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 varroa mite is the leading cause of bee colony collapse. The current solutions aren’t good enough, or the problem wouldn’t exist. In the U.S., at least 45% of commercial colonies are infected with varroa; between 2023 and 2024, 55.1% died off. Unless we want food shortages and price spikes, the world needs a biopesticide […]
The global transition to net-zero emissions hinges on the mining of critical minerals, yet copper and lithium production, projected to grow 30% and 465% by 2050, will still fall short of meeting demand. Mining faces daunting challenges: 70% of copper remains locked in low-grade ores, and extracting it is increasingly uneconomical due to the massive […]
The world depends on insulation that wastes up to 60% of heating and cooling energy, is heavy and bulky, and is 80% derived from petrochemicals. There’s been little innovation in this $65 billion industry, which still sells thick glass, sand, and plastic composites invented nearly a century ago. Aerogels—the lightest, thinnest, and best insulating materials […]
The $5 trillion bioeconomy aims to produce next-generation food, fuels, and fabrics, but it faces a critical bottleneck: a shortage of affordable, carbon-negative feedstocks. Global demand for sugars and cellulose will soon outstrip supply, threatening cost and scalability challenges for industries like precision fermentation, bioplastics, upcycled textiles, and green building materials. Meanwhile, 2 billion tons […]
The $10 billion precision agriculture industry is struggling to power the millions of sensors it needs to improve crop yields, reduce costs, and support food security amidst climate change. Farms are usually remote and lacking in energy infrastructure, but sensors reliant on single-use batteries or solar systems are prohibitively expensive because they require maintenance. Someone […]
The world’s $6.2 trillion in crop production depends on domesticated plants that have been optimized for yield, not resilience. Their defensive mechanisms against pests have been silenced, and in their stead, chemical pesticides have protected crops, ending hunger in much of the world. In a changing climate, however, pests are spreading and evolving quicker than […]
Companies working in precision fermentation have ambitious plans to upcycle organic waste, but most struggle with high costs and poor scalability. They rely on a few engineered bacterial strains and must operate in short batches to keep them healthy and productive. That means stopping and restarting their bioreactors frequently, which introduces downtime and a higher […]
ZymoChem is breakthrough science for a fossil-free future. We develop bio-based materials for everyday products without compromising Cost, Performance, Scale, or Sustainability. Since 2015, ZymoChem has refined its processes and patented technologies to replace petroleum ingredients and become one of the world’s most efficient biomanufacturing platforms. Materials underpinning our lives are made from fossil inputs with […]
Founded by one of Turkey’s most famous young fashion designers, Gozen Bioworks is a biomaterials company that has created the world’s strongest and softest bio-based animal-free leather to date. Their latest product (Xylozen™) is twice as strong as animal leather, impossibly thin, and soft enough to replace lambskin in luxury tiers. The breakthrough in their […]
In the U.S. alone we use 12 to 15 billion pounds of food packaging film annually, but less than 5% is recycled. Moreover, these plastic films contain PFAS (aka, “forever chemicals”) that leach into foods and have been linked to serious health risks. So far, sustainable alternatives to petrochemical film are either too expensive or […]