Barney Balmforth On Raising $60 Million To Build A Genomic Technology Platform For Genome Testing And Cancer Diagnostics

Barney Balmforth’s journey is a testament to calculated risk-taking, resilience, visionary leadership,and two pivotal lessons: the importance of taking calculated risks and pursuing meaningful endeavors.

These values, along with the inspiration to work hard, drove Barney’s career in the high-stakes world of tech and biotech startups. His latest startup, Biofidelity, has attracted funding from top-tier investors like Agilent Technologies, Octopus Ventures, BlueYard Capital, and SBI Investment.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Barney Balmforth’s journey exemplifies calculated risk-taking and visionary leadership in the tech and biotech sectors.
• His early passion for science and academic background in quantum computing laid the foundation for his entrepreneurial pursuits.
• Dissatisfied with long academic timelines, Barney transitioned from academia to industry, seeking immediate impact through startups.
• Barney helped scale Base4, a genomics startup, from a small team to a leading player in DNA sequencing technology.
• His pivot to cancer diagnostics with Biofidelity aims to bridge the gap between targeted therapies and genomic testing access.
• Biofidelity’s decentralized genomic testing solution enables labs to run complex tests using existing equipment, increasing accessibility.
• Barney emphasizes the importance of focusing on a few high-quality projects and continuously learning as a leader.

 

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About Barney Balmforth:

Barnaby has more than 10 years’ experience in the leadership of genomic technology development. Prior to co-founding Biofidelity he was Chief Operating Officer and Board member at Base4 as well as leading the development of the company’s molecular biology. Barnaby holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge and a Masters from the University of Oxford.

Connect with Barney Balmforth:

• LinkedIn
• RocketReach
• Crunchbase
• TheOrg

Read the Full Transcription of the Interview:

Alejandro Cremades: All righty, hello, everyone, and welcome to the Deal Maker Show. So super exciting guest that we have with us today. you know We’re going to be talking about the building, the scaling, you know all the good stuff that we like to hear you know when we’re doing these types of episodes. And in this case, you know we’re going to be talking about spinoffs as well, as well as say raising money. So again, brace yourself for a very inspiring conversation today. And without further ado, let’s welcome our guest, Barné Balmforth. Welcome to the show.

Barney Balmforth: Thank you, Alejandro. I’m happy to be here with you today.

Alejandro Cremades: So originally born in the Southwest there in in England. Give us a walk through memory lane. How is life growing up for you?

Barney Balmforth: Yeah, absolutely. um So yeah, I was born and raised in the southwest of the UK in really quite a rural area. um My parents ran their own small business in the area and and made a lot of sacrifices for us um as children. And really, they taught me a a huge amount about both about the the importance of calculated risk-taking and the importance of the pursuit of what you find meaningful. So I guess that that really then became a big part of what has driven me through the years. um Like many in my generation, I was told frequently that if you work hard and you do well, then you can do anything you want with your life. And in in some ways, I think that’s inspirational, but in other ways, it also presents a challenge in that you know it it opens the world to you and

Barney Balmforth: really makes it difficult to to really focus down on what you really do want to do. So I think know following and following my childhood there in the southwest of the UK, a lot of the following years for me were really formational in understanding then what I really did find important in life and what I wanted to then focus on.

Alejandro Cremades: how the Out of all things, how did you get into physics?

Barney Balmforth: So i was I was always a lover of of science. i like I like learning new things. I’m someone who, if I’m not learning new things, I get bored very quickly. And I found the sciences just truly fascinating and and you know trying to expand on our understanding of of the world in front of us. So i I pursued physics as my undergraduate degree. I went to the University of Oxford to do my undergraduate and master’s.

Barney Balmforth: And then after completing my degree there, I moved here to where I’m now based in Cambridge. I’m in the UK to pursue a PhD in quantum computing at the time.

Alejandro Cremades: So I know that moving to Cambridge was a really big deal. It was pivotal now when you went there to study your PhD. But how was it like moving there? you know and and And also what kind of doors has that opened over the course of time?

Barney Balmforth: So, yes, absolutely. I mean, moving to Cambridge was was pivotal for for me in my life. um And I think then as I did my my studies and my PhD, it really opened my eyes to to what I really do love. And for me, that is, I mean, yes, discovery, but I think kind of the academic world did not really appeal to me. But what I found was a real love of the development of technologies that can impact humanity.

Barney Balmforth: And I’m definitely someone who likes to see that impact and and how that can really materialize. And I guess during my PhD, I was working on new technologies, but the the frustration I had was that the impact we saw was always 10 years away. No matter how much progress we made with that technology development, everyone would always say in 10 years time, this will be enormously impactful. and And I got a little bit disillusioned with that. And that was really what drove me after my PhD completed to pursue a career in industry.

Barney Balmforth: But I would say that the the training I had and what I learned and the connections I made during that time were extremely valuable for me and really opened my eyes to a lot of the possibilities. And Cambridge is probably the best place in the UK to work on new technologies. There’s a fantastic kind of academic environment here, obviously, but there is also a ah very kind of entrepreneurial scene in Cambridge.

Barney Balmforth: um and a lot of exciting developments in in the private sector.

Alejandro Cremades: let Let’s talk about you getting into the private sector because Cosworth was you know your first day rodeo into the you know working life as an engineer. So how how ah how was that for you? Because you were there for about one year and a half before you actually made the move to what ended up being a mega, mega pivotal moment in your career with base four, which actually was your segue into becoming an entrepreneur.

Alejandro Cremades: But how is it like getting into coursework and then making a move just one year and a half you know into something new?

Barney Balmforth: So as I said, I really, I wanted to find a position in industry. I wanted to find something that was, that was interesting for me. and And I wanted to make sure I use some of the skills that I had learned. So again, this was a very kind of engineering technical focus. So I, I worked for that 18 months or so as a, as a software developer, um, writing engine control software for motorsport for, for rally cars. Um, and it did teach me a lot, but ultimately I knew I wanted to work on more kind of foundational technology. And so I was approached in 2009.

Barney Balmforth: by the founder and CEO of a very early stage startup company here in Cambridge. And this company at the time was just two people, um an idea, an idea for a novel technology that could be used to sequence DNA.

Barney Balmforth: And I found that incredibly exciting. It was a field that I had not had a lot of exposure to, where I saw an enormous opportunity to learn. But also it was a role where initially I knew I could use a lot of the skills I developed through my PhD and my subsequent work. So I joined that company in in late 2009. And really, that exposed me to this amazing world, this world of startups, this world of technology development, this world of genomics.

Barney Balmforth: and the you know I was hooked immediately. you know the The excitement of of working on these new technologies, the risk, I like the risk of of being in the startup world. I think and in hindsight, I didn’t appreciate at the time quite how risky it was to make that leap into a company that was really at that very, very early stage. But it really it allowed me to learn what it takes to build a complex multidisciplinary team, to build new technologies, to build companies,

Barney Balmforth: and to do that in a way that that can scale. So over time, ah we built that company, Base 4, from those three people. And when I joined, up to a peak of about 45 people. And during that period, we raised several tens of millions in in venture capital investment. and We built a platform of technologies that were just like nothing anyone has ever seen before. And my role over that time evolved from a very hands-on technical role um, through, uh, project leadership and operational management. And then ultimately I became the chief operating officer and I sat on the board of directors. And again, that really, you know, I was leading all of the kind of operational management there and it exposed me to all of the complexity of, of running an increasingly complex organization. And that I really loved. And so that, that I think has really formed a lot of how I think about business now, um, and really was

Barney Balmforth: yeah very foundational for me and in giving me the skills I need now in my my current role.

Alejandro Cremades: So let’s talk about base ah for as well, that moment where you know you are working at base you know now for about 10 years. I mean, when you joined there, you know there was about the two people and te you you were part of that incredible rocket ship all the way to 40 plus.

Alejandro Cremades: But after nine years, there was a certain sequence of events that happened that led you guys to really understand what else was possible. And also perhaps that there was ah a moment for a change needed and perhaps even a pivot or even a spinoff, which was the segue into biofidelity. So walk us through what happened you know during during that time there.

Barney Balmforth: So at base four, we were developing this kind of DNA sequencing technology platform and you know, everything we developed was new and we had this huge suite of technology. And and we actually, and we were one of a very small handful of companies that have ever actually successfully developed a DNA sequencing platform that can actually sequence DNA. And we had a ah prototype in our laboratory that was functional and we published some great data.

Barney Balmforth: But at the time, and this was in about 2017, the capital markets had kind of shifted focus slightly away from platform development in the genomics field and much more into the applications of genomics. And the reality is it’s an incredibly capital intensive field. And we look at companies that are launching DNA sequencing platforms now, and they have raised between $500 million to $2 billion in private investment, even prior to market launch.

Barney Balmforth: And so the the question for us was, you know is there a viable path to raise that level of capital in the UK and with the the platform that we had and with the markets and the condition they were? they were and And realistically, we saw that as incredibly high risk. And so my CEO at the time, and Cameron, he he looked at the technologies that that we had and saw this this obvious opportunity that we had with these technologies. And surely there were other applications that we could target with these technologies. And so that really led to us doing, I guess, a lot more of an in-depth analysis of the genomics market, trying to understand where there were gaps, where there were unmet needs. And we were having a lot of conversations with

Barney Balmforth: the big pharmaceutical developers, the the big diagnostics companies with oncologists. And it really made us aware of of a couple of different gaps in the market. And so we looked at the the technologies that we’d been developing and we realized that actually we had solutions to some really fundamental problems in ah in our space. And so we took the decision at the time to start up a couple of small projects in the company and then ultimately to split the company into three.

Barney Balmforth: So with the support of our shareholders, um, we, we took base for the original company and we actually spun out to new startup companies. Um, so we have, uh, I guess two sister companies, um, here in Cambridge, one of which took the kind of instrumentation hardware that we’d been developing and deployed it into pharmaceutical discovery workflows. Um, and the other biofidelity took our molecular biology that we’ve been developing.

Barney Balmforth: and started to deploy that molecular biology into the cancer diagnostic space. And so the ah problem that we had been made aware of was that the pharmaceutical companies over the last 20 years have invested more than $100 billion dollars in the development of what I called targeted therapies. And these are cancer treatments that only work on a small fraction of patients and they target specific ah mutations in the patient’s genome.

Barney Balmforth: And these can be incredibly impactful. They can extend survival times in cancer by as much as tenfold. But they only benefit the patients who have those mutations. And so there is a need for testing of all patients to identify which patient will respond to which treatment. And that sounds really obvious. And it has been actually in the treatment guidelines for more than 10 years now that patients should receive this kind of testing.

Barney Balmforth: But if you look globally, fewer than 20% of patients actually receive the recommended testing before they’re treated. And that has enormous consequences. It means that, well, fewer than 20% of patients are actually benefiting from modern medicine. It means that the the market for these new drugs that the pharmaceutical companies develop is really poorly accessed. um And it means ultimately that ah survival and and outcomes in cancer are not improving as quickly as they should do. So there is this gap now between therapeutics and diagnostics, which we see the opportunity to to fill. So that was why we founded Biofidelity. We saw that opportunity. We saw this phenomenally well-defined problem. And I think if there’s one thing I have learned over the past 15 years of working in in building startups is that the importance of a well-defined problem and the importance of developing a solution to a problem

Barney Balmforth: rather than developing a solution and then going and looking for the problem. And that that really gave us that opportunity. So we founded Biofidelity in early 2019 with that as our mission, as to try and solve this just appalling lack of access to genomic testing um in oncology.

Alejandro Cremades: so Then let’s talk about what you guys are doing at Biofidelity. you know How was that moment of the company being set up, being a spinoff, are you taking scientists you know um to get three scientists to get going? What what were those early days like?

Barney Balmforth: So we were, I think, very fortunate in that we had a lot of support from our shareholders in the process of setting up the company. So there was obviously a lot of kind of operation on the legal complexity in setting up a new company um as a spin out and kind of taking intellectual property with us into into that new company. But that was a process that we went through over a period of months. And then we set up the company with myself as the the CEO. um I was asked by the shareholders to take on that role.

Barney Balmforth: And with about three of the scientists from, from base four who came with me into biofidelity to start developing the technology. And so we, we worked through 2019 to kind of develop the underlying technology that the the concept that we had come up with. And that was incredibly successful. So, you know, it has been at that stage of very technically kind of technology focused business.

Barney Balmforth: And then I guess what’s been exciting for me is, is to see ah both myself and the team really grow as the company grows. So I think the, the importance of and evolution of people over time, as you grow the company just cannot be underestimated. And so we’ve now scaled by a fidelity over the past five years to about 75 people. Um, we have built our technology.

Barney Balmforth: We have built actually a um clinical diagnostic testing laboratory in the United States from an empty shell. and We’ve built all of the the product development processes that we need in order to build a clinical diagnostic product. We’ve established a manufacturing facility here in the in Cambridge in the UK, and we’ve actually launched our first products into the US market.

Barney Balmforth: so With all of that in place, you know that has required obviously enormous scaling of all of our processes and and structure in the organization, and but also a lot of development of of people. And I think one of the most important things for us over the years has been making sure that we have the right team at the right time and as the company has grown.

Alejandro Cremades: So, tell us about the um what ended ended up being the business model with biofidelity. How are you guys making making money there?

Barney Balmforth: So one of the challenges that we see in our in our industry and one of the reasons why many patients don’t have access to the testing that’s recommended is that the current ah current methods for doing this are incredibly complex and they cost millions of dollars to set up um in a clinical laboratory. So that has resulted in a few very large laboratories offering this kind of testing, which fundamentally runs against all the dynamics of healthcare system because they the laboratories that actually have ownership of a patient sample, they want to and analyze it, they want to do the testing. and So the mission for us is kind of ultimately, how do we enable the laboratories that own the sample to run the testing themselves, rather than sending it to a big centralized lab and losing and all of the the opportunity to both deliver better results more quickly, but also to retain some of the revenue of of running that testing. So what we have developed

Barney Balmforth: is a technology that allows us to do highly complex genomic testing, but on existing PCR instruments. So these are the same kind of simple bits of hardware that are used for COVID diagnostics. and There are labs worldwide with hundreds of these instruments in them. And what we do now is we build essentially a box of reagents that can be used on those instruments.

Barney Balmforth: And so the long-term model for us is to enable labs globally everywhere around the world to run this kind of testing in a way that is simple to adopt, much lower cost, much more reliable, um and can be run and locally near the patient so that those laboratories can retain some of the value um of running this kind of testing. So that’s that’s where we’re ultimately heading.

Barney Balmforth: I mentioned we’ve built our own clinical testing laboratory, so we do have our own um clinical lab in North Carolina in the United States, which we built during COVID when I was unable to travel, which was an adventure. and But that that laboratory is running ah clinical diagnostic testing using our technology, and we are starting to now really see the impact that we can have, which is incredibly exciting, I think, for all of us, particularly those involved in the early stages of the company, and because there is a big I guess culture within the organization that everything we’re doing is ultimately for the benefit of the patient. And seeing that now come to fruition is incredibly rewarding.

Alejandro Cremades: So tell us about all the capital raising efforts because you guys have raised quite a bit of money. How much capital have you guys raised to date and what has been the journey of going through raising that money?

Barney Balmforth: So I guess over the last five years, we’ve raised a total of about 60 million US dollars. And that’s been over, I guess, a a very early pre-seed funding that we did when we founded the company and then three subsequent fundraising rounds. That investment has been raised from a mixture of venture capital funds, um private investors and strategic investors.

Barney Balmforth: And I would say you know it’s not been easy. ah For me, you know fundraising is always a challenge. It is a very busy, noisy space with a lot of companies essentially all doing the same thing. So I’d say the the really important thing for us has been how do we clearly communicate how we’re different And that’s something that I think we’re getting increasingly good at now, is positioning our our company and our technology against a lot of other companies who are all basically doing the same thing as each other. And we are absolutely very different. And that’s that’s important that that’s very clearly communicated.

Barney Balmforth: So we’ve raised though that 60 million dollars. and The industry we operate in is still, um as as in my former company, quite capital intensive, but actually we’ve been very careful with the way we’ve used our funds. So typically in our in our sector companies raise at least 100 million before they enter commercialization.

Barney Balmforth: And we’ve managed to do that on significantly less. We actually launched our first product at the end of last year. um And we had raised about 40 million by that point. And with that investment, we had built the technology. We had built our first products. We built our clinical diagnostic lab. and We built all of our manufacturing processes. um We built the commercial team needed for for launch of the product. And we also um put quite a lot of resource into working with some of the leading cancer centers and healthcare providers in the United States to to generate data and and demonstrate the impact of the the technology that we’ve been developing. And that’s been very exciting for us. And actually a lot of the data from those studies is going to be published in the very near future.

Alejandro Cremades: So let’s talk about two the vision, because the vision is a really big deal, something that, obviously, investors invest on. you know Now that you have already received 70 employees, you know same thing as well as customers, no? If you were to go to sleep tonight, Barney, and you wake up in a world where the vision of biofidelity is fully realized, what does that world look like?

Barney Balmforth: So for me, that looks like a world in which every patient who’s diagnosed with cancer can benefit from life-saving genomic insights. So where everyone, regardless of their social background, their economic background, their geography, ah cannot can feel the impacts of modern medicine. Because we see on a regular basis now, we see even in the mainstream media news articles about revolutionary new cancer treatments.

Barney Balmforth: And what’s hidden in in those in those articles and that news is just how few patients actually feel the benefits. So ultimately, know what I would wake up to would be a world where people with cancer are able to live longer and happier lives um and yeah feel the benefits of of all these fantastic advantages that advances that we that we hear about.

Alejandro Cremades: So I know that you guys are also a very purpose-driven company. So talk to us about this a little bit.

Barney Balmforth: We are. And and it forms it forms a big part of how we even communicate internally with our with our employees. It forms part of how we hire. It forms how it informs how we talk about our our technologies and our products. And ultimately, it’s what drives all of us. And I would say, for me personally, that’s been really important. I mean, building and running a startup company is can be an enormous challenge. and It can be overwhelming at times. And I would say having a clear purpose is is really invaluable to to helping you through those those challenges. So that the purpose, I think, is is inherently linked to that vision. And the the purpose that’s driving everyone at biofidelity is is exactly that. is to try and improve people’s lives

Barney Balmforth: try and have an impact on clinical practice and on cancer outcomes. And I hear stories on a regular basis from ah from our staff of of how they’ve been personally impacted by by cancer. um And its you know it’s truly inspiring to to hear how open our team are with talking about that and what drives them to come into work every day and and really deliver you know an astonishing effort to develop what we have done and and make it a success.

Alejandro Cremades: so Let’s talk now about um you know if I was to put you into a time machine. and okay and Let’s talk about the past. Let’s say I was to put you into a time machine, and I bring you back in time to perhaps 2020 or 2019 when you were thinking about taking action here and doing the spinoff. so If you could go back in time and have a chat with that younger Barney,

Alejandro Cremades: And being able to give that younger Barney one piece of advice before launching a business. What would that be and why, given what you know now?

Barney Balmforth: Well, that’s a great question. um I mean, I would say one of the most important things I have learned over the last five years is the importance of focus and the importance of doing a small number of things to the highest possible quality.

Barney Balmforth: And this is a mistake I think many companies make is that we we build something new and we see this opportunity and we see all of these opportunities presented to us of of different routes we could take, different and routes to commercialization and different opportunities. And we’re we’re ten we’re tempted to try and grab them all. and And if you try and do too much, ultimately you do things at a poor quality and and you will fail. And I think we were guilty of that in the early stages of the business.

Barney Balmforth: and We started to bring in project management processes. a few years into the business and we started to define what is a project. And we said, well, okay, a project is is anything that impacts or involves multiple different functions within the business. And that sounds very simple. So we went through and en listed what we’re currently doing. And I think we came up with a list of more than 50 projects that we had actively um you know underway within the organization. And we had fewer than 40 staff at the time. And that’s crazy. you know You can’t effectively run a business when your team are spreading piece of advice I would give to my ah younger self is focus down, um make sure you understand what is actually most important and really put all of your resources behind that and if you do that and you deliver to high quality then that’s the route to success.

Alejandro Cremades: I guess from you too, know like having a technical background and and and I guess you know like coming from like the real operational role where you were at the at the last company at base four, what do you think you know has been for you too, like being able to grow with the business over these years and and and and more on the business side of things, on the strategy, on the execution, more from a CEO role, which has been the first time really for you taking this this role on?

Barney Balmforth: It has, and that’s been an enormous kind of development for me. And I would say that the most important thing for me has been, or the most important rule I have lived by has been no ego. So I am very, very aware of of where the gaps are in my expertise, my experience and and my knowledge. And I have worked incredibly hard to find really top quality people who will come and work with us, work for us and and fill those gaps and who I can learn from. And so I think if you’re open to that,

Barney Balmforth: then that gives you personally the opportunity to to really grow with the organization and develop. and And as I said, I think a little bit earlier, I get bored. if i’m not learning and what i really want is to be exposed to all these new areas and to learn what does it take to build an effective commercial operation what does it take to build a clinical laboratory what does it take to do all of these things successfully and I have surrounded myself with the best people um who embody our our values of openness and um

Barney Balmforth: and humanity and and really and work incredibly closely together. And so we all learn from each other on on a daily basis. And it is, I guess, slightly unusual for a scientific, technical, or operational founder to still be in the role after five and a half years. And I think the the reason why that has happened is is because I’ve been very open on this. And i’ve and I’m very open with my board and my and my investors about what we need as an organization and and where I do need support.

Alejandro Cremades: This is amazing, Barney. So for the people that are for the people that are listening, I would love to reach out and say hi. What is the best way for them to do so?

Barney Balmforth: So i’m I’m always accessible by email. I think probably the best way to contact me would be over LinkedIn. I’m very responsive. And I really enjoy the opportunity to to connect with people in space um and to share our experiences.

Alejandro Cremades: Amazing. Well, Barney, thank you so much for being in the deal maker show today with us. It has been an absolute honor.

Barney Balmforth: Thank you, Alejandro.

*****

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