Biotech and medical startups in the spotlight at Y Combinator demo day
The background
Y Combinator is one of the most well-known American startup accelerators, with early-stage funding support in companies like Stripe, Airbnb, DoorDash, Coinbase, Dropbox, and Twitch.
The news
This year, biotech and medical startups had a strong presence at Y Combinator's recent demo day, continuing the trend of Y Combinator accepting an increasing number of non-bits and bytes innovators.
Here's a small sampling of therapy startups that may be making headlines in the coming years:
- Atom Bioworks develops a programmable DNA machine for antiviral precision medicine.
- LiliumX works on a modular protein platform designed to facilitate the scalable discovery of bispecific biologics.
- Entelexo Biotherapeutics focuses on the treatment of immune-mediated diseases with a new class of drugs which include extracellular vesicles that are derived from stem cells.
- Nuntius Therapeutics works on ways to deliver cell-specific DNA, RNA, and CRISPR-based therapies.
- The goal of Trestle Biotherapeutics is to get kidney failure patients off dialysis with implantable lab-grown kidney tissue.
There were several other companies moving beyond traditional techniques for fighting various conditions, but not enough space here to highlight them individually. Have a look at the 36 healthcare companies from Y Combinator's Winter 2021 batch at their Startup Directory.
Our perspective
Y Combinator's batches are always a good proxy for things to come. What can be learned from the past few years is that the MedTech and biotech sectors are increasingly welcoming startups as advances in technology and software break down insurmountable barriers. It will be fascinating to see in the coming years how technology-driven startups will tackle the big and difficult healthcare problems.
At the same time, it remains to be seen whether the Silicon Valley blueprint can also be applied to biotech and MedTech. Silicon Valley favors founder-driven companies that rely on a founding team to adapt its core technology to fit the market. But the “move fast and break things” mantra doesn't work in highly regulated areas where it's crucial to avoid mistakes.