The life science startup scene met for new inspirations
The BioEntrepreneurship Summit 2019 took place in Munich on October 15/16, bringing together all relevant stakeholders of the bioentrepreneurial and health tech ecosystems.
With about 200 participants, the event successfully followed up on the first edition of 2017. Pre-seed teams, startups and experienced life science entrepreneurs, investors and industry leaders as well as students and scientists took the opportunity to learn and expand their network in an inspiring atmosphere at TranslaTUM. In addition, the winners of the preseed competition m4 Award were announced on the first evening.
Over 50 excellent speakers from academia, industry, supporting agencies and investment companies showed a varied range of topics and perspectives.
Impressions of the BioEntrepreneurship Summit 2019 can be found on our BioEntrepreneurship Summit 2019 picture gallery.
What are the do’s and dont’s when you start to set up a company? What moves the biotech start-up scene? What are the current trends? In inspiring sessions, leading life science experts shared their scientific and entrepreneurial expertise while startups had the opportunity to present their business idea. In a more private atmosphere, experts and participants chatted in the campfire sessions.
In his visionary talk, Werner Lanthaler from Evotec, elaborated on the drastic transformations of many important industries. He envisioned that due to the next wave of revolutionary technologies like CRISPR and AI and healthcare mega trends like a shift towards value based care, personalization and patient centricity, the future of medicine will also soon come with radical change. For him, what we already see today is “Just the beginning…”.
Rainer Strohmenger, Wellington Partners, made clear how much investors and founders are needed – founders who are not afraid to try again and again.
In his lively and convincing keynote, Marc Filerman from German Accelerator Life Sciences continued the difficult process of bringing an idea to commercial success and showed how much entrepreneurship is filled with both agony and ecstasy and how founders-to-be could go through all the ups and downs.
In his impulse talk, Mark Leruste from The Unconventionalists, showed the truth behind the everyday life of an entrepreneur and how important it is to speak honestly about the pressures and difficulties connected with starting a business. At the same time he encouraged the founders of tomorrow to set high goals, focusing on the topic that interests them the most.
Summarizing, “Just do it” was one of the take home messages of the two day event.
Alexandra Bause, Apollo Ventures, Chase Beisel, HIRI and data science rockstar Fabian Theis from Helmholtz Zentrum München gave a glimpse into the future in the last session which was also recorded graphically.
“To start a life science venture is extremely challenging. Building connections between all the players of the ecosystem is crucial in fostering these endeavors. It is very satisfying to see the pieces coming together here at the Summit” comments Petra Burgstaller, Senior Manager Startups & Funding at BioM. Christina Enke-Stolle, also Senior Manager Startups & Funding at BioM, adds: “We are very happy that so many accepted our invitation to contribute to the event. Actually, fifty percent of all participants of the BES2019 were interactively involved with talks, lectures, workshop, pitches or in the exhibition. We think this shows that we have an active, functioning ecosystem and we hope that everybody enjoyed it as much as we did.”
Investment Game
To feel real-world competition, 15 pre-seed teams and young start-ups presented their projects in short pitches in order to convince the audience. All participants could interactively vote on which team they would invest in. The rising star award of the investment game went to: Eisbach Bio (1st), Invitris (2nd) and Ebenbuild (3rd). In addition to be awarded by the audience, the selected teams also received coaching vouchers.
But it wasn't just the startups that introduced themselves. In the session pitches reversed this time also the investors gave a five-minute presentation, which was very well received by the participants.
m4 Award 2019: 2.5 mio for the fight against cancer and antibiotic resistance
A special highlight of the event was the announcement of the winners of this year’s m4 Award. The Bavarian pre-seed grant m4 Award supports academic research projects with spin-off potential in medical biotechnology. Three teams of the selected research groups are developing novel therapies against different forms of cancer to achieve targeted, effective and well-tolerated treatment. With their projects, two of the research groups address the urgent medical need in the field of antibiotic resistance. All winning teams are conducting research in Munich, four at the Technical University of Munich and one at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. More than 30 top-class applications were received from academic institutions throughout Bavaria. You will find the five winner teams including descriptions of their projects here: winners m4 Award 2019
A great thank you goes to all participants, speakers, partners, sponsors and exhibitors for their support. We are looking forward to seeing you at the BioEntrepreneurship Summit 2021.
Feedback from attendees: BioEntrepreneurship Summit
The BioEntrepreneurship Summit had a successful mixture of top-class speakers, entrepreneurs, experts and investors. I got a lot of new inspirations, had an intensive exchange with other participants and was able to make numerous new contacts.
Beatrix Förster, DoDerm
I found the conference to be very relevant, and extremely informative for current and aspiring biotech entrepreneurs. The information delivered was directly applicable, and the conference format allowed for a perfectly balanced mix of presentations, interactive Q & A, networking, and socializing. Additionally, there was great mix of attendees - VCs/investors, accelerators, industry, and other interesting, dynamic innovators. I was honored to participate in this important entrepreneurial ecosystem-building activity. Thank you very much for the opportunity.
Marc Filerman, German Accelerator Life Sciences
The BioEntrepreneurship Summit and the m4 Award are very valuable events for our community. Fostering entrepreneurship and celebrating the life science founders in this way is truly unique in Germany.
Hermann Josef Kaiser, Evotec
“The conference was very helpful, valuable and well organized. I would like to see more of these events.”
Kei Müller, Ebenbuild
It was a real pleasure to discuss business models on the panel for me as it is very hot topic for most of the digital medicine companies. It of course applies to mental health where Mindpax is operating.
Pavel Nevicky, Mindpax