Remortgaging, Reinventing and Rebuilding: The Journey of a Cambridge Biotech Angel

From selling a Cambridge MBA dissertation to big pharma, to building a 350-person research business, Sunil Shah's career has been anything but conventional. A biochemist by training and a serial entrepreneur by instinct, he has spent decades at the intersection of science, company-building and investment. Today, as part of the o2h Group and a long-standing member of Cambridge Angels, he brings deep sector expertise, hard-won lessons from the dot-com era and a hands-on approach to backing the next generation of biotech founders.

Can you give a bit of background about yourself?

I’m a biochemist by training who never really fancied a conventional corporate career!

My first job was at PA Consulting in life sciences, and that’s the only “proper job” I’ve ever really had. Towards the end of my time there, I was offered a role at what is now Pfizer as a kind of rotating “mini-MBA” position inside the company – at exactly the same time as I was offered a place on the Cambridge MBA - I chose Cambridge.

Like a lot of people of my generation, I had that entrepreneurial itch. During that MBA I wrote a dissertation on virtual drug discovery and managed to sell it to four big pharma companies, which paid off my fees and gave me the confidence to try a startup. I therefore persuaded my brother to leave Accenture and we launched an online gift business in the first dot-com boom. That was a hard lesson; one minute we were “sexy entrepreneurs”, then the dot-com market collapsed and no-one would return our calls.

Later, while consulting for Cambridge Biotechnology and others, I kept hearing the same thing: chemistry was being outsourced to India, but with huge communication and quality issues. I’d never lived in India, but I could see where the industry was heading, so we decided to have another go. I remortgaged my house (again) and, starting with two chemists in India we built that business up to 350 people before selling it in 2011.

Prashant and I then founded the o2h Group, which now spans a large discovery/R&D services business of around 800 people, a co-working and lab infrastructure arm in Cambridge and India.

How long have you been angel investing? What made you apply to join Cambridge Angels and what do you think makes it different?

I’ve been angel investing since around 2011, properly from about 2013 once my earn-out ended.

I grew up in Cambridge and watched the biotech and tech ecosystem develop from the inside – as a local, as an entrepreneur and then as an investor. I already knew some of the Cambridge Angels, such as Hermann Hauser, who had backed and mentored me earlier in my career, and I always saw it as the group you’d want to be invited into if you were serious about building and backing companies here.

What makes Cambridge Angels different for me is the mix of trust and experience. It is quite a closed group – that can look like an “old boys’ club” from the outside – but the reality is that inside the room is very open. You can say “I don’t understand this” or “I’m worried about that” without feeling stupid, because someone else has almost certainly been through it.

The other big differentiator is the proportion of exited entrepreneurs. Not everyone, and that’s healthy too, but a significant number of people have actually grown and sold businesses. That changes the quality of conversation and the type of support we can give/provide founders.

Can you give a couple of examples of Cambridge Angels deals you’ve invested in that you’re currently excited about?

One I’m very excited about is Exonate. It started out focused on wet AMD and is now developing a drug for diabetic retinopathy. It’s a Nottingham spin-out, and Cambridge Angels came in very early.

Therapeutics always take longer than you’d like and can be quite painful on the journey, but Exonate is now at the stage where there’s proper clinical data. This is the point where it can get really interesting for both patients and for investors.

Another is Heartfelt Technologies. I first backed Shamus, the founder, when we were neighbours in the Cambridge Science Park Innovation Centre. The idea is beautifully simple: if you can detect fluid build-up in the feet of heart-failure patients early, you can intervene before they need an emergency hospital stay. This is better for patients and saves the NHS a lot of money too.

Heartfelt has gone from prototype stage to securing a major FDA-linked award to generate robust clinical data. It’s a great example of the Cambridge ecosystem at work – a resilient entrepreneur, a clever but practical idea, and a group of angels prepared to stay with it.

Do you have any sector focus and if you do, why?

I’m pretty unapologetically focused on biotech and life sciences.

It’s what I know; biochemistry degree, consulting in life sciences, building research services businesses – but it’s also where I see the most intellectually exciting and socially meaningful change. Genomics, biomarkers, new therapeutic modalities: there are revolutions happening in multiple subsectors all at once.

You don’t have to understand everything to see the potential. If you get the science and you get the market, you can help shape companies that genuinely move the needle for patients and still generate strong returns.

How do you tend to get involved with your investments?

I’m naturally quite a hands-on investor.

If I’m close to a company, I’ll be on pitch calls with them, introducing them to pharma and biotech contacts, sometimes even contributing on the scientific side where that’s appropriate. Having been in the industry a long time, I can often open doors that would be very hard for a first-time founder to open on their own.

The challenge is time. I’m also running other parts of the o2h Group, and my portfolio has grown. So more recently I’ve been doing a bit more “following” – backing deals led by other Cambridge Angels I know and trust – and being selective about where I’m on the board or deeply involved.

What have you learnt about being an Angel investor since you’ve started?

The biggest lesson is that early-stage investing really is a labour of love.

You go in at low valuations, you do a huge amount of work helping a company get to a meaningful inflection point, and then when institutional capital arrives with preference stacks and larger cheques, the economics don’t always reflect the risk you took at the start. I’ve got companies where I’ve backed them over multiple rounds, they now have major pharma collaborations, and yet my multiple is nothing like what the headline story might suggest.

So, I’ve learned not to be blinded by “cheap” early valuations, and to think much harder about where in the journey I want to deploy more capital.

Finally, you absolutely have to enjoy the journey – the science, the people, the building – not just the exit!