o2h Kickstarter: North America
A competitive award to turbocharge your biotech start-up with a chemistry boost!
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Editions across the globe
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Awards provided so far
$6.3M+
Invested in resources
About the o2h Kickstarter Award
The o2h Kickstarter competition has been designed to provide a chemistry boost to small molecule-focused biotechnology companies that have raised some initial funding and are in need to supercharge their chemistry efforts to meet their next funding milestone. Winners of this competition will receive a dedicated team of chemists and end-to-end project management support to generate chemical matter of their interest to meet their project milestones.
Over the past 20 years, o2h discovery has established collaborations with numerous early-stage biotech companies in North America. We believe that North American biotech startups are at the forefront of innovation, revolutionising healthcare. Fueled by visionary minds, these startups are dedicated to improving human health through innovative therapies. Recognizing the potential of these North American biotech startups and ecosystem, o2h discovery has launched the latest edition of its Kickstarter competition, specifically to support small-molecule biotech startups in North America.
Past winners of the o2h kickstarter
Benefits
Team
A dedicated team of six FTE synthetic chemists of which two are experienced and four are trainees
Cost & Duration
Six synthetic chemists at a fraction of the usual price for up to six months
Additional Support
Receive 100 complimentary ADME points and save 20% on Biology FTE
Inventory
Access to a large inventory of chemicals and reagents for synthesis
Eligibility
The competition is for seed and/or pre-seed stage small molecule focused biotech companies based in North America who have secured initial funding from recognized grant bodies or venture/angel investors, have exciting drug targets and ability to scale.
Register your interestEmpowering early-stage biotech
We launched our first “o2h Kickstarter competition” back in August 2022 exclusively for early-stage biotech to support them boost their drug discovery research. Listen to this exclusive o2h ChaiTime episode where we discuss with some of the previous winners to understand how this competition supported their research and development efforts.
Watch the videoDon’t Miss the Opportunity...
Register your applicationWinners feedback
More than 80 companies applied from across the globe, and here are some of the companies that made it to the winners' list.
Mathew Gray-Davies
Director
We're delighted to receive o2h's Kickstarter award this year. Our primary mission is developing therapeutics to safely target processes shared by many neurodegenerative diseases as well as chronic cognitive, fatigue, and pain disorders. o2h's support of this mission is truly inspiring, and the expertise of their chemistry and biology teams serves as a vital catalyst for our first two discovery projects.
David Barlow
Chair & CEO
We’re honored to receive o2h’s Kickstarter Award, a meaningful validation of our novel program addressing debilitating symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease. Psy's collaboration with o2h's superb chemistry team will further accelerate this high-impact program’s path to the clinic and advance our broader mission to deliver transformative treatments to patients in need.
Dr. Neil Benson
CEO
The kickstarter competition was transformative for Sevenless. We were able to effectively put 10 full time FTEs on our lead optimization program, which delivered novel chemistry ahead of schedule. The progress was outstanding and the o2h team a pleasure to work with. Kickstarter did for us exactly as it’s name suggests. We are now looking to move a drug candidate forward through IND enabling studies and towards Phase I clinical trials.
Eran Seger
Co-founder & CEO
Protai is excited to be partnering with o2h's chemistry in order to accelerate our proteomin biomarker-led drug discoveries and development activities. Protai is excited to be partnering with o2h's chemistry in order to accelerate our proteomin biomarker-led drug discoveries and development activities. Protai is excited to be partnering with o2h's chemistry in order to accelerate our proteomin biomarker-led drug discoveries and development activities. Protai is excited to be partnering with o2h's chemistry in order to accelerate our proteomin biomarker-led drug discoveries and development activities. Protai is excited to be partnering with o2h's chemistry in order to accelerate our proteomin biomarker-led drug discoveries and development activities.
Beth J Hoffman
President & CEO
The Kickstarter will enable us to thoroughly explore our nascent SAR and advance our lead program more rapidly.
Chris Moody
Co-Founder
The o2h Kickstarter competition promises to be an excellent scheme allowing early-stage companies like ours to get access to synthetic chemistry.
Dr Ramsay McFarlane
Co-Founder & CEO
We have been fortunate enough to work with the outstanding o2h Kickstarter team, which has enabled us to move rapidly through our compound screening programme in an exceptionally cost-effective fashion. The O2H team bring great depth of expertise and experience of the pharmaceutical sector, with a strong understanding of our specific needs. The whole O2H team has worked efficiently and diligently, with high quality end results that are enabling us to reach for our long-terms goals to bring new therapeutics to cancer patients.
Dr Nat Hastings
Chief Executive Officer
At Cellestial, our goal is to maximise patient benefit that our treatments can offer. Small molecule therapeutics remain the most scalable form of treatment modality, meaning that more people around the world can benefit from them. We are proud to partner with o2h to expand our pipeline of astrocyte-protective small molecule drugs. The expertise provided both on the conceptual planning stage as well as the synthesis efficiency is world-class.
Jason Rutt
CEO
Running a chemistry program is always a challenging sell to investors. The o2h kickstarter award did several things. It defrayed the cost of the program. It gave us access to a large team of skilled synthetic chemists. It allowed us to partner with experienced medicinal chemists. Finally o2hs review of our proposed program helped validate it and unlock investor funding.
Ana Montalban-Arques
CEO and Co-founder
We are deeply grateful to the o2h Kickstarter program for their invaluable support in advancing our small molecule discovery efforts. This partnership has enabled us to expand our compound portfolio and accelerate the lead optimization phase of our lead program. Support from initiatives like o2h Kickstarter plays a crucial role in helping early-stage biotech companies translate scientific innovation into tangible therapeutic opportunities.
Rory Triniman
CEO/Founder
The Kickstarter Award has been pivotal for our development progress. Medchem can be expensive and challenging for early-stage biotechs, but we are now enjoying the momentum this high-quality chemistry programme brings to our lead optimisation. We had heard good things about the Kickstarter before we applied and I am happy to pass on that positivity from our own experience.
Vid Stojevic
CEO & Co-Founder
The Kickstarter provides vital access to chemists with the skills and knowledge to deliver on the promise of our technology.
Dr Janette A Thomas
CEO
I am thrilled that Five Alarm Bio has been awarded the Kickstarter program. We will benefit from the extensive knowledge and enthusiasm of the o2h leadership and laboratory scientists.
Andrew Rudd
Co-Founder & CEO
The Kickstarter Award allowed us to cost-effectively advance our lead program without sacrificing on quality. The professionalism and productivity of the o2h team was exceptional and I would recommend them to anyone looking for chemistry support.
Gert Kiss
Co-Founder & CEO
o2h’s Kickstarter Award has substantially accelerated our lead-series expansion plans, thanks to a professional team that has been over-delivering on some rather challenging and exciting chemistry.
Evaluation
The applications will be evaluated by the o2h Kickstarter committee, and winners will be announced shortly. This is a time-bound competition. If supportive of the global biotech ecosystem, we will run this competition again.