Featured Trends
We’ve sliced and diced our portfolio into distinct “trends” that define our edge.
Climate 100
We are pleased to report that as of April 2021 the SOSV Climate Tech 100 have raised $1.85 billion from investors and have a market cap of $5.65 billion. The average company is four years old. SOSV (our parent fund) has invested $89 million in these companies and was in most cases the first investor, though we continued investing through early rounds.
IndieBio has never been one to shy away from the riskiest and most impactful investments for our planet. In fact, we embrace them.
Female Founder
Boosting female representation in the startup world is an ongoing challenge, but we’re dedicated to gender balance, not only because it’s the right thing to do, but because we would be dismissing impressive companies otherwise. We’ve found that more gender balance leads to better workplace culture and better ideas being exchanged.
Future of Food
It’s not just that we can make meat and fish in the lab, or with mushrooms and chickpeas. It’s not just that AI can predict the best plant ingredients to make the best tasting milk and yogurt. And it’s not just that yeast can be fermented to produce the healthier and better food preservatives. We’re diving deep every day into the foods that will satisfy novelty-seekers and conventionalists alike.
We’re putting big bets on the newest technologies and trends we think are ahead of the curve.
Future of Medicine
Medicine ain’t what it used to be. Today, bloodletting, skull-drilling and giving children cocaine for toothaches are relics of the past. Tomorrow, so too will addictive opioids, chemotherapy, and psychiatric drugs that are non-selectively bathing our bodies in chemicals.
The future of medicine is an exciting one, and we’re excited to share the most exciting technologies that enable the next wave of medicine and healthcare.
Impact
Our mission has always been Human and Planetary Health from the beginning, so it’s hard to say which of our companies are “impact” companies (in some ways, they all are).
Here, we narrowed down the startups that are directly addressing sustainability issues, improving public health, mitigating inequality, and democratizing access to infrastructure and technologies.
New Frontiers
Raising Now
Every season of the year, a new batch and about one-sixth of our alumni are in raise mode. These companies are currently raising and would love to talk to interested investors. We can set up those meetings or you can contact the companies directly.
Sustainable Solutions
The $500 billion personal care and cosmetics industry is alarmingly reliant on raw materials from livestock. The three most important proteins in skincare and haircare products—collagen, keratin, and elastin—typically come from bovine hides, chicken feathers, and meat processing byproducts, respectively. Thus, cosmetics contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, water pollution, and deforestation. With two-thirds of consumers […]
Farmers spend nearly $230 billion every year on herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers designed to increase crop yields. However, most of these chemicals are leached into the environment rather than absorbed by crops, causing pest resistance to biocides, biodiversity loss, and a litany of public health impacts. Somehow, the world needs to wind down agrochemical use […]
Discarded food accounts for 8-10% of greenhouse gas emissions and costs the global economy $940 billion per year. Upcycling surplus food is therefore critical to decarbonizing the food supply chain and curbing its massive appetite for water and deforested land. Terra Bioindustries has developed a negative-emissions platform for upcycling brewer’s spent grain, a beer byproduct […]
To feed a global population of 9.7 billion people by 2050, farmers need to produce 50% more calories than they do today. However, large-scale farms rely on synthetic fertilizers, which degrade their soil and release more CO2 emissions than global aviation and shipping combined. Earnest Agriculture has designed a microbial consortium that protects crops against […]
Maritime shipping, aviation, and trucking will account for at least a tenth of global CO2 emissions by 2030 and cannot be electrified anytime soon. To meet EU emissions standards, cargo operators are already ordering methanol-powered ships. However, green methanol is currently produced using energy-intensive processes, resulting in a greenish fuel that can’t compete with oil […]
Over 53 million tons of electronics are discarded every year, wasting $57 billion worth of recoverable metals. Typically incinerated, this e-waste releases toxic fumes, causing people serious health problems. Only 17% of e-waste is recycled because existing methods are too expensive, energy-intensive, and pollutive. BioMetallica has developed the first eco-friendly biotechnology for recovering palladium, platinum, […]
At least 1.7 billion people worldwide rely on contaminated drinking water, resulting in over 500,000 deaths per year. Concerningly, bacteria have grown resistant to standard water treatment chemicals like chlorine, which can no longer kill slimes (“biofilms”) that protect harmful bacteria and fungi and attach them to surfaces in our water infrastructure. Aequor discovered marine […]
Karma Biotech is an oncology company targeting solid tumors, starting with colorectal cancer. Their technology aims to deliver cytokines and other biologicals, such as IL-15, specifically to tumor and metastatic sites, avoiding the dangers of systemic toxicity. This localized IL-15 will turn cold tumors hot, allowing the body to clear the cancer. The founders at […]
For billions of people, cell and gene therapies offer the possibility of curing incurable diseases, but access to these life saving treatments feels out of reach as large scale manufacturing remains one of the biggest bottlenecks in producing these game changing solutions. These therapies can cost as much as $3.5M per patient and 30% of clinical trials […]
Discovery of CAR-T cell-based therapies has transformed the treatment landscape for blood cancer patients. Still, the process to achieve this is “one patient – one batch”, limiting manufacturing scalability with high patient-to-patient variability. Moreover, complicated supply chain issues and associated high cost add to the hurdles of providing access to a larger population. On the […]