BioFounders journey culminates in the Fast-Track Program.
Within the first year of its founding, iGEM EPIC has successfully ran several entrepreneurship events with the vision of becoming the driving force behind hundreds of SynBio based start-ups globally. The core of EPIC’s program focuses on supporting first-time founders from within the iGEM community by training them in the basics of bioentrepreneurship and connecting them to relevant co-founders, mentors, accelerators, investors and partners. Through these cumulative efforts, EPIC aims to help accelerate our transition to a more sustainable bioeconomy.
Could it be a critical step for our transition to a sustainable bioeconomy?
We launched the Venture Creation Lab (VCL) in the EMEA, APAC and Americas regions between April to June. 90+ iGEMers joined us to launch their first Bioventures, meet co-founders, develop entrepreneurial capabilities and ultimately create 30+ startup projects. From June to August, our VCL teams received mentorship from serial founders and experts from the growing iGEM community of +150 Biofounders and beyond. At the beginning of August, with the help of our EPIC Mentors and experts, we selected the top-performing teams from each region for participation in our 2020 Fast-Track Program.
The Fast-Track Program
iGEM EPIC’s Fast-Track Program was a two week event that connected exceptional EPIC BioFounder teams with relevant investors, incubators and accelerators partners to help provide potential funding, lab-space, and start-up resources. We are grateful to each and every one of our partners for their collaboration on the program.
The Fast-Track Partners for the 2020 startup cohort.
Watch the pitches of the Participating Startups
The teams have done a fantastic job in refining their pitches and have come a long way since the beginning of their journey as VCL participants. We are proud to have nurtured these talented people and will continue to do so in the future as we lead up to the Startup Showcase event in the iGEM Giant Jamboree, where we will be organizing a range of events and competitions on iGEM Entrepreneurship. Get your tickets to the Startup Showcase here.
