Africa's only venture studio focusing on biotechnology startups

ONEBIO provides life science startups with funding, business support, lab facilities and office space; access to networks; mentorship; and connections to resources, international markets and large corporate partners, both in Africa and internationally. ONEBIO is led by Michael Fichardt and Nick Walker. Michael is an entrepreneur, technologist and investor, with experience working in banking, private equity, business consulting, technology startups and venture investing. Michael holds an MBA, a Bachelor of Commerce, post graduate diploma in Sustainability. Nick is a scientist, entrepreneur and venture builder. He worked in business development and venture building at Next Biosciences between 2016 and early 2018. Nick is the Co-founder of Muzi, a decentralisation AI assisted disease testing platform. He received his PhD from UKZN, with a research focus in muscle stem cell biology. Both are graduates of the Singularity University's Global Solutions Program in Silicon Valley that is set up to apply technology to solve large global problems. Ecosystems that excel in translational research have 3 layers: Strong scientific base Support ecosystem: co-working lab space, incubator programs etc. Venture capital funding In Africa, we lack the latter 2 layers. There is really great science in Africa but the translation rate to products and services is still low. ONEBIO is the only venture studio focusing on biotechnology in Africa and aims to fill this gap by building co-working lab spaces, an incubator and a venture fund. We spoke about: the history of ONEBIO ONEBIO's faith in Biotechnology investment in spite of the high risk and relatively long timelines how a scientist can gain entrepreneurial skills how ONEBIO assists biotech start ups Bixbio startup success story how to increase the investment mix into the Africa biotech space qualities of startups and entrepreneurs that are of interest to ONEBIO the areas in which ONEBIO is interested in