Venture Leaders Biotech 2026: 10 innovative biotech startups selected for the Boston roadshow
Ten startups have been selected for the 2026 Venture Leaders Biotech program, which will take them to Boston from May 31st to June 5th as part of the Swiss National Startup Team. During their roadshow, the entrepreneurs will connect with international investors and industry leaders, acquiring expertise to help scale their ventures internationally. Venture Leaders Biotech is organized by Venturelab and supported by EPF Lausanne, ETH Zurich, University of Basel, Hansjörg Wyss, Kellerhals Carrard, and VISCHER.
Since 2006, Venturelab has been selecting the Swiss National Startup Team. Through its Venture Leaders roadshows, entrepreneurs engage with top experts, investors, and potential customers in leading global tech hubs, including Silicon Valley, Boston, Asia, Barcelona, London, and Munich.After reviewing over 70 applications, a jury of experts and investors selected ten startups for the 2026 Venture Leaders Biotech roadshow in Boston. The program provides entrepreneurs the chance to accelerate their US expansion, connect with industry leaders, and gain insights through investor pitch sessions and targeted workshops.
The ten selected startups represent an array of fields, such as AI-driven drug design, vaccines, peptide therapeutics, bioreactors, CAR-T therapy, in-vivo gene editing, enzyme delivery, RNA-targeted therapies, proteomics, and organoid automation.
"Getting ready for this roadshow for the 21st year is a great reflection of the quality of innovation of the new startups involved," said Jordi Montserrat, Managing Partner of Venturelab. "I’m looking forward to being part of this new edition and assisting the team with their fundraising and international expansion."
The 10 startups will follow in the footsteps of high-flying former team members such as Araris Biotech (recently announced its acquisition for USD 1.1 billion), Covagen (acquired by Johnson & Johnson), Versantis (acquired by Genfit), AMAL Therapeutics (acquired by Boehringer Ingelheim), NBE-Therapeutics (acquired by Boehringer Ingelheim), Alentis (USD 105 million funding round in 2023), and BioVersys (recent IPO on the SIX Swiss Exchange).
The team will kick off the program pitching at the Swiss Biotech Days in Basel on May 4, 2026 (17:45-18:30 in room Singapore). Follow the Venture Leaders Biotech roadshow on social media using the hashtag #VLeadersBiotech or on www.venture-leaders.ch/venture-leaders-biotech from May 31st to June 5th, 2026. The Venture Leaders Biotech is organized by Venturelab and supported by EPFL, ETH Zurich, University of Basel, Hansjörg Wyss, Kellerhals Carrard, and VISCHER.
Meet the Venture Leaders Biotech 2026:
Baio Labs Sàrl: Streamlining early-stage drug discovery processes.
Traditional early-stage drug discovery depends on screening chemical libraries, a costly and time-consuming process that explores only a tiny fraction of the astronomically large chemical space. Depen... Read more
Baxiva AG: Next-gen vaccines to prevent Gram-negative infections
Baxiva is an ETH Zurich spin-off building next-generation glycoconjugate vaccines to prevent serious infections caused by Gram-negative bacteria, starting with extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli (ExPE... Read more
Biodelphis Therapeutics SA: A new generation of targeted drugs for cancer and beyond.
Several proteases, such as cysteine cathepsins, play central roles in the development of cancer and other diseases, but are considered difficult to drug because of their important physiological roles ... Read more
Bioscibex SA: Faster, cheaper & safer monoclonal antibody production
Imagine developing a life-saving biologic, only to realize that millions of patients may never access it because manufacturing is too complex and the drug too expensive. This is the challenge of mon... Read more
GlioCART GmbH: CAR-T cell therapy targeting glioblastoma.
Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most aggressive and fatal brain cancer, with a median survival of just 15 months. We have developed a dual-action CAR-T cell therapy for GBM, targeting the tumor directly w... Read more
Immitra Bio GmbH: A platform for scalable in-vivo gene editing therapies
Currently approved and clinical blood stem cell therapies rely on editing cells outside the body (ex-vivo). This involves extracting stem cells from the patient, editing them individually at specializ... Read more
NanoZymeX: Next-generation enzyme replacement therapies.
This project builds a platform biotech that upgrades enzyme replacement therapy by solving its main bottleneck: poor intracellular delivery and high immunogenicity. We use proprietary lipid nanopartic... Read more
Translation-X GmbH: Novel precision therapeutics for autism spectrum disorders
We're addressing the unmet medical need in autism therapeutics, impacting over 1% of the population with limited treatment options. Our team, based at the University of Basel, comprises experts in the... Read more
UNOMR AG: Unlocking precision medicine through protein sequencing
UNOMR AG, a techBio startup from ETH Zurich, is developing next-generation protein sensors to solve one of the biggest blind spots in modern biology and medicine: our inability to fully read and under... Read more
Visienco AG: Providing automated organoid handling technologies.
Visienco is a Swiss techbio company on a mission to make organoids clinically reliable at scale. Organoids, lab-grown mini-organs, are transforming how we understand human biology and test therapies.... Read more