bit.bio closes $30m round and Jonathan Milner takes interim CEO role with Mark Kotter now vice chairman
bit.bio this week performed an adroit piece of corporate theatre which sees founder Mark Kotter move into the vice chairman role and Jonathan Milner, founder of Abcam, take on the interim CEO role starting 6 January.
The move coincided with the successful closing of a $30million financing round led by M&G Investments, and participation from existing investors including ARCH Venture Partners, BlueYard Capital, Milky Way, Puhua Capital, and Tencent.
“I’m delighted to welcome M&G, our first UK investor and a titan in life science investment, to join us in our mission to revolutionise drug discovery tools and transform human health,” said Dr Kotter.
“Since founding bit.bio in 2016, it has been a privilege to lead the company through remarkable growth. Jonathan was not only the first investor in bit.bio but also my first business mentor.
“As part of our next phase of growth, I will work closely with Jonathan and the team to help shape bit.bio’s future and establish bit.bio as the leading provider of human cells for research, drug discovery and the preferred partner for iPSC-derived cell therapies.”
Dr Jonathan Milner, incoming interim CEO at bit.bio, said: “I’m honoured to join bit.bio’s board of directors and lead the company through this transformative phase.
“Mark has built an incredible foundation for growth, and I am committed to building on this success. Over the coming months, Mark and I will collaborate to inspire bit.bio’s exceptional team, advance its groundbreaking technology, and drive its mission forward.”
In addition to Dr Milner joining the board of directors, bit.bio also strengthened the company’s leadership team with two appointments.
They are Cornel Chiriac, an investment director with M&G Crossover Fund, and Dr Richard D Klausner, the founder and chief scientist at Altos Labs and “a visionary leader in biotechnology”.
Speaking to the Cambridge Independent, Dr Kotter called the raft of changes an “iteration” in the development of bit.bio.
“Bit.bio will remain my main focus,” he said. “This is not a separation, this is an iteration. It’s a change in my role to achieve hyper-growth. I’m very excited about it.”
Noting that the exact timeline for Dr Milner’s tenure is “a little bit open”, Dr Kotter said: “It’s a question of how do you optimise for the next growth phase? I guess we’d want to take a deep look and make sure everything in the company is completely aligned and focused.
“You couldn’t think of anyone better at this stage and having him as partner is amazing.”
Calling himself “an academic neurosurgeon”, Dr Kotter commented that “I think I’ve done a good job to build something from scratch” – perhaps a modest turn of phrase given that he has developed the synthetic biology company he founded in late 2016 into a team of 160 with turnover of £1.89m as of September 10, 2024.
With its opti-ox technology, bit.bio is able to precisely, consistently and efficiently reprogramme stem cells into any cell type at scale, providing a service which is “rewriting human health, one cell at a time”.
“These new board appointments bring unparalleled expertise across biotechnology, investment, research tools, and therapeutic innovation,” said Dr Hermann Hauser, chairman of the board, bit.bio.
“We are delighted to welcome M&G to the bit.bio family. The continued support from our existing investors reaffirms their confidence in our team, technology, and mission.”
