Biotech startups are still winning federal grants, accelerator founder says — but the money is taking longer to trickle in
Despite news about federal funding freezes, life sciences startups in Philly are still getting grants for their work, according to an accelerator founder — but the process is moving more slowly than usual.
HiveBio, a local accelerator program that aims to support underrepresented founders in the life sciences space, recently received a $250,000 grant from Knight Foundation to support its startup programming, which includes connecting companies with lucrative federal funding opportunities.
So far, in the face of the chaos, those awards are still being made, according to program founder Tia Lyles-Williams.
'We're not hearing things being denied,' Lyles-Williams told reporter Sarah Huffman on Technical.ly Speaking, a monthly segment on WURD Radio's 'Reality Check' hosted by Tonya Pendleton, 'We're hearing things being slowed down to be paid out or slowed down to be reviewed'
The 'secret sauce' of HiveBio is its focus on helping founders find those funding sources, she said. It connects them to agencies like the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation to find grant opportunities that fit their missions. Startups in the program typically get around $250,000 from those efforts, and have raised as much as $400,000, per Lyles-Williams.
It's not just the funding bottlenecks adding a layer of complexity to HiveBio's work.
As the Trump administration promotes derogatory rhetoric around diversity, equity and inclusion programming, the program's mission to support underrepresented founders has become increasingly controversial.
'Underrepresented founders just don't have that chance,' Lyles-Williams said. 'It was not only because of necessarily racism, but also due to some of the issues that they're addressing with their startup may not be something prevalent or something known by the venture capital world.'
The accelerator program is hoping the science speaks for itself, she added, explaining that while language in the grant proposals may change, the work carries undeniable impact.
Lyles-Williams urged private sector investors to step up. While federal opportunities remain, now's the time for venture capitalists to offer more support for underrepresented founders.
'The federal government is not the only opportunity for funding for our founders,' Lyles-Williams said. 'If you are a VC, a venture capitalist firm, if you are an angel investor … [it's] extremely helpful to help put those products to market.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Technical.ly
25-05-2025
- Technical.ly
Economic development has something to learn from — and teach — ecosystem building
Traditional economic development hunts for economic winners and big infrastructure, while ecosystem building focuses on stitching together many disparate parts, yet practitioners increasingly note they have much in common. The two approaches are converging under 'entrepreneurship-led economic development,' with certifying bodies adding courses and professionals code switching between the terms to build broader coalitions. Tensions persist — some grassroots efforts are dismissed as 'nice to have,' and some ecosystem builders scoff at 'fusty' marketing — but history suggests new disciplines mature by setting standards and proving outcomes. → Read on for details and join Chris Wink's weekly newsletter for more Rob Williams remembers an unusual family dinner-table debate from his childhood. His botanist father insisted that ecosystems were strictly natural phenomena. His small business-advocate mother argued that economic development could learn deeply from nature's interconnectedness. They each had a point. Today, Williams is the founder and director of SourceLink, a category-defining nonprofit software platform spun out of Kauffman Foundation research. It is among the first in a constellation of tools that introduced the 'ecosystem building' metaphor to traditional state and local economic development, a big, boring and quietly influential discipline around creation of jobs, business and regional output. Williams has an unusual balance. He's among the earliest definers of entrepreneurship ecosystem building, and he also has traditional economic development training. 'We can't thrive as economic developers without placing entrepreneurship and innovation at the heart of our strategies,' Williams said. Williams is part of an industry transformation, and like other professional and academic changes before, it takes time to sort out standards. In the 1830s, sociology emerged from political philosophy to better understand the 'social physics' of how culture shaped individuals. In the 1980s, behavioral economics began as a splinter group before later shaping the entire field. In both and many other cases, individuals obsessed over a narrow set of differences within a larger, more established discipline long enough that those differences became their own field of study. Local entrepreneurship boosters who identify as 'ecosystem builders' are attempting something similar. In the 2010s, community organizers, startuppers and post-Great Recession economic activists formed coalitions around the country. Stewarded by funders led by the Kansas City-based Kauffman Foundation, these business and economic types took hold of the ecosystem metaphor. Then the post-COVID entrepreneurship boom gave ecosystem building its primetime moment. 'The pandemic showed us the fragility of some of our systems and the power of local entrepreneurship to build resiliency,' Williams said. Today about 1,000 people list ' ecosystem builder ' as a job title on LinkedIn. Overwhelmingly they are entrepreneurs, small business advocates and self-identified connectors. In 2010, published the word 'ecosystem' about 100 times. Last year, we did so over 1,000 times, a 10x increase in 15 years. A similar, if lagging, surge followed in books. Dating to those childhood debates between his parents, Williams understands better than most the nuance of the ecosystem metaphor: Many overlapping, differently-sized, independent species interact in unexpected ways to support each other. Traditional 20th century-style economic development focuses on economic winners (established businesses) and top-down investments (industrial policy and big infrastructure projects). As set down by the Kauffman Foundation, ecosystem building focuses on nascent entrepreneurs and stitching together many disparate parts of a local economy. Economic development is the big-game hunter storming the bush. Ecosystem building is the botanist carefully handling a butterfly. These differences can present discomfort. Politics are an obvious one: standard economic development has been a bastion of American-style conservative capitalism, whereas ecosystem building adopted progressive concepts of mutual aid and, quite literally, environmentalism. Rather than an obstacle, Williams and others see this as an opportunity for coalition building. One of the only ideals that unites Americans across the political spectrum also unites progressive ecosystem builders and conservative economic development leaders: entrepreneurship. 'Entrepreneur-led economic development' The work of integrating ecosystem building into the larger and more-established economic development can now focus on terminology and process. The International Economic Development Council, the trade's primary certifying body with more than 4,500 members, is a natural leader, introducing courses and certifications. The group received more than 100 applicants for its director of entrepreneurship position, according to LinkedIn, a role that Williams's own mother held. IEDC CIO Dell Gines, who spoke this month at the Technically Builders Conference, is a long-standing ecosystem-building champion, dating to his time at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. He has helped incorporate ecosystem building tenets into established economic development. Williams too. For example, Williams adopts IEDC's preferred phrase of 'entrepreneurship-led economic development' (or ELED in the industry jargon) when speaking with more establishment economic development leaders. Other times, he relies on the 'ecosystem building' term. Insiders cite subtle differences but on the whole, they're becoming interchangeable. 'We have so much in common that it's more about language differences,' Williams said. 'You're code switching depending on who you talk with.' The merging isn't complete. At our storytelling-focused Builders Conference, one longtime ecosystem builder sneered on-stage at fusty economic development marketing. On the other side, a traditionally-trained economic development leader confided in me earlier this year that much grassroots 'ecosystem building' seems like 'a lot of Millennial bullshit.' For her, the small gatherings and resource mapping strike her as nice to have but not critical in her budget-constrained reality. The lesson from past discipline changes is that both approaches have something to teach, and to learn. Ecosystem building can sound faddish, and so years of establishing best practices and outcomes are welcome. Williams credits the 2017 book ' Beyond Collisions' as an example. Inspired by this, Technically has put forward a data-backed case for the economic outcomes of storytelling, another demonstrably important but squishy-sounding concept. Likewise, though, traditional economic development can overlook the real-world actions of individual humans. Entrepreneurs don't choose places to start companies. Entrepreneurs choose places to live and then start companies there. Place-based economic development needs humanity. 'It's like a Venn diagram but there's a lot more in the middle,' Williams said. 'There's no entrepreneurship-led strategy that's sustainable without a healthy ecosystem around it, and no ecosystem-building initiatives can work sustainably without critical economic development-led supports.'
Technical.ly
09-05-2025
- Technical.ly
Spark layoffs won't derail Philadelphia's biotech surge, city official says
Philly's life sciences sector is strategizing to remain at the forefront, despite recent shakeups at cell and gene therapy pioneer Spark Therapeutics. Turmoil at one big company doesn't necessarily indicate the end of a sector's strength, according to Rebecca Grant, senior director of life sciences and innovation for the city's Department of Commerce. While acknowledging the negative impact of job losses caused by the layoffs at Spark, Grant said she's still optimistic about the industry at large. 'People in these situations, they know how to pivot the innovation that they've created thus far,' Grant told reporter Sarah Huffman on Speaking, our monthly segment on WURD Radio's 'Reality Check' hosted by Tonya Pendleton. '[They] will help gene therapy and life sciences to move forward.' Earlier this year, Spark's parent company Roche announced a restructuring of the organization and 300 layoffs at its Philadelphia office. The abrupt shift — following Spark's major success story, from Penn spinout to the era's largest VC-backed exit — caused a moment of reflection for the cell and gene therapy scene. From Grant's perspective, it's been a time to recognize the moral issues at stake and the ecosystem's role in supporting these expensive endeavors. 'As these therapies come about that can actually cure people, and they don't have to continue to take drugs down the line, I think it takes all of us to get involved,' Grant said. Hopefully, jobs come with that. As a global company, Grant said Roche has the opportunity to bring more production jobs to Philadelphia. Those types of roles aren't just for scientists with advanced degrees. There are also training programs for 'aseptic techniques,' or keeping an area sterile, and biomanufacturing in the lab at local organizations like the Wistar Institute and the Skills Initiative. 'The research that's continuing,' Grant said, 'is how to make these treatments less expensive and how to manufacture them so that they are more affordable.'
Technical.ly
25-04-2025
- Technical.ly
DC kicks off 2025 with $1.3B in VC investment, but early-stage startups struggle to raise
The DMV started the year out with a venture capital bang despite federal policy and funding chaos at the White House. Companies accrued $1.3 billion in venture capital funding across 59 deals, according to the latest Venture Monitor report released quarterly by PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association. That's down from the previous quarter, which saw $2.5 billion in funding across 60 deals. The Q1 2025 investment total is higher than a year ago — Q1 2024 saw $797 million raised — but it happened across 30% more deals, meaning this time last year there were more deals of a lesser dollar value. The biggest raise in the region this quarter was by Rockville nuclear power company X Energy, at $682 million. About $500 million of X Energy's raise was originally reported last quarter, per Pitchbook senior PR specialist Amy Warmenhoven, but after additional funds came in, the close date was moved to Q1 2025. The Q1 flurry of activity is a good sign to Casey Williams, partner at the fintech-focused venture firm Fenway Summer in DC. 'It means that VCs are doubling down on companies in their existing portfolio,' Williams told 'or are excited to write bigger checks.' There was a lot of optimism going into 2025 in part due to the Trump administration's deregulatory aspirations and ties to venture capital, she said. But that was before anyone knew there would be so much volatility initiated at the federal level. 'The only thing that we can say with certainty is that the future is very uncertain, especially when you talk about DC,' Williams told 'and the way that policy and politics is going to continue to impact the venture ecosystem.' Matt Gittleman, investment director for JHH VC, said 30% of his investments were in companies based between DC and Charlottesville in the last two years. While he agrees the high Q1 total is a positive sign, he's seeing investors move to a 'wait and see' mindset. He believes dual-use technology will continue to see investment, but it depends on the government agency associated with the innovation. More defense companies with offices elsewhere establish a presence in the DMV to finesse more deals, he predicts. 'They're all going to have to come and spend time here in this market to be successful in the long run,' Gittleman told DC is in line with trends nationally, both Gittleman and Williams observed. AI has been a focal point of investment, per Williams, and that will only continue to grow. Investments in AI were 71% of the capital flow in the first quarter, per the Venture Monitor report, including OpenAI's $40 billion round. Williams also acknowledged that it's a tough time to raise for startups. 'It's going to continue to be a difficult journey for founders trying to fundraise,' Williams explained, 'but I do think that there is still capital out there for the best companies that are building in the spaces with the most opportunity.' Early-stage startups are struggling to raise in DC Eri O'Diah, the founder of the legal technology startup SIID Technologies, has met with more than 100 investors since October 2023 without a deal in sight. She's stuck, she explained — her customer base is public defenders, and with federal funding freezes and cuts, it's difficult to do business in the public sector. Without that, she can't prove enough revenue traction to appease investors. Because of the lack of business, she can't hire a team, which she's also been asked about by investors. She's working on pivoting her business to be in the private legal justice space and healthcare industry, O'Diah said, to establish more certainty. 'I feel like the traditional venture model is incredibly flawed, which clearly is why we see there's an explicit bias when it comes to their decision making, right?' O'Diah told 'Gender diversity alone is lacking.' Women only made up 9% of recipients of venture funds with deal amounts of just 2.5% compared to their male counterparts in 2024. O'Diah, a Black woman, has also seen the standards for men raising venture capital be different. 'If you look at the trend for traditional investors, they typically don't invest in folks like me,' she said. Relationships are a key indicator of success Cofounder Dumi Mabhena of the podcast technology startup Shanda noted the murkiness in what investors want. He's met with a few investors through his Georgetown MBA network where he graduated from in 2024, but has decided to go the angel investing route. He's seen people with no product raise money, and he's in the early stage of revenue with a developed product struggling to get funds. 'It's been a bit dumbfounding,' Mabhena said. He credits the struggle to a lack of a network. Mabhena immigrated to the US from Zimbabwe three years ago, and doesn't have the same people he can turn to for investment or advice compared to someone who's been in the region for more than a decade, he explained. 'If you're an immigrant, off the bat you have a limited exposure to networks and building relationships over time,' he said. But building these networks is a key part of securing investments, JHH VC's Gittleman noted, and he expects it to remain important for the foreseeable future. 'That relationship that you develop and those milestones that you set … in stone,' Gittleman said. 'There's no change in that.'
