o2h Kickstarter: Innovate America A competitive award to turbocharge your biotech start-up with a chemistry boost!
give your startup a boost of chemistry
Register your interestkey highlights
6+
Editions completed
globally
20+
Awards provided
so far
15+
drug discovery programs
supported
about the o2h kickstarter
The o2h kickstarter competition has been designed to provide a chemistry boost to small molecule focused biotechnology companies who have raised some initial funding and are in need to supercharge their chemistry efforts to meet their next funding milestone. Winners of this competition will receive a dedicated team of chemists and end to end project management support to generate chemical matter of their interest to meet their project milestones.
Over the past 20 years, o2h discovery has established collaborations with numerous early-stage biotech companies based out of the US. We believe that US Biotech startups are at the forefront of innovation, revolutionising healthcare. Fueled by visionary minds, these startups are dedicated to improving human health through innovative therapies. Recognizing the potential of these American biotech startups and ecosystem, o2h discovery has launched the fifth edition of its Kickstarter competition, specifically to support small molecule biotech start-ups in the US.
winners of the previous o2h kickstarter competition
Alevin Therapeutics
Developing a platform of novel small molecule RGD integrin inhibitors with superior drug-like qualities
Kuano
De-risking and accelerating drug discovery by combining quantum and AI
Sevenless Therapeutics
Developing technique to uncover a novel chronic pain signaling target
Five Alarm Bio
Seeking to develop drugs to slow down the ageing process
Origami Therapeutics
Developing next-generation disease-modifying protein degraders and correctors
Psylo
Next-generation neuroscience for transformative treatments
Gertrude Biomedical
Creating innovative and transformational oncology therapeutics, accelerating progress towards a brighter future for sufferers of untreatable cancers.
Protai
AI-powered drug discovery startup that is revolutionizing the way new drugs can be discovered
Azadyne
Azadyne are a preclinical biotech company with a new approach to treating autoimmune disease. We have identified a new target within the body and a previously undrugged pathway.
ProteKt Therapeutics
ProteKt Therapeutics has discovered and developed a series of novel and selective molecules by applying unique computational methods and validating the inhibitors in clinically relevant assays
Monash University
Monash is a research-intensive university, known for some significant and lasting discoveries that have delivered impact beyond the academic community.
benefits
team
A dedicated team of six FTE synthetic chemists of which two are experienced and four are trainees
cost & duration
Six synthetic chemists at a fraction of the usual price for up to six months
additional support
Receive 100 complimentary ADME points and save 20% on Biology FTE
inventory
Access to a large inventory of chemicals and reagents for synthesis
eligibility
The competition is for seed and/or pre-seed stage small molecule focused biotech companies based out of the US who have secured initial funding from recognized grant bodies or venture/angel investors, have exciting drug targets and ability to scale.
Applyempowering early-stage biotech
We launched our first “o2h Kickstarter competition” back in August 2022 exclusively for early-stage biotech to support them boost their drug discovery research. Listen to this exclusive o2h ChaiTime episode where we discuss with some of the previous winners to understand how this competition supported their research and development efforts.
Read morewinners feedback
More than 40 companies applied from across the globe, and here are some of the companies who made it to the winners list.
Beth J Hoffman
President & CEO
The Kickstarter will enable us to thoroughly explore our nascent SAR and advance our lead program more rapidly.
Chris Moody
Co-Founder
The o2h Kickstarter competition promises to be an excellent scheme allowing early-stage companies like ours to get access to synthetic chemistry.
Andrew Rudd
Co-Founder & CEO
The Kickstarter Award allowed us to cost-effectively advance our lead program without sacrificing on quality. The professionalism and productivity of the o2h team was exceptional and I would recommend them to anyone looking for chemistry support.
Eran Seger
Co-Founder & CEO
Protai is excited to be partnering with o2h's chemistry in order to accelerate our proteomin biomarker-led drug discoveries and development activities.
Dr. Neil Benson
CEO
The kickstarter competition was transformative for Sevenless. We were able to effectively put 10 full time FTEs on our lead optimization program, which delivered novel chemistry ahead of schedule. The progress was outstanding and the o2h team a pleasure to work with. Kickstarter did for us exactly as it’s name suggests. We are now looking to move a drug candidate forward through IND enabling studies and towards Phase I clinical trials.
Gert Kiss
Co-Founder & CEO
o2h’s Kickstarter Award has significantly accelerated our lead-series expansion plans, thanks to a professional team that has been over-delivering on some rather challenging and exciting chemistry.
Mathew Gray-Davies
Director
We're delighted to receive o2h's Kickstarter award this year. Our primary mission is developing therapeutics to safely target processes shared by many neurodegenerative diseases as well as chronic cognitive, fatigue, and pain disorders. o2h's support of this mission is truly inspiring, and the expertise of their chemistry and biology teams serves as a vital catalyst for our first two discovery projects.
Dr Ramsay McFarlane
Co-Founder & CEO
We have been fortunate enough to work with the outstanding o2h Kickstarter team, which has enabled us to move rapidly through our compound screening programme in an exceptionally cost-effective fashion. The O2H team bring great depth of expertise and experience of the pharmaceutical sector, with a strong understanding of our specific needs. The whole O2H team has worked efficiently and diligently, with high quality end results that are enabling us to reach for our long-terms goals to bring new therapeutics to cancer patients.
evaluation
The applications will be evaluated by the o2h kickstarter committee, and winners will be announced shortly. This is a time bound competition. If supportive to the global biotech ecosystem, we will run this competition again.
evaluation committee
Sunil shah
Business Analysis
CEO,o2h ventures and Co-founder,o2h group
Gayathri Sadasivam
Scientific Analysis, Biology
Head of Biology, o2h discovery
Andy Morley
Scientific Analysis, Drug Discovery
Chief science officer
Hemal Soni
Head of Chemistry
Head of Chemistry
