Growing innovatively
Adlershof analytics companies Accelero Bioanalytics and biotechrabbit are thriving on a takeover and innovative funding ideas
Accelero Bioanalytics GmbH has taken to innovative fields, not only for analytics and services, but also for its own funding. “We work in the genetic engineering field, analyse dangerous pathogens like bacteria, and conduct research into drugs for small and medium sized enterprises”, explained Christian Lange, Managing Director of Accelero. The biologist worked for twelve years in the biotech sector before setting up his own company Accelero Bioanalytics three and a half years ago.
In early February 2015, his startup, now employing five, relocated from Berlin-Mitte to Adlershof. Two laboratories fitted with the latest analytical technology were set up in the Centre of Biotechnology and the Environment. “There we intend to concentrate on the whole stream from the initial development phases for pharmaceutical agents to the first clinical studies”, confided Lange.
The complex and costly laboratory equipment received funding from an unusual source. The financial backer was not the bank, instead the capital was provided by 52 private investors. The Accelero offer was taken quickly. “It took just eighteen days to get the funds together,” said Lange. No wonder – after all, the company has been posting positive year-end closings for three years now, and its 2014 turnover was 50 percent higher than the previous year’s.
An equally good business record can be shown by biotechrabbit GmbH – long established at its locations in Hennigsdorf and Adlershof and present at congresses and exhibitions all over the world. “We supply reagents for the life sciences sector – practically everything researchers need in the laboratory”, said Haase, Managing Director and Doctor of Biochemistry with an MBA in Management. Set up in 2011 and now employing twenty staff, the company produces antibodies and enzymes, researches into proteins, purifies nucleic acids, and offers reagents for Bernd Haase. “We are constantly developing new, high quality products that are to help us maintain our leading position in this segment of life sciences”, said Haase.
This portfolio matched the focal activities and products of the Adlershof biotech company RiNA, which recently had to file an insolvency petition. “We took over the two laboratories together with their top quality equipment, and we could also retain the excellently trained staff”, explained Haase. As a result, production at the Adlershof Technology Centre could relaunch as early as March 2015.
By Paul Janositz for Adlershof Special