WebSummit 2022 in Lisboa, Portugal. That means 4 days, 70.000+ attendees, 2.000+ start-ups in the pitch competition, countless interviews, talks, discussions and networking possibilities.
A memorable first time
BiomeDx – one of the most promising portfolio companies of the European Super Angels Club, attented the Web Summit for the first time. Co-founder Nikolaus Gasche and senior scientist Cátia Pacífico were both attending the event. It was great to interact with so many entrepreneurs, investors and curious minds during the exhibition day, and to give an overview of the company’s mission and what lies ahead in the future for Biome Diagnostics.
But the most memorable part of the event was – for sure – the pitch competition. After a pre-selection from more than 2.000 start-ups, their pitch was selected to be presented at the PITCH 2 competition, being one of the winners and making its way from the semifinals to the finals at the centre stage, where they were among the top 3 in the big hall. In the public voting, Biome Diagnostics even achieved first place.
“I am just overwhelmed. To come out of the start-up competition in this atmosphere of the Web Summit as one of the final three means a lot to us. Not only to prevail against 2.000 competitors, but also to have presented our guiding principle of improving technological progress in precision medicine in a comprehensible and convincing way,” said co-founder and CEO Nikolaus Gasche in a statement. He had represented the start-up on stage and pitched confidently in front of the top-class jury.
Financing round in progress
“Pitching in front of more than 20.000 guests in the arena – including many investors and customers – is an exceptional milestone in our mission to develop first-class microbiome diagnostics and therapeutics that can be used by clinicians in routine care. I am very grateful to our supporters for getting us this far. And we will continue on this path with confidence,” Gasche added.
During the pitch, Gasche also revealed that the start-up, which is based in Lower Austria and Vienna and has ambitions to expand to the USA, had already collected more than 50.000 microbiome data sets and was already generating millions in sales. They were currently preparing the Series A financing round.
First place in the jury voting went to the start-up Theone from Georgia, which wants to make it easier for developers to use and document APIs correctly. Gataca, a spin-off from MIT in Boston, which is working on a wallet for the decentralised storage of personal data, also came in second place ex aequo. Congratulations to your achievement!
The jury of the pitch contest:
Bettina Rotermund, Head of Strategic Marketing Siemens Xcelerator, Siemens AG
Barr Moses, Co-founder & CEO, Monte Carlo
Christine Tsai, Founding Partner & CEO, 500 Global
Geoff Ralston, President of Y Combinator
