👩🏻🔬 Going big on biotech
Silicon Valley venture capitalist Reed Jobs sees parallels between Australia's biotech ambitions and America's startup culture — but he says the sector needs a Canva moment to truly take flight.
Australia's biotech and health tech ecosystem is its own micro-habitat, an ecosystem within an ecosystem. It has its own set of investors, superstars and unique challenges operating in a highly regulated and high(er) stakes environment than many of its SaaS counterparts.
So it wasn't a surprise that Australian health tech investor Tenmile held an adjacent half-day event to SXSW Sydney at the Maritime Museum. It was headlined by Steve Jobs' son, Reed Jobs, who runs a $200 million fund named Yosemite, established in August last year and focused on making cancer non-lethal. Tenmile, a $250 million fund launched in 2022 which is funded and owned by Andrew and Nicole Forrest's Tattarang, primarily makes direct investments in health and biotech, and it's also an LP in Yosemite.
That is some serious star power. Which brings us to the crux of the matter.
Australia’s $1.2 billion biotech industry currently ranks fifth in the world in terms of research and innovation, but the sector has often been overlooked by LPs and VCs who see software as an easier (and more liquid) sector to make their bets. This has led to the ongoing gripe that there isn’t enough funding to pull biotech into the limelight. But Jobs told the room of investors and founders at last week's event that this is not necessarily a bad thing.
