Meet 10 Companies From YC’s Inaugural Biotech Batch
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Y Combinator launched its inaugural Biotech track this winter, opening its doors to equity-conscious founders of capital-intensive biomedical companies. They have a modified set of terms: $30k for 28.96% equity.
Meet 10 of the companies who have announced that they’re part of the YC’s inaugural biotech batch so far:
GoodBoi Genomics, LLC is a biomolecular intelligence synthesis foundry dedicated to the advancement of canine therapeutics. The founders met as roommates at Stanford and their dogs quickly became lovers. After accidentally walking into one of YC info sessions “after [smelling] the free pizza”, the two decided to work on this emerging space. “The market basically grows itself,” said Tad Turner, Executive Vice President and Chief Intelligence Officer, “have you seen the number of puppies outside of Salt and Straw?”
Acctherariosmo is a small molecule therapeutics company. While they haven’t identified a target of interest, last week they announced a $120 million dollar partnership with Atomwise. Founder Yev Bartlo (Stanford GSB ’16) affirmed the partnership last week in an interview with TechCrunch: “We are sure we can materialize at least one meaningful candidate with their platform, and we’ve been told it’s always great to support another YC company.”
YouBiome is a diagnostics company that allows the secure transfer of human microbiome data on their proprietary blockchain. They offer three different swab site kits, with which users collect samples in a tube and send results over a secure blockchain. YouBiome can then market that data to interested parties. When asked about their regulatory strategy, founder Dr. Roslin Poorman, PhD, stated “we certainly do not plan to submit for reimbursement, certainly not twice.”
MitoNant is a mitochondrial DNA therapeutics company. The company does not intend to address mitochondrial diseases, but rather believes their therapeutics are applicable to a host of other, yet to be disclosed indications. Vivien Song, Chief Powerhouse Officer, said in an interview with EndPoints, “in addition to our current portfolio of assets, we are always on the lookout for other promising programs and believe that a partnership with the YC family would be a perfect place to catch, I mean, acquire novel and exciting therapies.”
Combyne is a therapeutics/AR company which allows people to visualize what their organs would look like if combined with that of an animal. They are taking advantage of their new Kumbaya model, in which they develop new moieties by making current drugs “hold hands,” just as they hope people and their chimeric humanoid-animal friends will one day. Combyne is partnering with Reverie Labs in the spirit of reducing competitiveness,
VerySayfe is the Airbnb of offshore human clinical trial centers. For scrappy therapeutics companies looking to avoid those pesky fellas at the FDA, VerySayfe offers a wide selection of discreet clinics in special regulatory zones outside of FDA and EMA regulations, perfect for Herpes vaccine development and more. Founder Woof-Woof Alpha Beta Moo stated in an interview with Forbes “Yeah it’s totally safe bro, what happens in El Salvador stays in El Savador,” and proceeded to dap the reporter.
RoundBrass is building an EMR for oncology in order to move beyond structured data. They call their proprietary model “Post-structural” — relying on bleeding-edge artificial intelligence inspired by Marie Kondo’s pioneering work in minimalism. “We basically reduce the data down to almost nothing, which is exactly the amount of data a typical biopharma exec can handle. Easy,” said Dan O’Day, President and Head of Customer Success.
Gecko Bioworks specializes in using genetic engineering to produce bacteria with industrial applications. They’ve struck a deal with their first client, Juul, for whom they will be working on a biologic derived pineapple flavored vape juice. TechCrunch toured their debut “foundry” outside of Palo Alto last week, writing “it looked like an orgy of robots, complete with smoke and flying wellplates, basked in the smell of fresh pineapple.”
Theirs is a D2C wellness company destigmatizing access to antiparasitic drug Daraprim. Each $750 tablet is mailed to customers’ homes every day through a subscription service. Former CEO Turing Pharmaceuticals Martin Shkreli is listed as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board.
Radical.bio allows sciences to control and integrate all the devices in their labs and focus on doing science rather than managing different lab tools. Founder, Dash Speedstar was quoted in techcrunch last week commenting on their landmark deal with Gecko (notably, another co in YC BW18’ batch): “we couldn’t imagine another lab with enough robots for this to matter, so Gecko is an ideal first customer — would you like to see our new oCaml compiler? It’s probably Gødel complete”.
All twelve have gone on to raise funding from technology investors. Notably, First Round Capital has agreed to invest in eight of the ten, reaffirming their confidence in businesses working at the interface of AI, machine learning, and consumer health.
