First Bight Ventures, a venture capital firm based in Houston, launched the organization. Palmer worked as a Partner at EY for a while, where she was involved in business growth, assurance, international cross-border tax planning, and business consultancy. He worked with startups in a variety of industries when he was at EY, most notably with Texas Medical Center Innovation and the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship.
In this capacity, Palmer will spearhead BioWell’s mission to establish an ecosystem that offers research, pilot infrastructure, industry mentorship, and practical business education. He will be in charge of finding funding for the accelerator through government grants, corporate and public sponsorships, and other means. In the upcoming months, Palmer will also be instrumental in helping to obtain actual lab space and in hiring the first cohort of businesses.
Veronica Wu, the founder of First Bight Ventures & BioWell, stated that Paul was an obvious option for the company due to his involvement in the Houston startup ecosystem and his combined expertise at EY. He has experience working with startups and major organizations at all levels and has effectively provided his clients with value-based results. Not to mention, Paul is well-connected in the Houston business sector and will be able to use it to his advantage in promoting BioWell and our participating enterprises to the general public.
The Build to Scale program of the U.S. Department of Commerce has granted BioWell over $700K to help expedite the commercialization and scaling of bioindustrial businesses.
In conjunction with our recent EDA funding and First Bight Ventures’ resources and experience, BioWell is poised to support innovation and industrial biology developments in the United States, according to Palmer. With the establishment of our leadership group, we’re moving forward quickly with the development of the BioWell platform. He underlined, “We are thrilled about fostering solutions in industrial biology and supporting Houston’s leadership in the global bioeconomy.
