Engineering Biology and Entrepreneurship, why not hop on board?
In today’s uncertain financial climate, investors and entrepreneurs are forced to make tough decisions, consolidate on existing structures, and support companies with more mature business model. However, Engineering Biology companies, with solutions inspired by and using Nature, should not become an unintended victim of inflation and tight financial balances. Biology is becoming easier to engineer, advances in fields such as automation, big date, and machine learning can accelerate the timelines of biotechnology companies, and some challenges revolving around sustainability, climate change mitigation, and healthcare can only be addressed using biology. This workshop aims to gather stakeholders that want to see a new era of bioeconomy who will brainstorm on the challenges on developing biotechnology/synthetic biology and how the tech ecosystem can address them.
Event Agenda:
Discussion points
• Is it a good time to start a biotech company?
• Are traditional fundraising models effective today?
• What should be the focus areas?
• What are the advantages and challenges in starting a company in Singapore?
• How can other stakeholders support entrepreneurship?
Workshop leader: David Toh, CEO NTUItive
David Toh is Director and CEO of NTUitive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Nanyang Technological University of Singapore responsible for commercialising the university’s scientific research and incubating startups. Prior to his promotion, he was the Chief Technology Officer of NTUitive when he joined the outfit in 2013.
Before joining NTUitive, David spent 20 years in the finance industry at ING Barings, Lehman Brothers and DBS Asset Management as a top-rated technology sector analyst and fund manager. In that capacity, David also advised listed and private technology companies in the Asia Pacific region on corporate strategy and fund raising in capital markets. After leaving investment banking, David worked as a fund manager at DBS Asset Management before setting up his own Asia Pacific focused absolute return equity fund.
Prior to the finance industry, David worked as a process engineer in Chartered Semiconductor, where he was responsible for fab wide yield enhancement activities. David is a member of the Singapore Stock Exchange Listings Advisory Committee and is also an independent director of SGX-listed iFast Corp. David graduated with double degrees from Cornell University in 1991 with distinctions in B.Sc. in Materials Science & Engineering and a B.A. in Government and Asian Studies.
Panelists
Jeff Lin, iGlobe Partners
Jeff Lin is an Operating Partner at iGlobe Partners, a Singapore based VC firm that invests in technology startups in both Singapore / Southeast and key innovation centres in the U.S. and the U.K. Since joining iGlobe in early 2014, Jeff has actively involved in iGlobe’s investments in many disruptive companies such as ACSL (TYO: 6232), Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST), Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE:DNA), Inscripta, C2i Genomics, Tonik, Hoolah, BigObject, Aliro Quantum, Binar Academy (Indonesia) etc.
Jeff has many years’ experiences in ICT sectors, as well as strategy consulting before becoming an investor. Prior to joining iGlobe in early 2014, he was with Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, where he worked on strategy consulting projects for Myanmar government and some MNC clients. Between 2006 and 2011, Jeff was with Huawei Technologies. His last position at Huawei was the Singapore Country Director for Enterprise BG. Further before that, he was a deputy country representative for Huawei in Singapore, instrumental in jointly driving Huawei’s telecom infrastructure revenue growth in Singapore.
Jeff started his career in 1998 as a NSS Product Marketing manager and Value Based Marketing owner at Nokia China. He subsequently spent three years in the business development division of Hutchison Telecom HK Ltd.
He was an EE graduate from University of Science & Technology of China and obtained his M.Eng in computer networks from NTU. He is also an alumnus of INSEAD (MBA 12J) and Wharton (Exchange).
Yee Hwee Lim, A*STAR
Yee Hwee LIM currently leads the Chemical Biotechnology and Biocatalysis division at the Institute of Sustainability for Chemicals, Energy and Environment (ISCE2), A*STAR. Her team focuses on developing integrative technologies at the interface between chemistry, biology, informatics and engineering for sustainable chemical manufacturing. As a chemist by training trained in the UK and US, she is passionate about advancing chemistry frontiers and harnessing Nature's catalytic powers to solve molecular challenges.
She also serves as a programme director for SIBER 2.0, an A*STAR program in sustainable chemicals biomanufacturing from next generation feedstocks, hosted at ISCE2, adjunct Associate Professor at the Synthetic Biology Translational Research Program, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (NUS) (2021-) and an editorial member of A*STAR Research magazine (2021-). Other former appointments include Adjunct Assistant Professor at the LKC School of Medicine, NTU (2013-2018) and Director of Graduate Affairs, SERC at A*GA (2020-2023).
Yvonne Koh, ClavystBio
Yvonne brings a unique blend of commercial and public sector experience to investing and venture building at ClavystBio. Her multi-faceted career includes roles in venture capital investing, business strategy, product development, technology commercialization, and innovation policy across the biotech and medtech sectors.
Yvonne was previously at Lightstone Ventures (LSV) and oversaw due diligence, program management, and alliance management for the firm’s early-stage ventures in Singapore. Prior to that, Yvonne was Deputy Director at the National Research Foundation where she led the development and implementation of Singapore’s innovation strategy. She has also held operational roles at a Singapore-based medical diagnostics start-up.
Yvonne attained her PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin Madison, USA and aBSc in Molecular Biology from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA.
