this gap can be filled by a regulation is an open question. “I'm not fully sure that the Biotech Act will fill it,” Verween said.


Source: Science|Business, written by Goda Naujokaitytė.

Stay up to date with the latest news!

Newsletter subscribe