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We've redefined seed stage healthcare investing

Start Codon is a venture capital investor and venture builder based in Cambridge, England. We support aspiring entrepreneurs to develop and commercialise their disruptive innovations. In doing so, we aim to help them craft their vision into thriving companies that improve people’s lives and address unmet needs.

We invest a minimum of £250,000 into each of our portfolio companies. In addition, all of our portfolio companies and their founders are enrolled into our unique and innovative venture building programme. Through this, we provide a combination of access to a dedicated and experienced team, mentors who are leaders in their field, and an extensive network of investors, pharma and biotech partners, commercial partners and collaborators and facilities.

Why Start Codon?

The ‘start codon’ is a sequence of three letters in the genetic code that initiates the translation of messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) into proteins that regulate cell identity and function.

Similarly, we aim to help founders translate more innovations into commercial and clinical successes that revolutionise the healthcare industry.

Our Ethos

Start Codon is a venture-building fund with a difference. We Discover, Nurture and Advance next-generation healthcare and life science companies, helping our founders to maximise value, and generating positive health impacts by helping more startups to succeed.​

We don’t just invest in our portfolio companies, we become invested; in the people, their ideas and in working together to build successful companies with the potential to address unmet needs and positively impact lives.

We were the first life science and healthcare venture builder to provide a combination of seed funding, world-class business support services, mentoring, a dedicated team and a network of industry leading contacts in VC, pharma and biotech.

Our aim is to create companies across the UK that are built to succeed globally. We aim to invest in up to 36 companies from our first fund.