This year promises to be the first we saw in which biotechnology and health care startups receive a majority of us.
Until now in 2024, biotechnology and health companies have drawn about $ 5.6 billion out of 110 rounds in series A, per Crunchbase data. This represents 53% of all of series A series funds from the series, which is a barometer closely watched for the start -up ecosystem.
The relatively solid projection of the biotechnological sector occurs while the global series, an action according to the track, takes place a little above last year’s total. However, funding remains down compared to 2022 and many, much lower than in 2021, which was a record year for start -up investment as a whole.
For the perspective, we have drawn the series A series of investments and the transactions that count in the past five years below.
For health care and biotechnology specifically, in the meantime, the five -year -old series rupture looks like this.
No more rounds, but the biggest
In particular, biotechnology and health companies are not in the process of starting a larger share of cycles. They represent less than a third of this year series A.
However, they dominate in a subset of funding: the supergiant round.
Of the 10 largest series in Tours This year, six are biotechnologies. This includes the greatest funding, which went to Xaira TherapeuticsA startup based in San Francisco using AI for the discovery and development of drugs. The company has obtained more than a billion dollars in capital engaged in April from main investors Arch Venture Partners And Avant capital.
The second largest series A also went to a biotechnology, Mirador Therapeuticswhich focuses on precision medicine for chronic inflammation and fibrotic diseases. The San Diego Company won $ 400 million in a March round, also led by Arch.
The preponderance of the biotechnological megados is not limited to serial A. A recent courtyard Analysis of venture capital transactions of $ 100 million or more This year revealed that 38 of these funding had gone to biotechnology and health companies, more than any other sector.
In the slices
When companies announce large financing laps, this does not necessarily mean that they get all the money in advance. For biotechnology in particular, it is not uncommon to see rounds paid in slices, which can be linked to predetermined milestones.
It is also likely that highly funded companies do not expect many more rounds before typing public procurement.
For biotechnology in particular, we see a lot of startups launching the IPO before lifting a B series or C. To illustrate, we have set up a Example of a list of 10 biotechnologies This has become public in the past two years with the A or B series as the last tour.
For technology, standard A statistics seem less encouraging
While biotechnology and health companies bring together a larger part of the financing of the A series, there is a smaller section that goes to startups in other sectors.
Given a large part of what is left about hot startups in a generative AI, there seems to be even less to do for those in other spaces.
This is worrying since there is a wide offer of companies financed by seeds that have noted capital when the investment reached record heights. Many of them are at the stage where a series A would be the next logical step for the founders. It remains to be seen if investors are to be seen.
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Illustration: Dom Guzman
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