Crowdfunding of life science

Purpose and goal

The project goal was to develop a prototype for a crowdfunding solution meant to provide the public and professional investors the opportunity to invest and engage in life science SMEs via an online platform. The goal was also to investigate how the service and potential ancillary services should be implemented in regards to the investors and companies interests and needs. The above project goals where achieved. Venture capital firms interest in syndication and what governs investors and companies choice of financing solution needs to be further investigated though.

Expected results and effects

The project managed to develop a working prototype and evaluate investors and three companies´ needs regarding its function and content. City and university regions with a large number of entrepreneurs in the startup to growth phase in primarily e-health and medtech seemed to be of most interest to investors. The need for ancillary services seemed to be substantial for all project companies irrespective of size and growth phase. Thanks to the project result, we expect to be able to finance seven Swedish early life science companies within a year.

Planned approach and implementation

Using IT, security and legal suppliers a prototype was developed i cooperation with business accelerators and investor networks. Companies were referred from accelerators and investor networks and a total of three companies were selected after joint reviews with a legal partner. The selected companies and a handful of private investors and members of investor networks med different experience and competence in finance, IT and health answered and supplied information and feedback regarding the configuration of the platform and its processes which were implemented iteratively.