Life Sciences Hubs Creating More Opportunity For Startups And Investors

By Mike Carnes

Life sciences startups have long felt the gravitational pull of Boston and San Francisco when looking to raise capital, expand, and recruit talent. These two coastal regions, with an established infrastructure and headquarters presence for venture firms, are synonymous with funding for biotechnology — with good reason.

Does this mean life sciences startups don’t have other options for where they operate? Increasingly, the answer is no. A few select regions of the U.S. are staking their own claims as life sciences hubs, according to the 2025 Global Life Sciences Atlas from CBRE. These include San Diego, New York City, and Raleigh-Durham.

The growth in venture investing outside the two big traditional hubs has been exciting to watch from my seat in North Carolina’s Research Triangle region of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. Promising early-stage companies can set up shop, join the ecosystem in their local life sciences community, and attract investment dollars from across the globe. Now more than ever, their ability to launch and scale is not limited by geography. However, successful hubs must continue to take steps to ensure continued growth.

North Carolina has emerged as a nationally competitive R&D life sciences hub, and 2025 marked a banner fundraising year for life sciences companies in the state. Last year, venture funding in the sector hit a record $1.6 billion, according to data tracked by the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. This easily tops the state’s previous high of $1 billion in 2021.

Ideas And Opportunities Emerging From Regional Hubs

Marcel Frenkel is one of the many entrepreneurs who found access to capital and talent without leaving North Carolina. Frenkel founded Ten63 Therapeutics, which uses its AI and computational drug discovery platform to develop sought-after therapeutics for certain types of cancer, as a spinout from Duke University. In 2023, the company announced a multi-target drug discovery collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim to enable the discovery of novel therapeutic molecules.

Ten63 attracted $15.9 million in Series A financing in 2023 led by a Triangle venture capital firm, Hatteras Venture Partners, which recruited San Francisco VC firm Yosemite as co-lead. Frenkel has steadily built the company’s team while remaining in Durham, and recently added strategic investment from new investors Chugai Venture Fund and the Gates Foundation, bringing the its total funding to over $45 million.

Frenkel told me that life sciences investors no longer feel a need to focus all their attention on the traditional hubs of Boston and the Bay Area to find opportunities. “There are great investment opportunities all over the world. If the circumstances are correct, being that you have access to talent, you have access to equipment, and you have access to facilities, then you can build great companies wherever great founders are. I think North Carolina has all the prerequisites. And I think that’s been recognized by the market.”

Nima Ronaghi, a partner at Breakout Ventures, a San Francisco firm that invests in early-stage, science-backed companies, made a similar observation to the NCBiotech team after hearing presentations during a global investor conference in the Triangle last fall.

“What really stood out to me was how grounded the founders were in both the science and the execution. Of course, you’ve got exciting science coming out of world-class research centers. That technical depth is the bedrock of any great biotech, and it’s always been a strength for the Triangle.”

Hatteras general partner Clay Thorp believes the strength of any local or regional market depends on having a critical mass of talent, with incentives for both creating startups and investing in them. When entrepreneurial talent finds a welcoming environment, investors take notice.

“Do we have good people here? And can you make a good company? Yes, for sure.”

Three Keys To Growth For Regional Hubs

In my work funding and supporting early-stage companies, and from my ongoing conversations with people like Marcel and Clay, I see three key factors that brought NC to a sustainable level of success that can help startups in the nation’s emerging and smaller life sciences hubs as they launch, grow and scale.

1. Strong, experienced leadership teams: No matter where they’re located, startups with experienced management teams are more likely to secure early-stage funding. Founders and leaders with a track record in the industry have earned a level of trust from potential investors. But it’s not a given that the best life sciences leaders will remain in any given geography. The best hubs find ways to retain top talent when they are asking “what’s next.” For example, here are a few keys to success in North Carolina:

• NCBiotech and several research universities in RTP fund Executive in Residence (EIR) programs that formalize mentoring relationships between experienced executives and startups or faculty that have entrepreneurial ambitions. This is a huge benefit to startups, but importantly it also keeps EIRs engaged in the community, and these leaders sometimes transition onto boards and CEO roles at the companies.
• Maturation of local venture capital firms and angel groups also play a role in attracting and retaining talent. Not only do they help companies fund and attract talent from other ecosystems, but most firms are led by life sciences entrepreneurs that draw from their own prior success to advise local companies on strategy.
• It’s important to create an environment where top leaders feel bought into the community, outside of their professional lives; for example, through participation on nonprofit boards or other local community organizations, a place where N.C. shines.

Even for founders who have never launched a company before, their work experience, relationships, and published research (especially in therapeutic areas) are calling cards. New or first-time entrepreneurs can succeed in N.C. because the experienced people are here to provide support and advice. First-time founders need to be coachable and open to networking with experience members of the community. If an ecosystem has fostered a culture of collaboration and support, as N.C. has, they will be well positioned for success.

2. Intentional network development and ecosystem stakeholder alignment: Startups in the prominent life sciences hubs enjoy an abundance of opportunities to meet potential investors, management talent, other entrepreneurs and the professionals and organizations that support early-stage companies. Founders in the emerging regions also have these opportunities, although they may require more intentional planning.

Support networks that create opportunities – through one-to-one introductions, investor conferences and other events – help position their members to get more shots on goal. To cite one example and highlight the criticality of ecosystem partners pulling together for a common goal, the annual Triangle Venture Day, jointly presented by Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University and the NCBiotech – draws more than 50 investors from across the nation each fall, where they hear pitches from two dozen early-stage ventures emerging from the universities.

Life sciences accelerator and incubator programs like those in North Carolina also play an important role in creating focused networks of entrepreneurial expertise and resources for startups. Real estate developers with an eye for the unique needs of life sciences companies then build the spaces needed for expansion and growth as companies mature.

3. The power of syndication: When startups have access to local investors with national connections, they have a chance to attract additional funding. By attracting local interest first, a promising startup can leverage investors in its region that have the ability to bring in other firms to look at joining a funding round. This is what happened when Hatteras brought in Yosemite to invest in Ten63.

Likewise, as out of town investors are scouting for new opportunities, they often rely on regional VC firms and organizations like NCBiotech, which receives state funds to invest in startups as a source of truth on emerging companies within a life sciences ecosystem.

Generally speaking, it takes time for these regional VC firms and organizations to develop trusting relationships with out of state syndicate investors. But in a time when connecting remotely with investors from other geographies is easier than ever, ecosystems that have focused syndicate strategies can find success.

Few of the regional VC funds rival the size of the largest life sciences funds in Boston and San Francisco. But they play an important role in evaluating investment opportunities and supporting the growth of regional life sciences hubs. For instance, launched in 2024, Cape Fear BioCapital is a VC firm that invests solely in N.C. startups and works alongside NCBiotech to support the state’s biotech ecosystem and help bring syndicate partners to the table.

The growth of these hubs is a welcome trend as the industry stabilizes and normalizes following a volatile investing period. Ecosystems must innovate as the funding landscape shifts and lean into what makes them uniquely competitive. For North Carolina, that’s the combination of our people, infrastructure, and a uniquely collaborative culture built on a foundation of great technology. Encouraging the development of life sciences expertise in growing ecosystems creates more opportunities for startups and investors alike without taking anything away from the largest hubs that spawned the industry in the first place.

About The Author:

Mike Carnes is Vice President of Emerging Company Development at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center.