Web Summit 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 – undeniably one of our most promising portfolio companies – attended the Web Summit for the first time. Co-founder Nikolaus Gasche and senior scientist Cátia Pacífico spent four inspiring days interacting with entrepreneurs, investors and curious minds from all over the world. Beyond that they presented the company’s mission and future to a high class audience.

The most memorable part of the event was undoubtedly the pitch competition. After a pre-selection from more than 2.000 start-ups, they were selected to present at the PITCH 2 competition. They made their way from the semifinals to the finals at the centre stage. Amoung the top 3 start-ups they pitched in front of 20.000 impressed attendees with the result that Biome Diagnostics achieved first place in the public voting. 

“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 investors and customers – is an exceptional milestone. Our mission is developing 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. We will continue on this path with confidence,” Gasche added.   

During the pitch, Gasche furthermore revealed that the start-up, that 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