Some sources about how biotechnology is financed (almost all Venture Capital material)

Biotechnology companies usually cost money to set up - unlike 'real' businesses they do not have products or services to sell at the start, and so they must spend money to invent or acquire them. They get that money from grants and investors. Traditionally the investors have mostly been Venture Capitalists. In Europe this has been pretty unsuccessful, and VC is now a minor part of how biotech companies are financed. In the US VC has had more success in building companies, and so remains a powerful force.

Unlike information on science, technology and medicine, most information on financing (and especially on venture capital) costs money to access, because the money people believe that what they know is valuable. However here are a few free sources.

VCLIst (A San Francisco-based VC information company) provides a list of books on raising money at different stages. US-biased.

Seed stage funding is extremely scattered. The best approach is to type 'biotechnology seed funding' and your location into Google and see what comes up. The UK Department of Trade and Industry published a report on the UK biotechnology industry and how it is funded (not very complimentary) in September 2003.

Associations of venture capital companies: in the USA (NVCA), Britain, and Europe. These list companies and their investment preferences, including whether they invest in biotechnology, and at what stage. Information on companies is very variable. Few of the European VCs who say that they invest in new biotech companies actually do so.

The US Business Angel market constituency is huge. The Angel Capital Association seeks to provide an umbrella for organizations of personal investors in the US. The British Business Angels Association has a lot of links to early stage investors, and some useful briefing papers on how to get money. France Angels and Business Angels Netzwerk Deutschland e.V.do similar roles for France and Germany respectively.