BIOPÔLE START-UP FUND
NO STRINGS ATTACHED

Are you a passionate Biopôle-based entrepreneur? And are you in need of a financial boost to kick-start your innovation? Enter the Biopôle Start-up Fund: a flagship initiative that helps the most promising life sciences ventures on campus to focus on what they do best. Covering part of the costs of rental, research and development and key services, Biopôle SA supports entrepreneurial passion and early-stage innovation. Even better, it’s no strings attached: no equity demands, no loan repayments, just more time and resources to make an impact on human health through innovation.

Next application deadlines:

  • 06.05.2025 (presentation 27.05.2025)
  • 12.08.2025 (presentation 02.09.2025)
  • 11.11.2025 (presentation 02.12.2025)

Apply now

NO STRINGS ATTACHED

90,000
CHF of total annual support
40'000 CHF for digital health companies
40,000
CHF/year for wet lab
to spend on infrastructure rental at Biopôle
20,000
CHF/year for R&D services
or consultancy, salaries and training
30,000
CHF/year for R&D materials
10,000 CHF for digital health companies

WHAT YOU GET

FINANCIAL SUPPORT

We’ll give up to CHF 40,000 to start-ups working in digital health and up to CHF 90,000 to those in any other area of the life sciences. The support can cover the costs of rental, research and development and key services.  Biopôle SA demands no equity or debt-like reimbursement in return for the funding provided; the support is given with no strings attached. However, the most successful beneficiaries of the fund will be expected to pay back what they received in a spirit of solidarity, thus ensuring that future generations of start-ups can benefit from the same support.

INVESTEMENT READINESS PROGRAMME

The Investment Readiness Programme offered by Biopôle SA trains entrepreneurs to undergo an investor-style deep dive into their start-up’s value and helps them understand what minimal level of maturation needs to be met to onboard investors. Biopôle has teamed up a working group of five consulting services to review information across five verticals: IP led by KATZAROV, Market led by Ernst & Young Switzerland, Legal led by Lenz & Staehelin, Finance & Team led by Virgo Ventures and Science led by Biopôle Postgrad Consulting, managed by Alcimed.

MORE INFORMATION 

The Biopôle Start-up Fund will not only help us buy the equipment we need to scale up our platform, but it will also help us grow our team.

Daniel Nakhaee-Zadeh Gutierrez, Co-Founder at Adaptyv Biosystems

WHO REVIEWS APPLICATIONS: INVESTMENT ADVISORY BOARD

The primary goal of the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) is to recommend the best and brightest start-ups from the applications received. It then works with the Biopôle management team to help successful applicants put down solid roots in the dynamic entrepreneurial ecosystem of the canton of Vaud. The SAB supports them throughout their journey at Biopôle, ensuring they get the help they need when they need it.

The SAB is made up of professionals with complementary expertise and perspectives, including representatives of academia, investment, business, technology transfer and entrepreneurship.

Elena Battistello
Analyst at Novartis Venture Fund
Olivier Lebel
Seed impact investor, change and strategy consultant.
Anette Chauhan
VP/GM Medical Delivery Solutions EMEA

Bart Deplancke
Vice Dean Innovation, EPFL
Daniel Dillinger
Principal at RedAlpine
Peter Greaney
Biotech Entrepreneur, co-founder, Populus
Julien Guex
Managing Director, FIT
Ronald Kempers
CEO and CFO, Mymetics Corporation
Nicolas Mermod
Professor Emeritus, UNIL
Vincent Ossipow
Partner, Omega Funds
Philippe Renaud
Full Professor, Microsystems Laboratory, EPFL
Michelle Scott
Vice President, Head Discovery and Biotechnology Solutions, Labcorp Drug Development

Katrin Siebenbuerger Hacki
Director, Medows Sàrl
Nasri Nahas
CEO, Biopôle SA
Pierre-Jean Wipff
Innovation and Partnerships Director, Biopôle SA
Load all

HOW AND WHEN TO APPLY: THE SELECTION PROCESS

Start-ups can apply to the fund at any time. The SAB assesses the applications received at the end of each calendar quarter and presents recommendations to the Board of Directors of Biopôle SA, which then has the final say on which companies will be supported by the fund. Funding decisions are based on the scientific quality of the project, the relevance of the company’s business plan and the credentials of the management team.

WHO CAN APPLY: BIOPÔLE LIFE SCIENCES START-UPS

Any start-up based at Biopôle is eligible to apply to the fund, regardless of the life sciences domain it is operating in. However, the start-up must:

  • be hosted at Biopôle on a lease of no less than 12 months
  • have been registered for less than 2 years for digital health companies, 3 years for other companies
  • be working in the life sciences (companies providing services only are not eligible to apply)
  • have raised less than CHF 3 million in funding (equity)  since it was founded, CHF 2 million if you are a digital health company.

SUPPORTED COMPANIES

Since the launch of the Biopôle Start-up Fund in May 2021, the following start-ups have been selected to enter the programme.

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