What To Look For In An Investor For Your Biotech Business

Fronting a biotech business can be both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, success can change and save lives, making your work some of the most important out there. However, to achieve this, you need funding, and that’s not always the easiest thing to get your hands on.

To ensure you can remain financially stable while you develop your biotech project, you’ll want to receive the backing of an investor. What kind of person or company do you want behind you for such a crucial venture, though? These are the qualities to look out for.

Someone With Patience

Whenever a person or company invests in a business, they expect to see profits after a set amount of time. However, how long they wait for their investment to come to fruition depends on the industry.

With biotech, it’s essential that investors understand there can be a significant period of waiting before the venture takes off. It can often take eight to twelve years to develop something, with applications for approval also requiring a fair amount of time. They generally won’t get anything back on their investment until this is all done, so they mustn’t be put off by this. If they don’t have the funds – or simply the patience – to wait so long, you’ll want to steer clear. Otherwise, you’ll have to deal with some pushback when the business fails to become instantly profitable.

Someone With Experience

If someone’s going to invest in your biotech business, they need to understand what your area of work entails. Investing in biotech isn’t the same as with other industries, which means that people need to adjust their expectations before sending money your way.

If someone has experience with the industry because they’ve invested in it before, that will work in your favour because they’ll understand how the process plays out. For instance, they won’t get on your case about the slow progression of development as they understand that biotech requires years to produce results.

When searching for investors, you’ll want to consider something like Kohli Ventures, the investment vehicle of Tej Kohli. With a portfolio already containing investments in regenerative medicine and bio synthetics, the knowledge and experience you’re looking for are right here. Tej Kohli is also the lead backer of Detraxi, a biotech company that could soon solve multiple global health challenges thanks to his funding.

Arch Venture Partners and Canaan are two other investors worth considering. These companies both have over thirty years of experience in the field and are eager to pay big for risky biotech projects. That’s just how enthusiastic they are about helping to make scientific breakthroughs.

Someone With The Necessary Funds

It might seem like an obvious quality, but when it comes to investors for your biotech business, you want someone who can put their money where their mouth is.

Over the many years of development, you’ll need adequate funding to keep you going and ensure you have all the right tools and materials at your disposal. That means getting an investor who has the necessary capital, as well as potentially a habit of funding repeat rounds of investment.

It’s worth looking into their recent history and seeing just how active they’ve been with their money. If they’ve not been investing over the last six months or so, this may indicate that they’re low on capital and not financially secure enough to support you. Biotech requires too long of a commitment to take on someone who’s monetary situation is unstable, so steer clear of anyone you can’t completely trust.

Someone Unafraid Of Risk

Another important quality that your investor should have is the ability to embrace risk and not be afraid of it.

Every business comes with a degree of risk, no matter what industry it’s in. However, it’s incredibly prominent in biotech due to the nature of materials being worked with, along with safety concerns and meeting the necessary regulations. A business can take years to develop a product, only for it never to see the light of day. That’s not just disappointing for the people who spent time working on it, but also those who invested in the venture.

Anyone looking to put money into biotech needs to be aware of this risk. While the potential for profit is huge should the business be a success, there’s always a chance they may walk away with nothing.

Biotech not only has the potential to make investors a lot of money, but it can also do an incredible amount of good in the world. However, for the relationship between business and investor to be a good one, it’s important that the latter display all these qualities. If they’re impatient, inexperienced, low on capital or too afraid of risks, their funding could prove to be more trouble than it’s worth.