Budget
Our initial investment, which unlocks entry into our very selective IndieBio startup community, comprises two post-money SAFEs, executed simultaneously. The first is a Cash SAFE of $200,000 and the other is an IndieBio SAFE for all the resources, infrastructure, and services IndieBio provides to its portfolio companies. Both these SAFEs are post-debt instruments. In simple terms, this means these are diluted in a qualified priced equity financing round, but not by other SAFEs, debt or convertible notes. Based on performance against value-inflecting milestones, we also offer an additional $250,000 SAFE from the Genesis Consortium (also a post-debt instrument) at a valuation cap of $6M. Our ownership target is 10% equity in a company at Series Seed.
Key dates and deadline
Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis year-round.
Details
Our program is a mix of all-group sessions (4-5 hours a week) and small-group sessions (2 hours a week) and weekly reviews between each startup and the IndieBio team. In addition there are a high daily rate of interactions with each startup, which might be in person, over Slack, or Zoom. For the all-group sessions we bring in panels of mentors and talks about tech product production, business models, intellectual property, sales, product design. We do significant small group sharing with CEOs and CXOs. Remote startups do get just as much attention as those in person. Starting with the pre-seed sprint, all members of our team, including our General Partners, are on speed dial and highly tuned into exactly what is going on with your company. You don’t have to wait for a weekly or even quarterly board meeting to meet with us – we are always one DM away. The investing team at IndieBio works daily with founders to troubleshoot any and all aspects of the business, problem solve, cut through interferences and obstacles, and build a solid foundation together. With the In-Kind investment we invest our human capital in multiple ways to supercharge your pre-seed startup. These services include but are no way limited to fundraising, business development, recruiting, technical debugging, executive coaching, tech transfer, coworking office space, IP, accounting, lab & supply chain infrastructure, SOSV’s perks packages, AWS Credits, NVIDIA links, grant writing, vendor network and so much more!
Eligibility
We look for companies with deep scientific insights aimed at solving intractable or difficult problems that will impact 1B+ members of humanity. Human and Planetary Health is our mission. We see biology as a technology that can be applied across all verticals which can include therapeutics, the future of food, biomaterials, biological tools, diagnostics, synthetic biology, genomics, and data analysis to just name a few areas. Companies can be based on hardware, software, or wet-biology and go straight to consumers or sell to business. For the therapeutics track, because only $250K is upfront and the other $1.75 million is over time, we are looking for truly novel platforms and methodologies that need this time to prove their concept. Anyone from anywhere can apply. You do have to be legally in California or New York during the program, of course. Once accepted, we can help with legal/immigration issues. All you need to apply is a well thought out idea with the science worked out at least in principle and a good team (two co-founders minimum). We’ll help you with all the rest.
Additional information
Do I have to stay local when the program ends after 4 months? During the pandemic, IndieBio began working with companies remotely, and we are now happy to work with companies whether they can be here in person or not. However, we do need to emphasize that IndieBio is an absolutely full-time program, no matter where a startup is in the world. It’s very intense. We insist that founders are fully devoted to making their company great. We do recommend visiting for periods. Based on experience, we recommend teams meet investors in person, for fundraising purposes, until they close their seed round, taking advantage of the vast network of founders, industry partners, investors, and press.
How to apply?
https://indiebio.co/apply/