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Top Biotech Startups to Watch (and Work for) in 2023

July 14, 2023
      |      Kieran Ryan
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My Background

Hi, I'm Kieran! I worked in startups for five years at On Deck and Wefunder. Some of my favorite things that I've worked on during my career include:

  • Wefunder Workaway: 12 founders working on a new idea, 7 days, 1 mansion in Hawaii. One of the teams we picked raised a Series A from Andreessen Horowitz, and two people who met during the trip got married...
  • On Deck: As employee #15, I contributed to the startup's growth from no revenue to a $20 million run rate in less than a year. I led the team that built the admission infrastructure to support and scale ~20 fellowships for founders, capital allocators, operators, and creators.
  • XX: Worked on a pre-YC accelerator program that invested $125K on an MFN SAFE into 8-10 teams per cohort.
  • ODX: Worked on a $100 million accelerator program that invested $125K for 7% into 100s of startups. We partnered with leaders like Flexport to build vertical industry tracks around supply chain & logistics, etc.
  • Ryan Marketing: Created an influencer marketing startup (2 million+ Instagram followers) during college with my twin brother and realized early that monetization for creators was broken. I learned a lot, and it paid enough to cover my schooling, rent, and meals.

The Methodology

I considered several data points to arrive at the startups selected on this list, including company traction, funding raised, valuation, and investors. From my initial list, I then referenced each startup with my personal network to narrow down the list to the one you see below. I take my credibility seriously, so I do not take any money from startups who want to be included on this list to remain impartial. If you want to understand my analysis of startups and prefer long-form content, read my research on the top startups of 2023 afterward.

Jellyfish on blue background

Benchling

Cloud-based platform for biotech R&D.

Headquarters

San Francisco, California

Industry

Biotech, SaaS

Founded

2012

Funding

$411.9 million

Valuation

$6.1 billion

Traction

  • Benchling customers include BridgeBio, Geltor, Perfect Day, Bright Peak Therapeutics, Design Therapeutics, and 23andMe. 
  • As of May 2023, Benchling reported customers accelerating workflow cycle time by 38%.
NewLimit Logo

NewLimit

Aims to increase each person's healthy years by epigenetically reprogramming cells.

Headquarters

South San Francisco, California

Industry

Biotech

Founded

2021

Funding

$40 million

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • In April 2023, NewLimit completed its first partial reprogramming screen in human T cells from healthy young and old donors.
  • In February 2023, NewLimit made several improvements to its Delivery Engine, and it’s now  >100X more efficient than its initial manufacturing runs in 2022.
TetraScience Logo

TetraScience

Unlock the power of your scientific data.

Headquarters

Boston, Massachusetts

Industry

Data, Biotech

Founded

2014

Funding

$99.1 million

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • Between April 2020 and April 2021, TetraScience reported 10x revenue growth.
  • As of April 2021, TetraScience counts 12/100 largest pharmaceutical companies as customers.
  • In FY2021, TetraScience reported 300% annual recurring revenue growth, and 95% of its $80 million Series B capital is still cash in the bank.
  • As of May 2023, TetraScience counts 15/25 largest pharmaceutical companies as customers.
biomodal logo

biomodal

Working to expand the dimensions of genetic discovery by using epigenetics to reduce several routine and important diagnostic tests for common cancers to a simple blood draw.

Headquarters

Cambridge, England, United Kingdom

Industry

Biotech

Founded

2012

Funding

$155.2 million

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • In 2023, biomodal launched a new duet multiomics solution to sequence genetics and epigenetics in one workflow simultaneously.
  • In 2023, biomodal’s CEGX team was published in Nature Biotechnology.
Loyal Logo

Loyal

A clinical-stage veterinary medicine company on a mission to help dogs live longer, healthier lives.

Headquarters

San Francisco, California

Industry

Biotech, Pets

Founded

2019

Funding

$58 million

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • Loyal’s team has published 152 papers, worked on 56 clinical drug programs, and combined for 192 years of research.
  • Loyal received protocol concurrence from the FDA for its companion dog longevity study.
Cellworks logo

Cellworks

Personalized cancer therapy.

Headquarters

South San Francisco, California

Industry

Biotech

Founded

2005

Funding

$33 million

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • Cellworks Computational Omics Biology Model has a network of 7,000+ human genes, 30,000+ molecular species, and 100+ signaling pathways.
  • In 2022, Cellworks won The Challengers Innovative Business of the Year Award by Dell Technologies.
GenEdit Logo

GenEdit

Developing innovative therapies through targeted delivery of genetic medicines.

Headquarters

South San Francisco, California

Industry

Biotech

Founded

2016

Funding

$43.7 million

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • GenEdit may receive up to $57 million in near-term payments from its partnership with Sarepta Therapeutics to develop gene-editing therapeutics for neuromuscular diseases.
TrialSpark Logo

TrialSpark

A tech-driven model focused on more efficient drug development and value creation.

Headquarters

New York, New York

Industry

Biotech

Founded

2014

Funding

$156 million

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • As of May 2023, TrialSpark has four drugs under development for chronic hand eczema (phase 3), pruritus (phase 2), atopic dermatitis (pre-clinical), and knee osteoarthritis (phase 2).
  • TrialSpark claims a time savings of 1-3 years per drug program and a $1 billion+ sales advantage per drug program.
Reverie Labs Logo

Reverie Labs

A pharmaceutical company that uses computational chemistry and machine learning tools to accelerate drug discovery programs.

Headquarters

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Industry

Biotech

Founded

2017

Funding

$32 million+

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • As of May 2023, Reverie Labs has four candidates in its pipeline: RVL-101 at IND-Enabling, RVL-102 at late discovery, RVL-103 at early discovery, and Multiple Roche / GNE at an undisclosed stage.
three dark blue circle joined together on white background

Ossium Health

Creating a source for life-saving stem cells.

Headquarters

San Francisco, California

Industry

Biotech

Founded

2016

Funding

$76.9 million

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • In April 2023, Ossium Health won a $3.46 million grant from the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine. 
Notable Labs Logo

Notable Labs

A clinical-stage precision therapeutics company developing a new class of oncology medicines: Predictive Precision Medicines.

Headquarters

Foster City, California

Industry

Biotech

Founded

2014

Funding

$54.8 million

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • Notable’s predictive precision medicine platform identifies responders with 92% accuracy in a study conducted at Stanford in 2020.
  • As of May 2023, NBL-001, a molecule in Notable’s pipeline, is at phase 1 for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) indication, preclinical for pediatric leukemia indication, and preclinical for solid tumors indication.
  • As of May 2023, Fosciclopirox, a molecule in Notable’s pipeline, is pre-clinical for AML indication.
Eigen Therapeutics Logo

Eigen Therapeutics

Making therapies to make cancer easier to find and eliminate.

Headquarters

Redwood City, California

Industry

Biotech

Founded

2019

Funding

$7 million

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • Eigen Therapeutics emerged from stealth in December 2022.
White and blue "X" on black background

DNAnexus

The world’s most secure cloud platform and global network for scientific collaboration and accelerated discovery.

Headquarters

Mountain View, California

Industry

Biotech

Founded

2009

Funding

$472.6 million

Valuation

~$600 million+

Traction

  • As of March 2022, DNAnexus has 12,000 users across 48 countries.
  • As of March 2022, DNAnexus counts 7/10 top pharmaceutical and 8/10 top diagnostics companies as customers.
  • As of March 2022, DNAnexus stores 65 petabytes of data, which is a 70% YoY growth since 2015.
  • As of May 2023, DNAnexus has 100+ enterprise customers and runs 100K+ jobs monthly.
  • DNAnexus customers include Intermountain Healthcare, Natera, and Eli Lilly.
Macro Oceans Logo

Macro Oceans

Transforming seaweed into low-carbon chemicals for materials, food, cosmetics, and more.

Headquarters

Sacramento, California

Industry

Climate, Biotech

Founded

2020

Funding

$5 million

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • In April 2023, Macro Oceans completed the first phase of its pilot facility in West Sacramento.
  • Macro Oceans claims its single-step process reduces costs by 7x over existing bioprocessing practices.
Ourself Logo

Ourself

Sub-topical skincare system.

Headquarters

New York, New York

Industry

Consumer, Health & Beauty, Biotech

Founded

2021

Funding

$42.5 million

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • As of May 2023, Ourself has 24 products.
  • As of May 2023, Ourself has 57.4K Instagram followers and 1.4K Facebook followers.
Black X on white background

64x Bio

A platform that increases the speed and scale of mammalian cell line discovery.

Headquarters

San Francisco, California

Industry

Biotech

Founded

2017

Funding

$59.5 million

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • 64x Bio is a spinout of Harvard’s Wyss Institute.
Loam Logo

Loam

Fungus eats carbon and pays farmers.

Headquarters

Orange, New South Wales, Australia

Industry

Climate, Biotech

Founded

2018

Funding

$150 million

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • As of June 2023, Loam claims its biotechnology can potentially remove up to 8.5 gigatons of CO2 annually.
  • As of February 2023, Loam has sown 6,000 individual trial plots across 29 locations in 2 countries. Data from the trial plots indicate that the farmers could increase carbon units per hectare by 3x-6x, up from 0-2x, via other land management practices.
Uncommon Logo

Uncommon

Forging a healthier future of food.

Headquarters

Cambridge, England, United Kingdom

Industry

Food & Beverage, Climate, Biotech

Founded

2018

Funding

$33.6 million

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • As of June 2023, Uncommon claims its technology can produce 80% less CO2 emissions per pound of pork.
Epoch Logo

Epoch

Plastic-eating enzymes.

Headquarters

London, England, United Kingdom

Industry

Climate, Biotech

Founded

2020

Funding

$16 million

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • As of June 2023, Epoch can sequence 100 trillion enzyme variants per hour.
Formo Logo

Formo

Animal-free dairy products.

Headquarters

Berlin, Germany

Industry

Food & Beverage, Climate, Biotech

Founded

2018

Funding

$54.5 million

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • As of June 2023, Formo claims its process avoids 9 tons of CO2 per ton of cheese.
  • In a study conducted with the University of Bath, Formo concluded that 78% of consumers are likely or definitely likely to buy animal-free dairy cheese when it's available from a sample of 5,000 people.
Neuron23 Logo

Neuron23

Developing precision medicines for neurological and immunological diseases.

Headquarters

South San Francisco, California

Industry

Biotech, Healthcare

Founded

2018

Funding

$213.5 million

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • As of June 2023, Neuron23 is in the pre-clinical phase for TYK2 targeting systemic inflammation and in the discovery phase for Program 3 targeting ALS.
  • In February 2023, Neuron23 announced the first-in-human dose in the Phase 1 clinical trial of NEU-723 to treat Parkinson’s disease.
ArsenalBio Logo

ArsenalBio

Programmable cell therapy.

Headquarters

South San Francisco, California

Industry

Healthcare, Biotech

Founded

2019

Funding

$305.8 million

Valuation

Undisclosed

Traction

  • In May 2023, ArsenalBio shared pre-clinical data on AB-1015 (ovarian cancer) and AB-2100 (kidney cancer).
  • In January 2023, ArsenalBio reported its first patient was dosed in a phase 1 clinical trial of AB-1015 in the development of treatment for ovarian cancer.

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