BioTech & Life Sciences

Where we think the science, the capital, and the country are actually going — and what we're betting on. This is Speciale's view, not the market's. Every year a number gets read out at a podium in Delhi and the room applauds. This time it was $195.3 billion — India's bioeconomy, up 18% in a single year, now around 4.8% of GDP, built on the backs of nearly 12,000 biotech startups. It is a genuinely large, genuinely good number. It is also, if we're being honest, the wrong plac

Before we get into the biology, look at what pharma spent money on in the last twelve months. Acquirer Target Deal Value What they were buying Bristol Myers Squibb RayzeBio $4.1B Targeted radionuclide delivery in vivo — payload finds tumour, no cell extraction Novo Nordisk Cardior Pharmaceuticals €1.03B RNA therapeutics platform — non-viral in vivo cardiac delivery Sanofi Inhibrx AATD Program $2.2B In vivo protein replacement — same indication now drawing three gene editors A

India's bioeconomy just crossed $165 billion. A decade ago, it was $10 billion. That's a 16x expansion in ten years, and we're only getting started. At Speciale, we've been investing in Indian deep science since 2018 — across three funds, 35+ companies, and sectors ranging from space and semiconductors to defence and AI. Over the past two years, biotech has become one of the most exciting areas in our portfolio. It is also one of the most misunderstood by the broader investor

Biology is becoming the new software—and the farm, the field, and the ocean are becoming its most consequential deployment environments. At Speciale, we're always watching for technologies that fundamentally reshape human progress, from space travel to fusion energy. One of the most compelling spaces we're tracking right now is happening in agriculture. After decades of incremental progress and regulatory battles, agricultural genetic engineering is finally reaching commercia

Aging, obesity, cancer, genetic disorders - these are no longer the stuff of science fiction. Thanks to the convergence of multiple scientific fields over hundreds of years, we are starting to solve them one by one. Chronic diseases are the leading cause of death and disability worldwide, accounting for 7 out of 10 deaths and trillions in annual healthcare costs. The human and economic toll is staggering. But imagine a world where diabetes is cured with a single treatment, w

"The brain is the last and grandest biological frontier, the most complex thing we have yet discovered in our universe."-James D. Watson, co-discoverer of DNA's structure". Three pound organ, which is self conscious, with around 86 billion neurons forming approximately 100 trillion connections has long been a black box in our scientific understanding. The mere complexity it holds has been beyond our comprehension. Recent innovations in neuroscience have enabled us to better

Throughout human history, our capacity for innovation has been the driving force behind our progress. From the invention of wheels to AI, we have consistently pushed the boundaries of what's possible. As we solve one set of challenges, we inevitably uncover new, harder puzzles to solve. This perpetual cycle of curiosity and innovation has led us to a new frontier: the world of biology. In recent decades, we've made tremendous strides in computer programming. What was once a n

The biopharmaceutical landscape is undergoing a transformative shift, driven by the emergence of platform biotech companies that are redefining the traditional approach to drug discovery, development, and commercialization. These innovative firms leverage cutting-edge technologies and novel business models, offering a promising solution to the challenges faced by conventional biopharma companies. Platform biotech companies are distinguished by their reliance on a unified, pro