Raising money as a biotech startup or spinout can look daunting in the current environment.

Despite the cautious optimism coming out of the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference earlier this month, M&A and fundraising are still challenging for earlier-stage companies, especially if you don’t have a veteran CEO at the helm, a clinical-stage asset in the pipeline or an existing VC network of insiders to tap. Take Aiolos for example. It emerged from stealth in late October with a $245 million Series A fundraise and was quickly bought up by GSK in early January for up to $1.4 billion. Sounds like a Cinderella story, but its CEO had already sold a company to Novartis and they had a Phase 2-ready asset. Not many early-stage companies can say the same.

Yet seed and angel funding in the UK is actually quite strong, and there is no lack of innovation here. The UK’s recent university spinout report had recommendations endorsed by government that should further fuel that, easing the pathway for breakthrough research and entrepreneurs from the UK’s great universities to market. 
 
What matters to potential investors is your story, according to angel investor Johnathan Matlock.

“Storytelling, the ability to sell something and the ability to form a relationship quickly might not come across as the obvious Do's for a pitch, especially in Life Sciences, but they hugely impact the likelihood of future success, in my experience,” Matlock said. “They are a proxy for someone's ability to raise investment, form partnerships, secure customers, recruit employees and build a clear vision for the business.”

He said the angel/seed network here can be more generalist in nature, so that’s where he said a clear communications strategy should: 

• Explain how your technology solves an unmet need

• Show how you’ve been able to de-risk the asset, making it harder for competitors to challenge you

• Quantify the scope of market opportunity and scale

“We approach investments like scientists: show us the data and evidence to demonstrate what a company has achieved, and we’ll use that data to make a quantified decision on the likelihood of it meeting identified risks in the next funding round,” he said. 

And that’s exactly what Matlock said he’d be looking for at the BioSeed early-stage life sciences investment pitching event earlier this week sponsored by industry trade group OBN.

If you'd like to hear more about how we can help you craft a communications strategy, get in touch: healthcare@cardewgroup.com

Photo by Chokniti Khonchum