Deep tech startups in human health, sustainability, and quantum often hit a tough spot where great science doesn\u2019t turn into successful businesses. Without enough support, Europe risks losing talented founders who move away or change direction.<\/p>\n
The BioInnovation Institute (BII), a non-profit based in Copenhagen, tackles this challenge with its 12-month Venture Lab program. Each company gets a \u20ac500,000 convertible loan (about 4 million DKK), plus lab space, offices, and business support.<\/p>\n
The current group has 11 startups: seven in human health, three in planetary health, and one in quantum. The best teams can get up to \u20ac1.3 million in follow-up funding through BII\u2019s Venture House.<\/p>\n
Turning world-class science into companies that solve big societal problems<\/p>\n
BII was created by the Novo Nordisk Foundation<\/a> to link leading Danish research institutions, such as DTU<\/a>, UCPH, and Aarhus<\/a>, to global markets. Chief Business Officer Trine Bartholdy <\/a>emphasises their founder-focused approach, offering personalised support instead of the usual incubation model.<\/p>\n BII offers the knowledge, network, funding, and infrastructure needed to reduce risks in early development. Bartholdy says, \u201cAt BII, we are looking forward to supporting the start-ups in bringing their science to life by providing our knowledge, network, funding, and infrastructure to build successful companies.\u201d<\/p>\n What sets BII apart? It\u2019s all-in-one: science validation, team building, and market entry, all under one roof. With spinout know-how from DTU and UCPH reNEW, and milestone-based funding that can go well beyond \u20ac1.3M, it\u2019s not your typical incubator.<\/p>\n A few standouts from the cohort: Combotope is working on tumour-selective antibodies, Ibnova is building vascularised heart patches (straight out of reNEW), and Heureka is developing a dual-acting molecule for fatty liver. <\/p>\n On the planetary health side, there\u2019s 2D (scalable graphene), Vasuqi (light-based pollutant removal), and \u00c9tiquette (fermentation alcohol-free wine). And in quantum? QFactory is all about custom quantum sensing.<\/p>\n What really makes BII different is the hands-on support for spinouts, something you don\u2019t always get from generalist VCs \u2013 labs and deep focus on health and quantum tech.<\/p>\n So, what\u2019s next?<\/p>\n BII will back this cohort for the full 12 months, with the best teams moving on to Venture House for additional funding (over \u20ac1.3M). The big goal is to build 50+ companies that take on climate, disease, and quantum challenges head-on.<\/p>\n Bartholdy says, \u201cThese eleven startups reflect the breadth and ambition of innovation emerging across human health, planetary health, and quantum technologies. By supporting visionary entrepreneurs in translating cutting-edge science into real-world solutions, BII continues its mission to help build companies that can tackle some of the most pressing challenges facing society today and in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Deep tech startups in human health, sustainability, and quantum often hit a tough spot where great science doesn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5739,108,466,71,8611,38,591],"class_list":{"0":"post-36767","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-copenhagen","8":"tag-climate-tech","9":"tag-copenhagen","10":"tag-deeptech","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-healthtech","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-startups"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116204325142700548","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}