Decoding Bio Snapshot 2023

a look into the next generation of bio companies

We’re incredibly excited to publish the inaugural edition of the Decoding Bio Snapshot. Several months in the making, the Decoding Bio Snapshot profiles several dozen companies operating at the intersection of computation and biology, ranging from pre-seed to publicly traded.

We set out to answer questions we haven’t been able to find online. What does an org chart look like for a seed stage computational drug discovery startup? Where do computational platforms meaningfully speed up aspects of drug discovery? How do founders think about balancing platform vs product? How are companies incorporating automation to achieve scale?

In this snapshot, we explore these types of questions by showcasing the anatomy of 40 different companies across nine major themes. We also examine the driving forces making this surge in computational biology possible.

The major themes we chose this year are:

1. Extreme biology—searching the natural world for new tools, medicines, and bioproducts

2. Infrastructure in biology—the automation, instrumentation, and data tools that fuel biotech innovation

3. AI-driven design—using algorithms and big data to inch closer to de novo design of new medicines

4. Target discovery and validation—identifying new biology for drug design

5. Screening technologies—modeling and scaling complex biological for discovery

6. Spatial biology—collecting massive amounts of data for a more granular understanding of biology

7. New modalities—entirely new classes of medicines

8. Delivery—routing medicine to the right place in the body

9. Biomanufacturing—scaling bioproduction of medicine and more

Each section starts out with a brief technical overview and ends with profiles of some companies working on the latest tech in that category.

This list is neither cherry-picked nor exhaustive. It’s our attempt at beginning to demystify the structure of the new generation of biotech companies and how they operate. It’s meant to be a place for talent to discover new companies; for founders to learn from each other’s company building journeys. Above all else, it’s a place we hope brings inspiration to engineers & scientists looking to start new companies, tech investors looking to partner with biotech companies, and employees at tech companies looking for their next challenge.

We hope we can invoke the same sense of optimism we felt when putting this report together at how rapidly biology is melding with technology to advance human and planetary health.

Founders from forty companies shared the DNA of their businesses

The full report can be viewed and downloaded here:

There are so many people without whom this report would not have been possible. Huge thank you to our co-writers Elliot Hershberg

The Century of Biology

, Andrew Pannu, Patrick Malone, Shelby Newsad

Biocene thoughts

, Jesse Johnson

Scaling Biotech

, David Li, and Luis Voloch as well as our incredible design partner Wunderdogs and comms partner Kimberly Ha. Thank you to all the founders, operators, and investors who took the time to audit their companies and give us all a look at what goes on behind the scenes.

We hope you enjoy this first edition of the Decoding Bio Snapshot. We’d love to hear any feedback here and if your company wants to be involved in the next one, please indicate your interest here.

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