University of Tartu spin-off Gearbox Biosciences won a 125,000-euro investment at Startup Pitching

Last week, the university spin-off company Gearbox Biosciences won a 125,000‑euro investment at the Startup Pitching competition. The company develops a novel technology to end the use of antibiotics in the biotech industry.

In industrial biotechnology, microbes are used to produce a wide range of things, and large amounts of antibiotics are needed for that. Gearbox Biosciences helps cut down the use of antibiotics outside medicine and thereby reduce the risk of antibiotic-resistant bacteria spreading. The unique technology created by the company uses genetically modified microbes to produce proteins more efficiently without antibiotics. The method also helps replace today’s predominantly oil-based chemical industry with more sustainable bioproduction in the future.

Gearbox Biosciences won an investment of 125,000 euros from Baltic Sandbox Ventures, 10,000 euros from Swedbank, and 2,500 euros of legal mentoring from Sorainen.

“Gearbox Biosciences has a solid scientific team, which perfectly fits our investment target. They are solving a real-world problem in protein production. We strongly believe that this team will make the change in the market,” said Sandra Golbreich, a representative of the Baltic Sandbox Ventures and jury member.

A total of 271 teams applied for participation in this year’s Startup Pitching competition. The top 40 teams progressed to the pitching competition, and the five best made it to the finals. Besides Gearbox Biosciences, the teams Hotelbuddy, MX Labs, Nelinor and Paul-Tech participated in the finals. Larger investments went to Paul-Tech (EstBAN syndicated investment of 200,000 euros) and MX Labs (.Cocoon Ventures syndicated investment of 100,000 euros).

See the list of all prize-winners on the Startup Day website.