Shadow Foundr is delighted to announce that one of the companies it has raised for, LIfT BioSciences, has been awarded Best Rising Start-Up at BioVaria 2018 by an experienced panel of judges, comprising major Pharma Companies, Venture Capital Firms & NGOs.
Alex Blyth, CEO of LIfT BioSciences receives his BioVaria award.
Over 250 innovative minds gathered in Munich on April 23-24 for the 11th BioVaria to discuss emerging life-science trends and initiate partnerships between academia and industry. 63 peer-selected, patent-protected technologies originating from as many research institutes, universities and university hospitals from all over Europe were presented to decision makers from the biopharmaceutical industry and investment.
BioVaria’s Startup Pitch & Partner Program featured 15 European start-ups in two categories, ‘Emerging’ and ‘Rising’ start-ups. 10 of the start-ups were pre-selected to participate in the BioVaria Startup Award competition moderated by Dr Dirk Vocke, Associate Director, Innovation & Entrepreneurship Incubator, Merck KGaA, Germany, and Dr Nadine Sobotzki, Associate, M Ventures. Competing start-ups pitched their stories to the audience and a jury of first-tier venture capitalists, followed by a challenging Q&A session. Based on a set of pre-defined criteria covering technology, business concept, market and presentation skills the jury selected London-based LIfT Biosciences as the ‘Best Rising Biotech Start-up’.
LIfT Biosciences pursues a novel approach to cell-based cancer treatment using cancer killing neutrophils. Their vision is to develop a scalable method to produce enough safe and effective neutrophils to provide a global and cost-effective cure to solid tumour cancers. LIfT BioSciences’ product is called ‘N-LIfT’ and represents a first-in-class cell therapy for solid tumours.
“BioVaria is the best start-up event I have had the pleasure to attend,” said Alex Blyth, CEO of LIfT Biosciences. “The balance of start-ups to investors, biotech and big pharma companies was just perfect.”
The start-ups also received invaluable guidance from speed-dating sessions with investors and one-on-one mentoring sessions with dedicated experts. Moreover, they could benefit from an inspiring keynote delivered by Dr Hella Kohlhof, CSO of Immunic Therapeutics, who recently closed one of Europe’s largest ever Series A investment rounds.
The event was jointly organized by Ascension and a further 16 technology transfer organizations from seven European nations.
Another Shadow Foundr campaign also up for a prestigious award is Genesis Technical Systems.