Jun Deng
We live in perilous times. Macroeconomic signals are the worst in decades, the pandemic persists across the globe, and changing weather patterns are causing catastrophic damage to our natural spaces, infrastructures, and homes. Now more than ever, we seek evidence that the future still holds hope and joy, but with no end in sight and no obvious solutions to this seemingly all-encompassing instability, our society is left feeling disempowered and overwhelmed.
There is an urgent need for humans to step up, embrace change, and push improvements forward. Humanity must leverage its ingenuity and inventive mastery to cultivate this
much-needed hope and joy to improve the way we live. Fortunately, for us and for the world at large, advances in technology (e.g., computing, mechanical and electrical engineering, and manufacturing) and discoveries in biology (e.g., synthetic material production, genomic interfacing, and microbiome therapeutics) are at an all-time high, resulting in exponential opportunities to embrace this momentous challenge.
Historically, what we define as ‘BioTech’ has focused on the biological aspect of science first and then the technological application to that science second. But with the current skyrocketing functionalities of technology, the primary approach has become the powerful technology being directly applied to one or many aspects of biology. This reframe is called ‘TechBio.’
This nuanced flip of linguistic order may seem small, but the implication is impactful. It flips the core concept of the entire process: With biotech, we begin with a biological breakthrough and then ask, ‘How can we technically accelerate this?’ With techbio, we focus on the engineering first – the technology acting as a conduit to the solution, such as AI, sensors, or new materials – and then back solve to where dramatic shifts in capabilities can be achieved – such as a retrieving novel, hard-to-access stem cell data, or altering the neurological capacity of brainwaves.
This conceptual shift creates monumental potential in the way investors will approach the space formerly known as biotech. For example, unlike traditional biotech companies, which can take years or even decades to develop and produce revenue, techbio startups can generate revenue much earlier, which de-risks investments. In addition, rather than focusing on a single therapeutic asset, techbio companies have high throughput and can develop horizontally and vertically at the same time, with the potential of generating multiple assets simultaneously and addressing multiple problems across industries.
"Health and happiness science is the most robust and fast-growing early-stage investment opportunity in decades, touching every part of our bodies and minds and every person on Earth."
Indeed, due to these advances, startups are currently operating in an optimal environment for growth, which, in turn, means an optimal environment for investment and creates huge opportunities in medicine, consumer goods, synthetic biology, diagnostics, and therapeutics, amongst a multitude of other areas.
For example, Nimble Science, a recent investment of our fund Joyance Partners, has developed a novel process for direct sampling of the gut microbiome that enables analysis of targeted regions of the gastrointestinal tract and reveals never-before-achievable data and insights.
Nimble's simple yet highly effective testing process has the potential to become as widely adopted as standard blood testing, greatly accelerating our understanding of our health and opening up broad new pathways for diagnostic analysis.
Another of our companies, Kolibri, uses acoustic waves to create the optimal environment for cell growth and production, increasing yield by 10X and reducing production costs by 50X.
Obviously, this has the potential to entirely transform the cell and gene therapy industry.
As evidenced by the revolutionary potential of these companies, healthcare is a prime example of an investment sector destined for disruption. Historically, healthcare was centered on delivering interventional care; the customers were payers, hospitals, and clinics, and the products were complex and expensive. Now, shifts in science and human desire have flipped that model on its head. Health science is increasingly concentrated on the well-being of each and every individual. With this individualized autonomy at the center, healthcare is pivoting from addressing health at the point of crisis to maintaining a reliable, consistent state of healthiness. This way, intervention is no longer needed since the point of crisis is never reached.
The prime driver is the ability to give people agency over their own bodies. In other words, the new focus is now individual biological health, resulting in overall happiness and improved quality of life.
Health and happiness science is the most robust and fast-growing early-stage investment opportunity in decades, touching every part of our bodies and minds and every person on Earth. Companies are discovering breakthrough ways to cultivate hope and joy, including products that assist physiological health, like exoskeletons, microbiome care, food as medicine, and supplements; products that improve mental health, like sleep assistants, therapy platforms, and neurological data tracking devices; and products that improve confidence in creative ways, like body and skincare that break down societal taboos, unification platforms that serve marginalized communities, and interpersonal relationship services. There are infinite examples of other innovative interpretations of technologically manifesting these highly sought-after elements of improved quality of life in every sense of the concept.
Techbio is a $15 Trillion market opportunity that is rapidly transforming core human experiences, ripe for a unique investment approach that sees this landscape from a fresh perspective. The world is embracing the idea that we should make the best of our one precious life in whatever way is most meaningful to our individual needs, desires, and interpretations of joy; the next generation of technology and science is replacing the old syndrome-centric approach with something more personal, more preventative, more predictive, and dramatically more powerful.
