Storefriendly self storage: Franchising for growth

There is another entrepreneurial world that is born not from opportunity but from necessity, and it has much to teach us.

For the team at Oculis, the announcement of the new USD 100 million fundraising could not have come at a more opportune moment. The biopharmaceutical startup was founded in 2017 to transform ophthalmology by developing not only original delivery mechanisms but also groundbreaking treatments for eye diseases like Diabetic Macular Edema (DME). Established by seasoned industry experts, Oculis aimed to replace invasive eye treatments with more accessible, patient-friendly solutions such as topical eye drops. The initial research conducted in a laboratory in Iceland led to a pipeline of drug candidates, now at various stages of clinical testing. The firm continued to ramp up thanks to successive rounds of financing from top investors and partners, totaling more than USD 500 million at the end of 2024. However, it also faced some dramatic events, including the sudden death in early 2024 of its CTO. The company continued to scale, strategically balancing clinical advancements with regulatory milestones. The recent secondary offering on Nasdaq would accelerate the clinical development pipeline, in particular its novel neuroprotective candidate Prisosegtor (OCS-05), OCS-01, a topical eye drop for DME, and OCS-02, a topical biologic eye drop candidate for dry eye disease. Oculis now grappled with a number of strategic decisions, with two questions in particular concerning the team. Should it rely mostly on outsourcing production to a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) or develop its own in-house manufacturing capabilities? There were strong benefits and drawbacks to both approaches. It faced a related dilemma with its product pipeline. Should it continue to rely on its own R&D, as in the past, or should it consider acquiring technologies outside, through M&A activities?

IMD’s Inside the Transition explores how finance drives the energy transition, with Pictet CSO Marie-Laure Schaufelberger on credibility, capital, and ESG.

IMD’s Salvatore Cantale explores how CFOs can balance CEO ambition and board oversight to strengthen decision-making and ensure long-term business success.

The Gulf’s search for influence beyond oil now runs through Africa. Sovereign wealth fund the Qatar Investment Authority is investing $500 million in Ivanhoe Mines, a Canadian company that produces copper and other key minerals in Africa. The deal...

With even the most seasoned investors growing uneasy, the analysts who foresaw the 2008 market crash share how they view the current state of the financial markets.

Big-name stocks dominate global equity indices, creating hidden risks for investors. Here are strategies to mitigate concentration and volatility.

Swiss startup Clee Medical is revolutionizing brain surgery with real-time imaging technology that boosts precision, safety, and patient outcomes.

The shadow banking system is back in the spotlight. Hedge funds and private credit vehicles are huge in size and their ties to banks have deepened to the point that trouble in that market could jolt the wider financial system, regulators are warni...

We seek to make ethnography more intelligible and accessible to entrepreneurship scholars. We begin by defining ethnography and discussing the promises and challenges of conducting ethnographic studies in entrepreneurship. Next, we offer practical...