IndieBio application 2026: how to apply to SOSV NY and SF

The IndieBio application now runs through one SOSV form, where you pick New York, San Francisco, or both. SOSV invests up to $550,000 at pre-seed and funds about 60 companies a year out of thousands of pitches, per SOSV. Expect questions on your technology, team, IP, customer, and revenue model.

For a software founder, an accelerator check is the product. For a biotech founder it usually is not. The reason to apply here is the bench: SOSV reports 85,000 square feet of lab, office, and event space across its three operating cities, and frames labs, equipment, offices, event space, and an investor network as the differentiator alongside capital, per SOSV.

One thing to fix before you search for a form: IndieBio was renamed SOSV NY and SOSV SF in 2026. The team, support, and facilities stayed in place, but the two locations now serve a wider deep tech remit spanning biology, AI, energy, materials, chemistry, plasma, and physics, per SOSV. There is no separate IndieBio-branded application anymore.

How to submit an IndieBio application in 8 steps

The whole process is one online form plus a decision about which city you are willing to move to.

1. Check the stage bar first. SOSV is primarily a pre-seed investor. Companies that have already raised a VC-backed seed or Series A are generally too late, while angel notes and non-dilutive grants do not automatically disqualify you, per SOSV.
2. Check the company shape. SOSV says its programs are generally geared toward startups with fewer than 10 people, less than $1 million in annual revenue, and usually less than $1 million in prior equity fundraising, per SOSV.
3. Find a co-founder if you are solo. SOSV requires more than one founder, per SOSV.
4. Pick the city. The application lets you select New York, San Francisco, or both, per SOSV. Selecting both widens your odds and commits you to relocating either way.
5. Write the technology section. The form asks you to describe the technological basis of the solution, your team's experience, and your intellectual property, per SOSV.
6. Write the commercial section. The same form asks for target customer, customer-acquisition plan, revenue model, and prior investment, per SOSV.
7. Answer why SOSV specifically. The application ends by asking why SOSV should choose your company, per SOSV. Name the equipment, the site, and the follow-on network, not the brand.
8. Submit, then check the program's site for the current cycle. Deadline dates and batch timing are not published, so read the SOSV application page before planning around a start date.

What the IndieBio accelerator gives you beyond the check

Infrastructure is the line item that does not show up on a term sheet, and for wet-lab companies it is the larger number.

• Physical capacity: SOSV reports 85,000 square feet of lab, office, and event space across three operating cities, per SOSV. You are not negotiating an incubator lease during your first six months.
• A residency requirement, not a remote option: SOSV expects founders to join one of its programs and work from a deeply resourced facility in New York, San Francisco, or Newark, per SOSV. Treat relocation as a condition, not a preference.
• Downstream capital density: SOSV reports an active portfolio of more than 800 companies and more than 2,700 co-investors, per SOSV. That co-investor list is the asset you are actually buying with dilution.
• A track record you can check: between 2015 and 2025, IndieBio's 310 graduates raised $3.6 billion in total follow-on funding, per SOSV.

IndieBio terms: what SOSV publishes and what it does not

Do not model your cap table off a blog post. Only part of the deal is public.

The follow-on rule is the underrated term. SOSV keeps investing in portfolio companies at seed, Series A, and later rounds, but only when it invested at pre-seed first, per SOSV. If you skip the program now, you are not deferring that relationship, you are closing it.

Ask SOSV directly for the current instrument and percentage. Anything you read secondhand about an IndieBio batch's standard deal is unverified until they confirm it.

The science bar versus the commercial bar in a biotech accelerator application

You have to clear both bars in the same form, and most academic teams only clear one.

The application asks for the technological basis of the solution and the team's experience and IP, and then asks for target customer, customer-acquisition plan, revenue model, and prior investment, per SOSV. Answering the first set beautifully and the second set with "we will explore partnerships with pharma" is the standard failure mode for lab spinouts.

Write the science section like a methods section and the commercial section like a sales plan.

✅ Good: "Our enzyme runs cell-free protein synthesis at room temperature, which removes the cold chain from the unit economics. Bench data from our own lab is attached." Specific mechanism, named cost consequence, own data.

❌ Bad: "We are building a next-generation synthetic biology platform that will transform how proteins are manufactured at scale." No mechanism, no buyer, no evidence.

Name a buyer with a budget line. If your first paying customer is years and one clinical milestone away, say so and describe the interim revenue model, because the form asks for one either way.

Choosing between an IndieBio batch, the academic lab, and a specialist seed fund

Pick on lab access and speed, not on brand.

Stay in the lab if your next 12 months are pure discovery and your university lets you keep the bench and the IP on workable terms. Take the program if your constraint is space, equipment, and first-check validation. Go straight to a specialist fund if you have already raised meaningful equity, because SOSV's own stage guidance puts you outside the fit at that point, per SOSV.

The mechanics differ by sector: see our biotech seed fundraise guide for platform versus asset structures, medtech vs digital health fundraising for how the buyer changes the deck, and the list of active deeptech seed VCs if you are going direct.

When this matters for your raise

Applying is cheap. Depending on the outcome is expensive.

SOSV says it reviews thousands of pre-seed pitches each year and funds about 60 companies, per SOSV. Most people reading this page will be raising elsewhere on the same timeline. Run the direct investor process in parallel with the application, not after the decision.

Most founders applying here are raising either way, and the ones who do not get in still need a round. Causo matches you to the investors most likely to fund your stage and sector and drafts the outreach, so a rejection does not cost you a quarter.

Worth checking before you apply anywhere: what each accelerator takes in equity, 2026 accelerator application deadlines and published accelerator acceptance rates. For a contrasting program structure, see the South Park Commons application.

Run the raise in parallel

Applying is not a funding plan. Programmes like this one accept a small share of applicants and run on their own calendar, so the founders who come out ahead are the ones who kept a funding process moving while they waited. IndieBio takes a small cohort per batch, and specialist deep-tech and bio funds invest on the same science.

Start from deep-tech seed funds actively deploying and work the list while your application sits in the queue. If you get in, you arrive with warm conversations already running. If you do not, you have not lost a quarter.

FAQ

What is IndieBio? IndieBio was SOSV's biology-focused accelerator, and in 2026 it was renamed SOSV NY and SOSV SF. The team, support, and facilities stayed in place, but the two sites now serve a broader deep tech remit spanning biology, AI, energy, materials, chemistry, plasma, and physics, per SOSV. If you are searching for IndieBio today, the program lives on the SOSV site.

How do I apply to IndieBio? Through the single SOSV application, where you choose New York, San Francisco, or both rather than a separate IndieBio-branded form, per SOSV. The form asks for the technological basis of your solution, team experience, intellectual property, target customer, customer-acquisition plan, revenue model, and prior investment. Check the program's site for the current cycle before you start writing.

How much funding does IndieBio give? SOSV says its pre-seed check is up to $550,000 and that it is almost always the first VC investor in a company, per SOSV. The cash sits alongside in-kind value: lab space, equipment, and offices at the program sites. A fixed equity percentage is not published, so confirm the current instrument and ownership terms directly with SOSV.

What stage does IndieBio invest at? Pre-seed. SOSV says companies that have already raised a VC-backed seed or Series A are generally too late, while angel notes and non-dilutive grants do not automatically disqualify an applicant, per SOSV. Programs are geared toward startups with fewer than 10 people, less than $1 million in annual revenue, and usually less than $1 million in prior equity fundraising.

Does IndieBio provide lab space? Yes. SOSV reports 85,000 square feet of lab, office, and event space across its three operating cities and describes labs, equipment, offices, and an investor network as the program's differentiator alongside capital, per SOSV. SOSV also expects founders to work from a deeply resourced facility in New York, San Francisco, or Newark.

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