🧬 Mark Kotter - bit.bio - Part 4 | Democratizing Access to Cells & the Evolution of bit.bio | A Financial Journey from Angel Investment to IPO | Building a Tech Bio Platform & Mark’s 10-Year Vision

Part 4 of 4.

My guest for this week’s episode is Mark Kotter, neurosurgeon, stem cell biologist, and CEO and founder of bit.bio. He has also been a professor and researcher at Cambridge for more than 15 years.

Bit.bio is an award-winning human synthetic biology company providing human cells for research, drug discovery, and cell therapy. The company applies a patented safe harbor gene targeting approach to inducibly express transcription factor combinations that reprogram human-induced pluripotent stem cells into highly defined and mature human cell types. Bit.bio spun out of the University of Cambridge in 2016 and has since raised approximately $200 million from Arch Ventures, Foresight Capital, Milky Way, Charles River Laboratories, National Resilience, Tencent, and Pulau Capital, among others.

Mark is also the co-founder of Meatable, scientific founder and chairman of rejuvenation startup clock.bio, and co-founder and trustee of Myelopathy.org, the first charity dedicated to a common yet often overseen condition causing a slow-motion spinal cord injury. His diverse experience as an academic and serial entrepreneur offers a wealth of insights aspiring scientist founders can draw from.

Join us this week and hear about:

The evolution of bit.bio and their mission to democratize access to human cells and therapies
Building a solid infrastructure and hiring the right people
The early hurdles of securing funding and managing co-founder dynamics and bit.bio’s financial journey from angel investments to institutional funding
Mark’s plans to take the company public

Please enjoy my conversation with Mark Kotter.

Timestamps

00:28 Intro

01:52 Democratizing access to cells, the core mission of bit.bio

04:06 A new paradigm of creating batches of cells

06:26 Creating a new market out of a disruptive product

09:20 The business initiatives at bit.bio and Mark’s driving philosophies

11:28 The journey of new modality platforms like bit.bio’s & the IP landscape

15:02 Building the infrastructure and engine powering bit.bio, finding the right people

23:05 Financing bit.bio early on and their financial journey from a small, scrappy lab

26:56 Raising larger funds from institutional investors, bit.bio’s Series A and B

28:56 Mark’s future plans and 10-year vision for bit.bio