VC Playbook: Finding Early-Stage Financing When Money Is Scarce

06 Mar 2023

Early-stage companies need to be more flexible on the financing terms they are willing to accept and in finding ways to gather evidence to support the impact of their products or services.

Early Stage Companies Need To Change Their Approach In A More Conservative Funding Environment • Source: Shutterstock

The pace of decline in biopharma venture capital investment over the past year has been striking: after an impressive first quarter in 2022, when biopharma companies raised $11.9bn, the amount of VC funding contracted to $5.7bn by Q4, well below all four quarterly totals in the prior two years. (Also see "Finance Watch: Founder-Friendly Curie.Bio Launches With $520m To Seed, Support New Companies" - Scrip, 16 February, 2023.)

There’s no indication things are improving, with panelists at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization’s CEO & Investor Conference saying they see...