Beacons of the Start-up Scene, Part 9: Biovox

Julian Lotz, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Biovox

© Biovox

The CHEManager Innovation Pitch, the start-up support initiative of CHEManager and CHEManager International, has, since its launch in 2019, offered more than 140 start-ups from around 20 countries the opportunity to present their innovative ideas, products, and technologies to a broad audience. We’re marking this milestone by taking a look back at some of the founders’ stories from the past seven and a half years and highlighting their progress. In this issue: Biovox. Founded in 2020 and headquartered in Darmstadt, the company develops functionalized material systems using various biopolymers and drop-ins, primarily for applications in medical technology, pharmaceuticals, and laboratories. 

 Co-founder and co-CEO Julian Lotz explains what  has happened since the presentation at the CHEManager Innovation Pitch in November 2021.

CHEManager: How has Biovox  developedsince its presentation in November 2021, and what successes have there been to celebrate?

Julian Lotz: In 2021, we were still very much in the phase of establishing our technological foundation, business model, and first customer projects. Today, we supply medical-grade bioplastics for medical technology, the pharmaceutical industry, and laboratories, and we’re working with customers on many new products—particularly in the field of drug delivery devices, but also in medical technology applications such as surgical instruments and diagnostics like rapid test cassettes.

An important step was developing a clearer profile from our original broad scope. We no longer offer compostable materials filled with residual materials, and we don’t even try to sell into consumer products or food packaging, as we lack sufficient unique selling points in those areas. Since 2022, we have focused entirely on predominantly regulated applications in the healthcare and laboratory sectors. These all have very high requirements for quality, patient safety, documentation, sterilization, and supply chain reliability. In other words, the very areas where we already had our expertise. That’s exactly why we built our MedEco portfolio, had our quality management system certified to ISO 13485, and tailored our materials to meet the requirements of ISO 10993 and VDI 2017.

This has since resulted in two completed material families: various PLA-based materials that we were already working on in 2021, and a family of bio-PE types that have also been commercially available since early 2025.

And our product offering will continue to grow in the future; we are a development partner of Avantium, making PEF suitable for the healthcare sector, and we are also working with partners on segregated, bio-based PP. Gradually, we aim to offer material solutions for all relevant applications that provide exceptionally high patient safety and a low environmental footprint.