Audubon Bioscience

In order to expand its already expansive team, form new partnerships, and purchase additional equipment, Audubon is raising capital through a convertible note. Audubon’s valuation cap for this round comes in at $8 million with a 20% discount rate. While both of these numbers would give Audubon a good rating on its own, the real winner here is its revenue multiple. The $8 million valuation represents just under twice Audubon’s revenue in 2020, which is an absolutely stellar multiple for a company in the healthcare space. As a result, the company’s price score is its highest across all five metrics.

Audubon’s target market is both a strong selling point and the main point of concern in this investment. Biobanking is absolutely lucrative and is growing at an incredible rate. In 2019, the industry was expected to reach a size of $57.67 billion by 2026. However, owing to acceleration from the COVID-19 pandemic, the market was actually valued at $65.9 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.2% until 2028. This steady growth should provide Audubon with ample room to expand.

Unfortunately, Audubon is far from the only player taking advantage of this large market. One of the largest competitors in this space is Biobank Graz, a publicly-owned nonprofit that provides millions of samples and is one of the largest biobanks in Europe. Other competitors include UK Biobank and Brooks Life Sciences, both of which have been involved in COVID-19 research. Nevertheless, Audubon’s presence in various countries across the world represents a global need, and due to the size of the market, it is likely that this will not be a winner-takes-all space. Thus, Audubon Bioscience’s market score is strong.

Audubon is headed up by an experienced team and a founder who brings expertise from many parts of the world. Doctor Rostyslav Semikov holds a master’s degree in global health science from the prestigious Oxford University, which he obtained after getting his MD from Zaporozhye State Medical University in Ukraine. After spending almost a decade in Ukraine working in general practice and medical management, Semikov served as head of development for East West Biopharma in Switzerland before starting up Audubon in the US. He also has a few years of experience working in various operational and business development positions, all prior to his work at East West Biopharma.

Audubon President Maurice Cabirac has been with the company almost from the beginning. Audubon represents something of an industry shift for Cabirac, who spent several decades working in management roles in mechanical contracting companies like ARC Mechanical Contractors in Vermont and New Hampshire as well as Mechanical Construction Company in Louisiana. Biobanking is an entirely different industry from Cabirac’s previous experience, though it seems he has adapted his expertise for business development and company coordination purposes.

Finally, Marie Cabirac is Audubon’s Finance Director. Cabirac worked for McDonough Marine Services, which provides barges for moving construction equipment. Like President Cabirac, Finance Director Cabirac worked in her chosen field for several decades, the pair of them coming onboard to Audubon with divergent experiences now applied to the unfamiliar space of biobanking. While a leadership team with somewhat higher levels of medical credentials would be preferable, the team’s overall experience appears to have been sufficient to get Audubon off the ground. In addition to the leadership team, Audubon employs a broad assortment of managerial and consulting employees with varying levels of experience.

Audubon Bioscience’s team score is above average in reflection of its team’s leadership skills balanced against the lack of entrepreneurial experience and limited medical expertise.

In a competitive market, Audubon needs to set itself apart, and it has been successful. While the company enjoys no patent protections for its operations and analysis, it has invested the capital required to surmount biobanking’s formidable barriers to entry. The major advantage Aduobon has over competitors is the gathered patient data and history it can provide to customers. This data includes demographic and treatment data as well as follow-up longitudinal data — meaning Audubon allows customers to analyze long-term and mass-scale trends in addition to individual samples. Key competitors in the space — such as Discovery Life Sciences and Cureline — focus heavily on providing biospecimens and laboratory services. By supplementing its biobanking services with large amounts of medical data, Audubon has distinguished itself and carved out a service that only it provides. The company’s differentiators score is high as a result.

Unlike many startups we cover using Regulation Crowdfunding to raise capital, Audubon has actually reached a profitable stage of development. Last year, Audubon took in $106,447 in net income. While this is a decrease from $175,505 the year before, it is reflective of huge investments in cost of goods, business travel, and development. In terms of raw revenue, the company took in $4.19 million in 2020, up from $1.81 million the year before. This kind of consistent, growing revenue is extremely encouraging and indicates that Audubon has developed a successful business model. Therefore, its performance score is quite high.

As with any startup, investing in Audubon does entail certain risks. The company faces well-established competitors in biobanking, which are numerous and likewise multinational. If its data services do not draw substantial appeal from clients, Audubon could struggle to carve out a large enough niche to survive. While the startup has seen significant and growing success in its operations, it has had to make massive investments in materials and people to secure its existing contracts and partnerships.

To that end, Audubon faces the same risks and exposures of any business. As the company is a healthcare company, it faces stringent regulation of patient data, any violation of which could result in massive censure and penalties. Given the company’s early traction, it is unlikely to entirely crash and burn, but its high costs mean it must secure as much of its target market as possible. The launch of its e-commerce platform may prove useful in this regard.

Audubon Bioscience seems ready to go big. With market penetration across several countries and infrastructure investments made to set up an efficient global delivery network, Audubon is proving a competent and ethical partner in a rapidly-expanding space. The advance of medical science is likely to continue at a rapid pace, and human samples are the foundation upon which that industry is built. In the coming years, Audubon is likely to continue to see revenue growth as it secures further partnerships and opens its e-commerce site. The company is well-positioned to eventually become a major contender in global biobanking. This raise represents a promising opportunity for investors to become a part of that success.

Audubon Bioscience is an emerging biobanking company. Starting out in New Orleans and moving to Houston in 2018, the company has engaged 40 customers and established 100 sites in 12 countries. Through collecting patient samples like tissue and blood, analyzing them, and delivering them to labs and clinics, Audubon’s services represent an essential step in the medical research process. The company also provides substantial amounts of medical data to better enable in-depth research and experiments for its clients.

Audubon’s revenue growth has been consistent and impressive, and the company scores quite highly in all metrics. While its chosen market is a tightly-contested one, the company’s valuation is extremely advantageous to investors, and its team is solid and experienced. Despite massive expenses, Audubon has begun to see net profits and is well-positioned to establish itself as a major name in biobanking. For these reasons, the KingsCrowd investment team gave Audubon Bioscience a Top Deal rating.

For questions regarding the KingsCrowd staff pick or ratings for this company, please reach out to support@kingscrowd.com.

Analysis written by Benjamin Potts.