The o2h Kickstarter: Peptide
Exclusively for Peptide-focused biotech startups
give your startup a boost of peptide chemistryLimited to 10 Awards — Apply Early to Secure Your Place
Overview
From Small Molecules to Peptides
This evolution of Kickstarter programme from small molecules to Peptides, reflects the growing importance of peptide-based medicines in modern drug discovery and our continued commitment to supporting innovation across multiple modalities. Through this programme, o2h aims to help startups progress from early hit identification through to IND-enabling studies, providing the scientific partnership needed to move programmes forward.
The Peptide Kickstarter awards enable selected winners to access high-quality discovery support, with a built-in discount, designed to support early-stage programmes.
A Two-stage Structured Pathway from Discovery to Development
The Peptide Kickstarter is structured in two stages, giving startups both an initial discovery push and a clear pathway to continued support.
Stage I - Discovery
A defined piece of work to generate early, decision-relevant data
In Stage I, Selected companies will receive:
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100 peptides synthesis (linear & cyclic)
(at a fraction of the usual price) -
25 ADME data points
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20% discount on Biology FTEs
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End-to-end project management
Stage II - Continued Development
Dedicated support to advance your peptide pipeline
Following a successful Stage I, participating companies can continue into Stage II and get:
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Dedicated FTE engagement
(at a fraction of the usual price for upto 6 months) -
75 additional ADME data points
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20% discount on Biology FTEs
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Focus on optimisation and further profiling
Programme Benefits
Peptide Synthesis, Delivered with Precision
Get high-purity peptides synthesis with significant discount for both linear and cyclic formats, including stapled and constrained peptides, to support rapid library generation and diverse SAR exploration across multiple therapeutic modalities.
End-to-End Chemistry, Built for Execution
Winners receive end-to-end project management support, giving early-stage startups access to drug discovery capabilities to generate critical proof-of-concept data.
ADME Built Into the Programme
Receive 100 complimentary ADME points across both stages, 25 in Stage 1 and 75 in Stage 2, to profile your candidates for permeability, stability, and solubility. De-risk early, before committing further resources.
Biology Support, on Demand
Extend your programme with expert biology support at 20% off, spanning target engagement, validation, and assay development, all delivered by o2h's in-house scientific team.
About the o2h Kickstarter: Track Record
Editions across
the globe
Awards provided
so far
Invested
in resources
Building on that foundation, this initiative extends the same model into peptide-focused programmes.
Kickstarter winner’s wall
Winners 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.
Elena Brin
Founder & CEO
Receiving the Kickstarter Award has been incredibly energizing for our team. From day one, o2h has exceeded our expectations. They communicate exceptionally well and are very responsive, hardworking, and collaborative, providing detailed regular updates. It's been a genuine pleasure working with them, and we're excited about where this partnership will take our project next.
Adam Yip
Director, Drug Discovery
Ternary Tx were thrilled to receive a Kickstarter award from o2h, enabling us to generate valuable experimental validation of our novel computational platform for the design of molecular glues. The award has substantially accelerated our lead project and the o2h team have been a pleasure to work with, delivering high-quality science, as well as excellent communication throughout.
Senthil K. Perumal
Founder & CEO
We’re honored and deeply grateful to receive the o2h Kickstarter Award. It comes at a pivotal moment for Z Prime, enabling us to advance our drug discovery pipeline and accelerate our lead program toward clinical candidates for patients with limited treatment options. This award helps us turn innovative science into potential therapies and move promising molecules closer to the clinic - and ultimately to patients who urgently need new treatments. Thank you, o2h, for believing in our mission!
About o2h Discovery
Insight-Driven Drug Discovery
o2h Discovery operates a multimodality integrated drug discovery platform across Cambridge, UK and Ahmedabad, India. From our state-of-the-art biotechnology incubator, we support drug discovery programmes from hit identification through lead optimisation and into patent and IND filing.
Our multidisciplinary team brings together expertise in medicinal & synthetic chemistry, PR&D and scaleup, biology, DMPK, and pre-clinical project management, giving you an outstanding drug discovery service from hit identification to IND filing.
Terms & Disclaimers
General Scope & Conditions
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Scope:
Offer valid for a library of 100 peptides up to 15 amino acids in length at 5–10 mg scale.
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Purity:
Standard delivery includes >85–95% purity. Premium purification (>95%) is available at additional cost.
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Technical Scope:
Includes linear and single-bridge cyclic peptides. Complex modifications (e.g. tagging, stapling) or sequences with high hydrophobicity will be reviewed for feasibility.
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Exclusions:
Pricing excludes project-specific starting materials, unnatural amino acids, and shipping costs.
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- Each project will undergo a feasibility assessment before being accepted under the Kickstarter programme.
- Upon receipt of your RFQ and/or work plan, our scientific team will conduct a technical review and a formal proposal will be shared, including:
- Proposed synthesis routes
- Relevant literature references
- Key considerations
- Estimated timelines and extra/special costs (if any)
- Once the proposal is formally approved, the project team will be introduced and we will proceed with procurement of required materials.
- o2h reserves the right to determine project eligibility for the Kickstarter after internal review.
- If project-specific information is required, a Confidential Disclosure Agreement (CDA) can be executed to enable open technical discussions.
- For non-standard peptide projects that do not qualify under this initiative, the o2h team will provide a custom FFS (Fee-for-Service) or flexi FTE proposal with a competitive quote and tailored timelines and delivery offers, subject to separate terms and conditions.