Blog – Tuesday October 18, 2022
UM6P Ventures’ Agrobioscience and Healthcare Industry Startup Showcase – Deeptech ecosystem helps new market entrants transform their industries
Author: Balaji Vasudevan
Introduction
Being a startup founder is an enormous challenge. Many founders and entrepreneurs have great ideas with huge potential to transform science and tech into business ventures that can benefit society. However, more often than not, these startups and founders see their ideas fade away or die due to lack of support on multiple fronts including the lack of funding opportunities, infrastructure availability, IP support, regulatory understanding, subject matter exepertise and access to VCs. There are many venture firms out there that will support Deeptech ideas. Most of them are general and follow a conventional model of support while very few are trying to create programs and models specifically tailored to the challenges of agriculture and foodtech startups. UM6P Ventures is committed to offering 360o support to help and enable deeptech startups succeed in businesses. We brought together our latest cohort of startups and our Deeptech ecosystem this week. We showcased the innovative solutions being introduced to the market and exchanged ideas amongst professionals in the Agrobioscience and Healthcare industries. Here is a recap of the event in case you missed it.
The Startup Showcase
The UM6P Ventures’ Startup Showcase in collaboration with Plug and Play Morocco took place at University Mohamed 6 Polytechnic , StartGate at Ben Guerir, Morocco on October 18th, 2022. Preceded by a reception, the event kicked off with opening remarks made by Yasser Biaz, CEO of UM6P Ventures. Two panel sessions were organized for the event.
The first panel session in the morning focused on “UM6P Ventures’ scientific and research network engagement model and the technology licensing use case”. Panelists represented UM6P Ventures, the UC Davis African Plant Breeding Academy (AfPBA), the Partnership for Skills in Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology (PASET), the UM6P Technology Licensing Office and the UM6P Institut Supérieur des Sciences Biologiques et Paramédicales (ISSB-P). Members of the panel discussed multiple topics related to the startup journey from its inception, funding, technology licensing, IP strategies, Venture Builder support and much more. The panel brainstormed various challenges faced by startups and the requirements for a startup to be successful on its journey with examples from specific use cases.
The second panel convened after lunch and focused on “Insights into the Venture Builder Offer and real time Q&A with startups founders”. Panel members represented founders and C-suite executives from Agrobioscience startups (De Novo Dairy, Mogale Meat, Biotic, Maya Milk and ClimateCrop) and healthcare startups (Infiuss Health and Zuri Health). Panelists shared their thoughts and their own experiences working with UM6P Ventures. They highlighted how support from UM6P Ventures via capital and the Venture Builder Offer provides access to infrastructure, Subject Matter Expertise, Intellectual Property (IP), a vast partner and Venture Capital network, and access to scientific talent.
Attendees also benefited from a noteworthy discussion on the selection of a VC as a strategic investment partner and the steps to follow as they build their startups and navigate those tough initial few years. Overall it was a much needed and very interesting panel for upcoming startups and aspiring entrepreneurs.
The showcase event ended with a tour of the UM6P University campus facilities including the experimental farm, Agrobioscience Lab, the Material Science labs and others. Tours of the facilities showed that the infrastructure at UM6P is truly world class and on par with any leading globally reputed university. The startups expressed a lot of interest in using these facilities for their R&D projects.
Summary and Road Ahead
Our Agrobioscience and Healthcare cohort and startup showcase event clearly showed how much impact can be made when local and global businesses and entrepreneurs are given the type of support they need. However, there is still a lot of work and support that needs happen as these businesses continue on their path to reach full maturation. UM6P Ventures intends to there every step of the way and will continue to develop programs and resources that will be of value to these innovative startups.
