August 9, 2025 • 8 mins
Australia seems to be punching above its weight on innovative biotech companies, from cultivated meat to printing human cells. Why?
Today Michael Thompson is joined by Stefan von Imhof from alternative investing platform Alts.co to look at why Australia's outperforming in biotech.
Fear & Greed Q+A: Join Sean Aylmer & Michael Thompson and the team as they answer questions on business, investing, economics, politics and more. If you have your own question, get in touch via our website, LinkedIn, Instagram or Facebook.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to Fear and Greed Q and a where we
ask and answer questions about business, investing, economics, politics and more.
I'm Michael Thompson and today why is Australia outperforming in biotech?
I'm joined today by Stefan von Yimoff, who is the
co founder and CEO of Alternative Investing Community and fund
Alts dot Co. Stafan, welcome back to Fear and Greed
(00:27):
Q and a.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Great to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
There's a fair bit in this, but let's start with
the big picture. Why is Australia emerging as a biotech powerhouse?
Because there's a couple of great examples and I want
to go through those in a moment. But big picture,
what's making a stand out from global competitors.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I think Australia definitely punches well above its wheat and
a lot of areas in biotech is no exception. And
I think first and foremost it's just a fantastic talent
pool down here. Sure it's not as large of a
talent pool as they have, you know, in the US
and North America and in Europe, but in terms of quality,
Australia really punches above its weight. We have excellent universities,
(01:08):
excellent infrastructure and a great federal and state grant system
which allows a lot of biotech companies to get off
the ground. And that's something that's absent in other countries
and we have a really good infrastructure there and in
that regard.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
So you've recently toured two companies. Both of them are
based in Sydney and they are doing two completely different things.
Let's start with Inventia Locke signs. What are they doing well?
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Inventure is a really fascinating company. So they are actually
a perfect example of a company that got off the
ground through state and federal grants and they have built
a facility in Alexandria, just south of Sydney. The best
way to explain this company is they help speed up
cancer research by creating proper environments for scientists to study cancers.
(02:00):
So the best way to think about it is, when
you are researching cancer, you need to study it in
its natural environment. But you know, a human body that's
a human Yeah, but you can't exactly do that right,
It's not easy to do. So what invention does is
instead of using you know, basically a Petri dish to
test cancers and cancer treatments. Rather, they've basically created an
(02:25):
environment that mimics different parts of the body. It can
mimic the brain, it can mimic the pancreas, it can
mimic skin, and so there are many applications for this,
But the one they're really finding traction with is they're
selling to pharmaceutical companies who are using these environments to
properly test cancer treatments. And it's speeding up cancer research tremendously.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Okay, and I imagine if they're able to essentially kind
of print these environment human lack substances, essentially there would
be at the application for potentially and kind of treating
wounds all that. It feels like this is very kind
of fertile ground.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yeah, the bioprinter that they've created can exactly that, it
can create actual skin cells, and so these, you know,
in the future, theoretically could be used to replace current
skin grafting technology. It was funny when we took a
tour a few days ago, we actually were able to
(03:30):
witness and experience how this works. We basically placed our
hand underneath the bioprinter and it spat out this gel
that in a real environment would be actual cells that
would essentially kind of fuse with your skin and basically
help wounds heal faster. So there is a there's tremendous
(03:51):
opportunity with this company going forward.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
I know it's a clache, but it sounds like science
fiction and that's probably the key as well for the
next company that I wanted to talk to about. Another
one that you visited is vow which recently I think
became the first company legally allowed to sell And I've
got to get the terminology right cultured meat in Australia.
You cannot call it fake meat.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
You can, but it's not right. Yeah, definitely don't call
it fake. And the fact is it's not fake, it's
real meat. But it's meat sells right. So similar to Inventure,
Voo is basically starting with the the cell, the building
block of biology, and they have basically created what exactly
what you said called cultured meat. Now, this is really
fascinating because there are not a lot of countries in
(04:37):
the world that have a framework, a legal framework in
place for selling cultured meat, because it's basically a whole
new category of food.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Right.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Well, Australia just last month became the first well not
the first, sorry, but one of the first countries to
create that legal framework, and that opened the door for
Voo to sell their cultured meat in restaurants in you know,
and coals and woolies. So the sky's the limit and
(05:07):
Vowers are really at an inflection point about to take off.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
How hard is it going to be for them though,
because there is it's almost a psychological barrier to eating
something that you know has essentially been cultivated or grown
in a lab. I imagine it's one thing to sell it
into perhaps some high end restaurants, another thing altogether to
get it into woolies and colds and get people buying it.
Did you taste it? What's it actually like?
Speaker 2 (05:33):
It will be a challenge for sure, to be clear.
I've spoken with George, the founder, about this, and he's
well aware that there is a kind of a mental
hurdle here. But the thing is, once you taste it,
oh man, like, all your doubts go out the window.
The best way I can describe it is it's it
doesn't feel The mouth feel isn't like a burger, right,
It's not stringy, it's not tough. There's no fibrous kind
(05:57):
of element to it. It's more of like a pat's
head or a par fit or like an icing, you know,
like a savory icing. And so you can put it
on bread, you can put it. There's a million different
applications and chefs now in Sydney and Melbourne and all
over Australia are experimenting with different ways to basically present
this food. So once you once you've tried it, once
(06:17):
you've tasted it, I mean it's a delicacy. There's no
other way to put it.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Okay, all right? And so investment side kind of we
recently saw one biotech company, Tetratherics, listed on the IX
that only happened a few wakes back. Are we going
to say more follow the likes of kind of invention
and vow or is that not in their future? Do
you think?
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Look, I think that not only our invention vow well
positioned for the future. I think Australia in general is
very well positioned for the future. Again, we have a
terrific infrastructure and there's a lot of clarity with legal
frameworks in government, unlike you know the US, for example,
where things are kind of a mass. In fact, in
the US, Florida band you know, last year, So it's
(07:02):
a very state by state thing in the US. So
you know, I think that Australia is very well positioned
going forward.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Okay, we started kind of bringing it back to where
we started about why Australia is kind of punching above
it's white in this space and the potential for us
to continue doing it. Is there anything holding us back?
You've said that we've kind of been able to clear
a lot of the regulatory hurdles in relation to specific industries,
but broadly in the biotech space, is there anything that's
(07:29):
holding us back and stopping us becoming the world leaders?
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Look, I think that you know, talent certainly isn't holding
us back, infrastructures not holding us back, and capital is
not holding Australia back. To the degree that anything's holding
Australia back, it's really just the kind of a risk
taking culture.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
You know.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
One one great thing about the US is that it's
appetite for risk is pretty limitless. And you know, there's
kind of a revolving door between academia and private sector
in the US, where in Australia, you know, if you
kind of go down the academia line of work, you
kind of stay there. It's kind of cushy, and it's
just not as common to go into private sector if
(08:07):
you're in academia. So I think it just comes down
to a risk taking culture. I think it's changing as
we speak, and as that continues to change, I think
Australia will reap the awards.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Stefan, thanks for talking to Fear and Greed.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
That was to find volume off from Olds dot co.
Head to oldstt Co to sign up for their newsletter,
which this episode is based on an edition of that newsletter.
And of course this information is general in nature. You
should do your research before making any investment decisions. If
you've got something that you would like to know on
this podcast, then please send to your question on LinkedIn, Instagram,
Facebook or at Fearangreed dot com dot au. I'm mirkal
(08:40):
Thompson and this is Fear and Greed Q and A
Welcome to Fear and Greed Q and a where we
ask and answer questions about business, investing, economics, politics and more.
I'm Michael Thompson and today why is Australia outperforming in biotech?
I'm joined today by Stefan von Yimoff, who is the
co founder and CEO of Alternative Investing Community and fund
Alts dot Co. Stafan, welcome back to Fear and Greed
(00:27):
Q and a.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Great to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
There's a fair bit in this, but let's start with
the big picture. Why is Australia emerging as a biotech powerhouse?
Because there's a couple of great examples and I want
to go through those in a moment. But big picture,
what's making a stand out from global competitors.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I think Australia definitely punches well above its wheat and
a lot of areas in biotech is no exception. And
I think first and foremost it's just a fantastic talent
pool down here. Sure it's not as large of a
talent pool as they have, you know, in the US
and North America and in Europe, but in terms of quality,
Australia really punches above its weight. We have excellent universities,
(01:08):
excellent infrastructure and a great federal and state grant system
which allows a lot of biotech companies to get off
the ground. And that's something that's absent in other countries
and we have a really good infrastructure there and in
that regard.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
So you've recently toured two companies. Both of them are
based in Sydney and they are doing two completely different things.
Let's start with Inventia Locke signs. What are they doing well?
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Inventure is a really fascinating company. So they are actually
a perfect example of a company that got off the
ground through state and federal grants and they have built
a facility in Alexandria, just south of Sydney. The best
way to explain this company is they help speed up
cancer research by creating proper environments for scientists to study cancers.
(02:00):
So the best way to think about it is, when
you are researching cancer, you need to study it in
its natural environment. But you know, a human body that's
a human Yeah, but you can't exactly do that right,
It's not easy to do. So what invention does is
instead of using you know, basically a Petri dish to
test cancers and cancer treatments. Rather, they've basically created an
(02:25):
environment that mimics different parts of the body. It can
mimic the brain, it can mimic the pancreas, it can
mimic skin, and so there are many applications for this,
But the one they're really finding traction with is they're
selling to pharmaceutical companies who are using these environments to
properly test cancer treatments. And it's speeding up cancer research tremendously.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Okay, and I imagine if they're able to essentially kind
of print these environment human lack substances, essentially there would
be at the application for potentially and kind of treating
wounds all that. It feels like this is very kind
of fertile ground.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yeah, the bioprinter that they've created can exactly that, it
can create actual skin cells, and so these, you know,
in the future, theoretically could be used to replace current
skin grafting technology. It was funny when we took a
tour a few days ago, we actually were able to
(03:30):
witness and experience how this works. We basically placed our
hand underneath the bioprinter and it spat out this gel
that in a real environment would be actual cells that
would essentially kind of fuse with your skin and basically
help wounds heal faster. So there is a there's tremendous
(03:51):
opportunity with this company going forward.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
I know it's a clache, but it sounds like science
fiction and that's probably the key as well for the
next company that I wanted to talk to about. Another
one that you visited is vow which recently I think
became the first company legally allowed to sell And I've
got to get the terminology right cultured meat in Australia.
You cannot call it fake meat.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
You can, but it's not right. Yeah, definitely don't call
it fake. And the fact is it's not fake, it's
real meat. But it's meat sells right. So similar to Inventure,
Voo is basically starting with the the cell, the building
block of biology, and they have basically created what exactly
what you said called cultured meat. Now, this is really
fascinating because there are not a lot of countries in
(04:37):
the world that have a framework, a legal framework in
place for selling cultured meat, because it's basically a whole
new category of food.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Right.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Well, Australia just last month became the first well not
the first, sorry, but one of the first countries to
create that legal framework, and that opened the door for
Voo to sell their cultured meat in restaurants in you know,
and coals and woolies. So the sky's the limit and
(05:07):
Vowers are really at an inflection point about to take off.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
How hard is it going to be for them though,
because there is it's almost a psychological barrier to eating
something that you know has essentially been cultivated or grown
in a lab. I imagine it's one thing to sell it
into perhaps some high end restaurants, another thing altogether to
get it into woolies and colds and get people buying it.
Did you taste it? What's it actually like?
Speaker 2 (05:33):
It will be a challenge for sure, to be clear.
I've spoken with George, the founder, about this, and he's
well aware that there is a kind of a mental
hurdle here. But the thing is, once you taste it,
oh man, like, all your doubts go out the window.
The best way I can describe it is it's it
doesn't feel The mouth feel isn't like a burger, right,
It's not stringy, it's not tough. There's no fibrous kind
(05:57):
of element to it. It's more of like a pat's
head or a par fit or like an icing, you know,
like a savory icing. And so you can put it
on bread, you can put it. There's a million different
applications and chefs now in Sydney and Melbourne and all
over Australia are experimenting with different ways to basically present
this food. So once you once you've tried it, once
(06:17):
you've tasted it, I mean it's a delicacy. There's no
other way to put it.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Okay, all right? And so investment side kind of we
recently saw one biotech company, Tetratherics, listed on the IX
that only happened a few wakes back. Are we going
to say more follow the likes of kind of invention
and vow or is that not in their future? Do
you think?
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Look, I think that not only our invention vow well
positioned for the future. I think Australia in general is
very well positioned for the future. Again, we have a
terrific infrastructure and there's a lot of clarity with legal
frameworks in government, unlike you know the US, for example,
where things are kind of a mass. In fact, in
the US, Florida band you know, last year, So it's
(07:02):
a very state by state thing in the US. So
you know, I think that Australia is very well positioned
going forward.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Okay, we started kind of bringing it back to where
we started about why Australia is kind of punching above
it's white in this space and the potential for us
to continue doing it. Is there anything holding us back?
You've said that we've kind of been able to clear
a lot of the regulatory hurdles in relation to specific industries,
but broadly in the biotech space, is there anything that's
(07:29):
holding us back and stopping us becoming the world leaders?
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Look, I think that you know, talent certainly isn't holding
us back, infrastructures not holding us back, and capital is
not holding Australia back. To the degree that anything's holding
Australia back, it's really just the kind of a risk
taking culture.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
You know.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
One one great thing about the US is that it's
appetite for risk is pretty limitless. And you know, there's
kind of a revolving door between academia and private sector
in the US, where in Australia, you know, if you
kind of go down the academia line of work, you
kind of stay there. It's kind of cushy, and it's
just not as common to go into private sector if
(08:07):
you're in academia. So I think it just comes down
to a risk taking culture. I think it's changing as
we speak, and as that continues to change, I think
Australia will reap the awards.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Stefan, thanks for talking to Fear and Greed.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
That was to find volume off from Olds dot co.
Head to oldstt Co to sign up for their newsletter,
which this episode is based on an edition of that newsletter.
And of course this information is general in nature. You
should do your research before making any investment decisions. If
you've got something that you would like to know on
this podcast, then please send to your question on LinkedIn, Instagram,
Facebook or at Fearangreed dot com dot au. I'm mirkal
(08:40):
Thompson and this is Fear and Greed Q and A
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