Fifteen months ago we saw rising energy prices, interest rates increasing and the NASDAQ in full decline, while it is still choppy waters ahead, it feels like we are in a predictable cycle providing great comfort to investors. Early stage companies are always under pressure to reach their next milestone/hit their next target to gain access to more funding from various institutions such as VCs and government grants. To help address this challenge, in August 2022, we launched the o2h Kickstarter competition with the purpose of supporting early stage biotech companies that have secured initial funding, have exciting drug targets, and have the ability to scale, but need expert services to supercharge their chemistry efforts to meet the next scientific and funding milestones.
To keep things simple, the principle of the award was to provide fledgling small molecule biotech therapeutic companies with a six-person team of experienced o2h Discovery chemists coupled with o2h trainee chemists at a fractional cost. Although o2h has a broader range of capabilities in Med Chem, ADME, and Biology Screening Capabilities (UK&India), we decided not to overly complicate the kickstarter award.
Did the o2h Kickstarter award help early stage companies with a chemistry boost?
The kickstarter award is one of the most appreciated campaigns that we have ever launched in the 20 years of running our CRO business. From the o2h perspective, this award also brought evermore closer to the early stage grassroots biotech community in exciting new biotech geographies such as Australia, UK and Israel with more to follow (not forgetting our American cousins). The grassroots of the o2h CRO business has been to work with biotech companies very early in their lifecycle, providing great support and then o2h Discovery growing with the biotech able to deliver investor objectives. So a win-win! o2h Discovery has now launched three competitions in the UK, Australia and has a current open competition in Israel. We have awarded more than 10 kickstarter awards so far (Watch-out USA and Japan coming next!).
Expanding the reach of the o2h Kickstarter award through 50 Golden Partners...
To further expand the reach of the award we are also reaching out to Venture Capital, Charities, Technology Transfer Offices, Formal Angel Groups and Biomedical Institutions that invest in biotech companies (early!). o2h Discovery is seeking to approve a set of 50 Golden Partners which will have a priority review of new biotech companies with the o2h Kickstarter Award Board to obtain an immediate award. If you think that you fit this criteria then you can reach out to us at kickstarter@o2h.com and our team will get in touch with you with more information. It is free to be a Golden Partner and then there is no obligation to utilise the award or continue using o2h Discovery services after the award has ended.
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o2h Chaitime Special - Meet Some of our Award Winners, 26th May 2023
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Since the first days of lockdown, o2h has been running a ChaiTime series of webinars in which a global group of Biotechies and Investors discuss themes trending through the sector. We will be dedicating a chaitime special to some of our award winners, these are early stage companies working on novel drug targets, many of which are below the radar. We will be quizzing them on both the science, start-up phase and what comes next. This will be an interesting ChaiTime for the Investors, Scientists, and Drug Scouts, Potential Applicants of the o2h Kickstarter Award/Golden Partners and those that just want to be entertained with Biotech Banter. o2h Chaitime Webinar this friday on 26th May at 3:00pm BST.
Register now to book your seat!
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Thank you for taking the time to read this newsletter and look forward to seeing you on our upcoming ChaiTime.
Kind Regards,
Sunil
Co-founder, o2h Discovery
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Previous Kickstarter Winners
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To get more detailed information on previous o2h Kickstarter Award Winners, Kickstarter 2.0 Australia, and Kickstarter 3.0 Israel, then click below to read more.
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You can also share this email with your friends who you believe will benefit from the kickstarter programme.
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