VC funding in 2021 and looking to 2022
Venture capital funding broke records in the biotech industry in 2021. Dan Rooke from the Start Codon team contributed to LABIOTECH's look ahead to 2022 of the back of 2021 performance.
Start Codon was founded in 2019 in the world-famous Cambridge life sciences cluster in the UK. Backed by an €18M (£15M) fund raised in 2020, Start Codon’s mission is to identify startup opportunities in the region and drive its companies towards seed rounds and beyond.
The budget for 2022 will be up to €3.6M (£3M), which will be used to support up to 12 companies. This target is roughly equivalent to that for 2021. According to Daniel Rooke, Start Codon’s co-founder and COO, this plan ensures that the organisation can continue supporting startups already under its umbrella.
However, Rooke shared that Start Codon has seen huge investor interest in its portfolio companies. Therefore, big follow-on fundraisings are anticipated throughout the course of 2022.
“It is still not plain sailing or necessarily easy for companies in the life sciences and healthcare sectors to get off the ground,” said Rooke. “Compared to tech, there is still a lack of investors at the very early stages who are prepared to provide a healthy investment at the outset to get these companies off the ground.”
“2021 saw unprecedented levels of investment in UK venture-funded companies, particularly in the UK tech and life sectors and particularly from Series A onwards,” said Rooke. “We expect this upwards investment trend to continue and for 2022 to be another record-breaking year.”
Read the full piece on LABIOTECH's site.