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IndieBio SF debuts Batch 13: the latest companies innovating in planetary and human health
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SOSV Team
SOSV Team
January 23, 2023

IndieBio SF’s recent Demo Day was a huge success!

We began our hybrid event with an online demo day featuring incredible informational videos created by the IndieBio SF team in collaboration with the founders, as an exercise to hone and articulate the narrative of each company. Some of the videos were so moving that our founders received private messages from viewers ordinary sharing their personal stories about the problems our startups are trying to solve.

You can watch the videos in one long livestream above or watch the individual company clips on our YouTube channel.

  • Asterix Foods—functional bioactive proteins for food (short film here)
  • Dandelion—AI-driven LNP discovery (short film here)
  • Gozen Bioworks—lambskin-soft, sustainable alternative to leather (short film here)
  • Ingrediome—alternative matrix animal proteins to recreate meat and eggs (short film here)
  • Laguna Bio—a new approach to selectively activate and expand the gamma-delta T (γδ T) cells to take full advantage of the immune system’s ability to fight solid tumors (short film here)
  • MAA’VA—next-generation eco-concrete, 30% lighter and stronger (short film here)
  • Melio—the world’s only cloud-deployable diagnostics and multi-pathogen surveillance (short film here)
  • Infinite Elements—cheap and efficient bio-mining of rare earth elements (short film here)
  • Minus Materials—biogenic limestone for CO2-free cement (short film here)
  • Mira Biotech—100% resin-less engineered wood (short film here)
  • Nitrofix—electrochemical production of green ammonia (short film here)
  • Reach Neuro—the first to restore upper limb function to stroke survivors (short film here)
  • west~bourne—the world’s first zero waste packaged food brand built exclusively on regenerative agriculture (short film here)

Over the course of the program, IndieBio facilitated over 500+ investor conversations with our 13 companies. The in-person Demo Day was the culmination of the IndieBio Experience in which our founders flew in from all over the world to meet face to face with investors, showing off demonstrations of their progress in the past 5 months.

Gozen Bioworks brought their next-gen leather samples as well as multiple products: boots, purses, and jackets, designed by fashion designer Ece Gozen. Mira Biotech presented samples of their MDF (an engineered wood product) that was manufactured at their pilot facility. Melio showed a software demo of how their innovative MeltRead™️ system detects multiple pathogens from a single spiked blood sample, with high sensitivity. MAA’VA featured stunningly beautiful tables made from their eco-concrete. Infinite Elements showcased their biofiltration system that separate rare-earth minerals with biology instead of toxic chemistry.

We were pleased to learn the impact of the event: Demo Day helped crystallize corporate partnerships and term sheets that have long been in the works. One of our companies finished a $10M purchasing contract. Another was offered a partnership for free feedstock. Some were offered term sheets.

As we celebrate another successful showing, we want to reinforce that this isn’t the end for our founders. We continue to work with our companies, long after the batch is over. We continue to answer our founders phone calls, night and day, because if there is one thing that binds our team and our founders together, it’s our shared mission—and the work never stops.

P.S. We are looking for the next generation of early stage companies that will transform the future of human and planetary health. If you have a revolutionary idea, please submit an application, and someone from our team will reach out for an interview (or more, if we really like you and your idea).

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