NATO's Pioneering Venture Capital Berkeley Evident in First Biotech Investment: Future Prospects Explored
NATO Invests in Biotech Startups to Boost Defense and Healthcare Resilience
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is making strategic investments in biotechnology companies, marking a significant shift in its focus towards enhancing biosecurity and healthcare resilience. The NATO Innovation Fund, a venture capital fund owned by NATO, has recently invested in several biotech companies, including Portal Biotech and Fractile.
The $35 million Series A investment led by the NATO Innovation Fund in Portal Biotech will accelerate the company's commercial rollout, expand research and development, and foster partnerships with pharmaceutical and biotech firms to enhance drug discovery and precision medicine. Portal Biotech's full-length, single-molecule protein sequencing platform represents a breakthrough in proteomics—the study of proteins crucial to all biological processes—and enables unprecedented real-time, onsite proteomic data analysis. This capability is vital for detecting and responding to natural diseases and engineered biological threats.
Portal Biotech's technology is expected to provide data insights that are not available today, exponentially increasing our understanding of disease targets and their interactions with drug candidates. This investment marks the intersection of the more familiar AI sector and biotech, which is becoming an industry of its own.
The NATO Innovation Fund has also invested in Fractile, a three-year-old startup that aims to challenge American company Nvidia in computer chipmaking. Fractile believes that current hardware is poorly suited to using trained models to make new predictions. By transforming proteomics from a costly, complex task into an accessible and efficient workflow suitable for any laboratory, Portal’s platform promises to greatly improve the early identification of diseases and the design of targeted therapeutics.
The creation of the NATO Innovation Fund was prompted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with the aim of building a stronger startup ecosystem in the NATO alliance regions. The fund is part of plans to allocate money for "deep tech, defense, security, and resilience, with themes including energy, quantum computing, autonomy, climate, industrials, space, and biotechnology."
The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has also been increasing funding towards bioindustrial and healthcare research. Last year, the DoD funded therapeutics research, such as giving $3.13 million to the Australian biotech ENA Respiratory to develop a new antiviral medicine. The DoD has also been funding biothreat detection, such as spending money on developing tests to detect harmful bioengineered organisms.
The AI market is projected to reach $1.01 trillion by 2031 at an annual growth rate of 26.6 percent, highlighting the growing importance of AI in various sectors, including biotechnology. The strategic investments made by the NATO Innovation Fund underscore the organization's commitment to addressing evolving security challenges, including biological threats that impact public health and national security.
In summary, NATO's investment in biotech startups is a strategic move to enhance biosecurity capabilities that are integral to future defense and healthcare landscapes. It supports a vision where biological data and rapid proteomic insights contribute to national and global security, enabling more effective disease countermeasures and bolstering healthcare innovation.
[1] NATO Innovation Fund. (n.d.). About. Retrieved from https://www.natoinnovationfund.org/about [2] Portal Biotech. (n.d.). News. Retrieved from https://portalbiotech.com/news [3] TechCrunch. (2022, August 15). NATO Innovation Fund invests in Portal Biotech for protein sequencing tech. Retrieved from https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/15/nato-innovation-fund-invests-in-portal-biotech-for-protein-sequencing-tech/ [4] Business Wire. (2022, August 15). Portal Biotech Secures $35 Million Series A Funding Round. Retrieved from https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220815005141/en/Portal-Biotech-Secures-$35-Million-Series-A-Funding-Round
The NATO Innovation Fund, a venture capital fund owned by NATO, invests in biotech startups like Portal Biotech and Fractile to boost defense and healthcare resilience. Portal Biotech's full-length, single-molecule protein sequencing platform in proteomics will facilitate drug discovery, precision medicine, and the early identification of diseases. Fractile, aiming to challenge Nvidia in computer chipmaking, aims to improve the accessibility and efficiency of proteomics in laboratories.
The formation of the NATO Innovation Fund was prompted by geopolitical events, and the fund is allocated to themes including energy, quantum computing, autonomy, climate, industrials, space, biotechnology, and other deep tech, defense, and resilience sectors. Concurrently, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has been funding bioindustrial and healthcare research, such as antiviral medicine development.
The strategic investments made by the NATO Innovation Fund underscore the organization's commitment to addressing evolving security challenges, including biological threats that impact both public health and national security. As the AI market is predicted to reach $1.01 trillion by 2031, the intersection between AI and biotech is becoming increasingly significant, offering unique opportunities for strengthening healthcare resilience and national security.
