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Assessing the techbio landscape: hype or substance?

By Brian Buntz | August 21, 2023

Lab of the future

[metamorworks/Adobe Stock]

The venture capital firm Artis Ventures, founded in 2001, coined the term “techbio” sector to describe biotech platforms where technology and engineering take the lead in advancing drug discovery and biomanufacturing. In circa 2019, the firm contributed to shaping the techbio landscape by setting up venture capital fund named Artis techbio that bridges the gap between software and drug development.

Although the term term “techbio” has gained prominence in recent year, the use of technologies such as AI, automation and genomics in the biotech sector has attracted considerable attention from startups and investors for much longer. This is evident when noting the founding dates of notable companies in the space: Ginkgo Bioworks’ origins trace back to 2008. Exscientia and AbCellera were established in 2012, and BenevolentAI and Recursion in 2013.

Reality check

"Line graph showing stock price trends of techbio companies from August 2021 to August 2023.

Stock performance of prominent techbio companies Exscientia (orange), Recursion Pharmaceuticals (green), AbCellera (red) and Ginkgo Bioworks (purple) over a two-year period (August 2021 – August 2023). Note: BenevolentAI’s performance is not shown given data limitations.

To assess the state of the techBio landscape, we rounded up a number of companies in the space, gathered funding amounts and reviewed recent market trends. A deep analysis of the techbio landscape can prove difficult as the term itself can be nebulous, encompassing a range of intersections between technology and biology. While the potential of techbio is considerable, a number of companies in the sector have faced hurdles. Public companies, in particular, have struggled to maintain investor confidence in a volatile market. Over the past 12 months, several prominent techbios firms have witnessed significant stock price declines coupled with workforce reductions:

  • BenevolentAI’s stock plummeted roughly 80% on the AMS Exchange. Earlier this year, the company said it would lay off about half of its workforce.
  • Exscientia dropped more than 30% over the past year.
  • Recursion saw its stock decline 8%.
  • AbCellera, an antibody discovery and development company, has seen its stock skid 49% over the past year. In June, however, the company said it was moving ahead with its development plan for its Vancouver headquarters. The new campus will create some 400 jobs.
  • Ginkgo Bioworks, a developer of biological engineering products and services, saw its stock plunge 39% over the past year.

Expanding the timeframe to 24 months, BenevolentAI experienced an even steeper decline of approximately 89% (see picture above). Exscientia and Ginkgo Bioworks also saw large drops, with their stocks falling around 70% and 79% respectively. AbCellera wasn’t spared either, with a decline of about 62%.

Bar chart with companies on the y-axis and number of acquisitions on the x-axis. Different colors within each company's bars indicate acquisitions in different years from 2017 to 2023.

Grouped bar chart showcasing acquisition trends of prominent tech bio companies — Ginkgo Bioworks, Insitro, Recursion Pharmaceuticals, Schrödinger, Tempus and Benchling – from 2017 to 2023. Data from Crunchbase.

Future Prospects

tech bio funding over time

This graph shows the cumulative funding received by large players in the techbio sector from 2012 to 2023. The y-axis shows the total funding in millions of USD. The companies included in this analysis are Tempus, Zymergen (acquired by Ginkgo Bioworks), Ginkgo Bioworks, Insitro, Recursion Pharmaceuticals, Schrödinger, Metagenomi, BenevolentAI, Atomwise, AbCellera, Inscripta, Exscientia, Opentrons, PathAI, and Benchling. Data from Crunchbase.

Increasing interest in AI in pharma could bode well for the techbio sector, especially in light of the often painstakingly slow and expensive traditional drug development process. For instance, Recursion Pharmaceuticals recently made headlines after processing some 36 billion chemical compounds for drug-target interaction in a mere week thanks to AI-driven methods. To put that in perspective, that task would have taken a 100,000 years by the company’s math. A number of companies, including Insilico Medicine, Exscientia and AbCellera, now have AI-generated molecules in the clinic.

Snapshot of the techbio Landscape

Below is a detailed of 25 techbio companies of varying sizes gleaned primarily from Crunchbase. The sortable table provides details on their focus, funding and total number of acquisitions.

Company NameDescriptionLocationNumber of EmployeesNumber of AcquisitionsFunding RoundTotal Funding Amount
Ginkgo BioworksPublic developer of biological engineering products and custom microbes across multiple markets.Boston, Massachusetts501-100010Series B$800,400,000
AbCelleraPublic company specializes in antibody discovery and development.Vancouver, Canada501-10004Series B$887,000,000
TempusPrivate technology company focused on driving precision medicine through AI in healthcare.Chicago, Illinois1001-50003Series G$1,300,000,000
Seismic TherapeuticPrivate Seismic Therapeutic is a biotechnology company focused on machine learning for immunology drug development.Watertown, Massachusetts, United States11-500Series A$101,000,000
C2i GenomicsPrivate C2i Genomics provides cloud-based cancer diagnostic services to pharmaceutical and diagnostic organizations.New York, New York, United States11-500Series B$112,000,000
Bit.bioPrivate Bit.bio specializes in the fields of coding and biology that determine the identity of human cells.Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom101-2500Series B$145,000,000
BenchSciPrivate company uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to accelerate biomedical discoveries.Toronto, Ontario, Canada251-5000Series D$164,200,000
AtomwisePrivate Atomwise develops AI systems using deep learning algorithms and supercomputers for drug discovery.San Francisco, California, United States101-2500Grant$176,600,000
Deep GenomicsPrivate Deep Genomics is using AI to build genetic therapies.Toronto, Ontario, Canada101-2500Series C$236,700,000
OpentronsPrivate Opentrons is a life science company that develops pipetting robot technology designed to automate experiments.Brooklyn, New York, United States251-5001Series C$240,000,000
PathAIPrivate company develops technology that assists pathologists in making accurate diagnoses.Boston, Massachusetts, United States101-2501Series C$255,200,000
BenevolentAIPublic company specializes in clinical-stage AI-enabled drug discovery.London, England, United Kingdom251-5000Private Equity$292,000,000
OwkinPrivate Owkin is an AI-focused precision medicine company.New York, New York, United States251-5000Series B$304,100,000
ExscientiaPublic Exscientia is a pharmatech company that uses an end-to-end AI platform to design and discover new drugs.Oxford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom101-2502Grant$374,400,000
Insilico MedicinePrivate company has an AI-based pipeline of drugs. Hong Kong101-2500Series D$401,300,000
BenchlingThis private cloud-based software platform company coutns biology researchers and R&D organizations as customers.San Francisco, California501-10001Series F$411,900,000
MetagenomiPrivate Metagenomi uses metagenomics and machine learning to discover novel genome editing systems for therapeutics development.Emeryville, California, United States101-2500Series B$457,000,000
SynthegoPrivate Synthego is a genome engineering company enabling access to CRISPR for life science R&D.Redwood City, California, United States251-5000Series E$459,700,000
InscriptaPrivate Inscripta is developing digital genome engineering solutions.Pleasanton, California, United States 101-2503Series E$463,900,000
SchrödingerPublic Schrödinger develops molecular design software for pharma/biotech and materials research, and is advancing a drug discovery pipeline.New York, New York, United States501-10001Grant$567,200,000
Recursion PharmaceuticalsRecursion is a public biotech developing a drug discovery platform with machine learning.Salt Lake City, Utah, United States251-5003Post-IPO Equity$665,400,000
InsitroPrivate Insitro is a drug discovery and development startup using machine learning and biology.South San Francisco, California, United States101-2501Series C$743,000,000
Emerald Cloud LabPrivate Emerald Cloud Lab is building technology platforms for cloud-based R&D collaboration.South San Francisco, California, United States101-2500Series C$92,100,000
CHARM TherapeuticsCHARM Therapeutics uses deep learning on 3D molecular configurations to develop molecule therapeutics to target pathogenic proteins.London, United Kingdon1-100Series A$82,700,000
BigHat BiosciencesPrivate BigHat Biosciences is a protein therapeutics company that develops an antibody design platform guided by artificial intelligence.San Mateo, California, United States11-501Series B$993,000,000

Filed Under: Drug Delivery, Industry 4.0, machine learning and AI
Tagged With: AI in Pharma, biopharma, biotech, drug discovery, genomics, market trends, R&D
 

About The Author

Brian Buntz

As the pharma and biotech editor at WTWH Media, Brian has almost two decades of experience in B2B media, with a focus on healthcare and technology. While he has long maintained a keen interest in AI, more recently Brian has made making data analysis a central focus, and is exploring tools ranging from NLP and clustering to predictive analytics.

Throughout his 18-year tenure, Brian has covered an array of life science topics, including clinical trials, medical devices, and drug discovery and development. Prior to WTWH, he held the title of content director at Informa, where he focused on topics such as connected devices, cybersecurity, AI and Industry 4.0. A dedicated decade at UBM saw Brian providing in-depth coverage of the medical device sector. Engage with Brian on LinkedIn or drop him an email at bbuntz@wtwhmedia.com.

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